THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1913. THE STRIKE POSITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 December 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1913. THE STRIKE POSITION.

So far as the four chief contres of New Zealand are concerned, the dislocation of trade caused by the cessation of labour by the dupes of the Federation of Labour has been entirely relieved, and things are slowly but surely returning to normal. The Labour-Federation has done its worst, and has been beaten all along the line. Immediately its call for a general strike was ignored, ite power as an organisation was broken, and it became a thing of shreds and patches. The watersiders, miners, and drivers who are remaining idle, have become a charge upon the funds of those unions that have been foolish enough to regard the fight as one between Capital and Labour, and they will remain a charge upon these funds until the unionists become tired and cry "Enough!" Then tho miners may return to work, and those drivers and watersiders'who are lucky will secure positions. As for the rest, they will either have to leave the Dominion or seek work in other avenues that may open. It is quite clear that for the future the Federation of Labour will be composed solely of the.miners of the Dominion, who were really responsible for bringing the hydra-headed 'monster into existence. It need hardly be said that the longer the miners remain out of work, and the longer the. misguided trade-unions contribute towards the funds of the strikers, the more impoverished will be the Labour organisations of the Dominion. The country is being put to enormous expense in maintaining law and order in the cities, but this expense will be borne by the State, which means the workers as well as other classes of the community, just so long as gangs of idle men remain in the cities to intimidate honest workers. This

aspect of tho question does not seem | to present itself to those foolish people who encourage the continuance of the revolutionary Federationists in idleness. Nor does it occur to them that the greater expense the farmers and the shipping companies are put to, the less money will there bo available for expenditure among the workers. How can Labour expect, to put up a fight at the next elections if its funds are utilised in propping up the defeated and discredited Federation of Labour? And hero let us say that the Federation has done more, by its excesses, to destroy the chances of Labour at the polls than all the influence that could possibly be brought to bear by the employing classes. As we said at the very outset of the trouble, the fight is not between capital and organised labour. It is not between employer and employed. It is a fight to a finish between that section of labour which says—"To h- with agreements," and that which honourably observes an agreement made 'under the law. It is a fight between the revolutionaries and the evolutionaries. And it is hardly necessary to say that the latter, having law and order on their side, will win at every point. From the beginning of the. trouble there has been no great principle involved, other than the impudent assertion of the rights of tho Federation of Labour to settle every dispute by militant methods. Had labour as a body endorsed this principle, it would have sacrificed its political privileges and repudiated the arbitration system in its entirety. The great body of workers, however, have shown that they prefer the ballot-box to the strike, and that they •liave no desire to wipe the Arbitration Act off the Statute Book. If they have a genuine desire to conserve their own interests, they will tell the Federation of Labour that it has gone far enough, and will refuse to contribute further to a campaign which has been hopeless from tho beginning, and which is alienating public sympathy with ,the workers the longer it continues. The employers of the Dominion have no desire to crush, or to annihilate organised labour. Indeed, with the universal franchise, such a proposition would be absurd. If the workers have a grievance, they have a legitimate means for securing redress, i.e., in a constitutional way, and 'through the ballot-box. It is against the unconstitutional procedure of the Federation of Labour, against the militant attitude of the revolutionaries, that tho great force of public opinion is directed. And if the workers show sympathy with tho revolutionaries, 'they must not be.siutprised if the public sh6ws* its resentment when the constitutional - .appeal is made.