INCITING TO STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 24, 28 January 1910, Page 5

INCITING TO STRIKE.

LEADERS SENT TO GAOL. 30WLING GETS 12 MONTHS. "UNIONISM GONE MAD." (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) SYDNEY, January 27. The prosecution of the strike leaders, Bowling, Hutton, Butler, and O'Connor, under the Strike Suppresion Act, for taking part in a strike meeting at Bulli, has concluded. Bowling was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour, and the other defendants to eight months each. Bowling, in his address, said the old congress dissolved, leaving 20,000 men without leaders. A new congress was formed, with the intention of bringing about peace as rapidly as possible, consistent with the maintenance of unionism. It was the disaffection that crept into the council's leaders that led him to abandon the hopes of victory he had entertained up to that point. He recognised that defeat was inevitable, but he held that this defeat should be accepted by the unionists as a united body, and not in scattered sections. He had advocated peace, and a speedy settlement at Bulli. Proceeding, Bowling said he did not ask for any clemency. If found guilty, he had been guilty innocently, and if he was imprisoned, he hoped the men who had trusted him would not petition for clemency. He would be no friend of his who asked clemency from a Government that had made a criminal of him. Bowling spoke for an hour and a half. The judge, in summing up, said the southern miners had no quarrel with the employers which was not capable of adjustment. The men struck on a quarrel which was not theirs. Was it not unionism gone mad? Moreover, it was actual!}" suggested that all other unions handling coal should come out. Was that not tyranny? What had other innocent woikers in the community done that they should be deprived of a necessary commodity? What of poor people unable to get coal? The country had been made a reproach among nations, because of the refusal to allow coal to be hewn. The Government had exercised all forbearance possible in attempting to arrange a settlement. The new Act had been called a coercion Act, but any kind of Act—call it coercion or anything else—which was calculated to bring about peace, was to be welcomed. The defendants had proceeded in defiance of the law. Ho had no doubt that in their private lives they were as good men as could be. He supposed that some might say it was crime, but this was not crime, though the defendants had been guilty of a breach of a section of the Act i n a most defiant manner. He could not help noticing and admiring Bowling's natural ability, which had raised him to a position of trust, but the information had beer proved against him, and against the other defendants. There was a tearful leave-taking between the prisoners and their wives. A crowd cheered the men as they left the Court. PRACTICAL SYMPATHY. WIVES AND FAMILIES TO BE CAKED FOR. (Received 11.5 a.m.)' SYDNEY, this day. The Sydney Labour Council has passed a resolution of sympathy with the imprisoned leaders, a nd has arranged to make provision for their wives and families. The annual conference of the Political Labour League has also expressed its sympathy. PRESS AGREES WITH PUNISHMENT . STRONG COMMENT. (Received 1 p.m.) SYDNEY, this day. The "Daily Telegraph" says: "The sentences passed on the leaders simply mean that the law of the land has been vindicated. Whether that law was wisely or unwisely enacted is a question about which there may be differences of opinion. Bowling and his confreres took up the position that they were above the law, and responsible to a higher authority, represented by the trades unionist, and it is for a deliberate assault upon the supremacy of Parliament that they are now under sentence. What cared they about the people whose very lives might have been sacrificed by the simultaneous stoppage of public utilities like the gasworks, water works, tram services, ferry services? Nothing! Their immediate purpose was to prevent all such sen-ices being carried on until the people in dire distress agreed to nationalise the mines. Civil war could not go much further than this outburst of unionism gone mad."

The "Herald" remarks: "The conviction of Bowling and the others affords apparently a much needed object lesson in the power of the State to enforce by penalty its enactments. Certain persons assume their defiance would make the law a dead letter. They made this assumption at their own risk, and have now been convicted and sentenced. There is no room for sympathy with them in their present position. As a State we are determined to suppress strikes, not out of hostility to labour, but in the interests of labour itself."