The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1910. THE FUTILE STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 45, 22 February 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1910. THE FUTILE STRIKE.

■ . . Tor the cause that looks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance. And the good that ice can do.

The Newcastle miners' „ ballot shows that over 4000 votes out of SSOO havo been registered in favour of resuming work, and we may, therefore assume that one of the most deplorable episodes in the industrial history of Australasia will shortly be closed. As our readers are aware, the attempt made by the organisers of the strike to enlist all tho workers - of the Commonwealth ill their cause at once broke down; and as the miners of the western and southern colliery districts have been induced to see the folly of their ways, the northern coal workers have been loft alone to sustain the weight of the, conflict. Nothing but a general strike could have saved the Newcastle miners, and with the surrender of tho southern and western districts tho end of the struggle was clearly in sight. Wo have not heard much, about the privations which tho strikers and their families must inevitably have endured during the past three months; but it is a significant fact that the mineowners have stipulated that the men must come back to work conditionally, if at all. The men must be ready to start work to-morrow morning under the old conditions, and they must pledge themselves to submit their grievances to tho Wages Board when it meets. These are precisely the terms that the mi_eow_ers offered when the men first came cut, and their acceptance by the men sets the seal of complete and utter failure upon this unfortunate strike.

There is very little satisfaction in finding one's predictions fulfilled under such circumstances as this; but nobody who 'looked the facts squarely in the . face could have anticipated anything else. : We have no desire to insinuate anything against the honesty and sincerity of Mr. Peter Bowling and his colleagues; but it is most unfortunate for the men that they have allowed themselves to be so far misguided by these irresponsible enthusiasts. A general strike 'has been impossible all along, and therefore this movement was foredoomed to failure. But unhappily there is a great deal more to be considered than the fact that the men have not been able to gain their object. The injuries inflicted by this strike not only upon the coal workers, but upon the whole community of New South Wales, and indirectly upon Who whole Commonwealth, are so great as to be practically incalculable. For several months thousands of workers usually well paid and'■with many thousands of i women and children dependent upon 1 them, have lost their wages, and have been compelled to use up their savings J and the accumulated resources of their unions. A great industry, one of the most lucrative of all our colonial enterprises, lias temporarily broken down, and even if we could estimate in figures the loss in profits and interest that the capitalists have sustained we could not »i,ca_ura in """this -■ way «tiwi '' Jmiaßtuiß amount of -barm done to Australia by

the collapse of its coal trade and the I loss, probably, irreparable, of some portion of its markets. Still less cam we I hope to express in figures the vastness of the injury that Australia in general, . and New South Wales la particular, | _sve suffered through the paralysis of means of transit and, the dislocation of j commerce and industry consequent ' on' this strike. But impossible as it is tri reduce all this loss to precise pecuniary Shape, hardly anyone is likely to ! deny that the enormous amount of damage inflicted by the strike could be justified only, by complete and overwhelming success.

But the strike, we repeat, has failed, and its failure reveals the whole movement the more clearly as wholly injudicious and misguided. The bare fact that the men are now prepared to resume work on the very terms offered them by their employers when the strike began jis its . sufficient condemnation. We i believe that' this must be manifest now to the strikers themselves, and their acceptance of the coal companies' offer, even at this late hour, at least encourages the hope that' they will not be so ready in future to ignore the means provided by law for the settlement of industrial disputes. We have never wavered in our conviction that the strike is an extravagant, reckless and suicidal form of argument, and that not even the success of such a movement could outweigh the harm it involves to the general public interests, and more particularly to the workers themselves. Disastrous as this experience has proved to Labour in Australia, it will not have been altogether useless if the memory of it should deter the' workers from taking such terrible risks in future for so problematical a gain. And we may add that the Newcastle coal strike may yet prove a blessing in disguise, if it teaches colonial Governments the necessity for safeguarding the interests of the general public •by taking special precautions to secure the public services and the necessaries of life against such dangers, even if this involves the transfer of such sources of supply as coal to the control of the State.