The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1914. THE COST OF STRIKES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 17, 20 January 1914, Page 4

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

TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1914. THE COST OF STRIKES.

For the cause thai lacks assistance, ForJtht'Wronir that need* resiatanes, For the future in the distance, And the good _ that we can do.

. just ■ published -by tbe Board of Trade dealing, with -the'cost of strikes- in recent years at Home wwv a somewhat ferid: light, on the egee.tX:;of ■■ industrial warfare upon theinterests of the workers. Taking- the ten chief industries of-the United Kingdom in "whTdH labour is organised, the returns show <;hat the loss in wages through strikes has amounted "within the past ten years to £17.500,000 approximately. It might be expected, however, that the strike polity pursued so persistently "would have •" produced substantial material ' results that would counterbalance these overwhelming Josses; but this- is~ not- co. The Board of Trade returns,-'-which are largely based on frgirreV supplied by' ihe trade unions themselves sho-w that an increase of only about £2,750,000 in wages can be reasonably; attributed to strikes. The net loss "in- wages d-ne to labour warfare thus amoiints to close on "£15,000,000 within ten "years.. And this, it must be remem-

Ibered, represents only the direct Joss 'to the wage-earners through the compulsory cessation of work. It takee l?.a, account of the enormous indirect losses . that-they must have sustained through the dfekioation of trade, tlhe retjtrfetlon of pnrciasing power, -fcbc hindrances to in v-eetnieiit, Tine limiba.tian «f -tie area, of. employment, and the waste of accumulated resources; in fact, all the subsidiary evils that strikes of necessity bring in thieir train.

coarse; extremely difficult to decide how far any given strike succeeds and; *iien it fails; but the Board of Trade -has attempted a Tough analysis of the :Jast decade's'strikes from this point of view. -, " It serins that tho-xnen can claim to have scored only twenty-five victories out of every hundred strikes, while twenty-five were compromised, and the employers successfully held their ground in the remaining fifty eases. With these facts in view, we can well understand why strikes are condemned, so strongly by the most enlightened Labour leaders of the day. _No; doubt men will always ding , , ti) i "the strike as a last resort in self-defence; but this evidence confirms

the conviction now 60 widely entertained thai, a strike is justified only by a .desperate- "emergency «when all other means of seenring 'the'right's- or defending the interests of Labour have failed. ■And'tajs conviction is deepened by a glance at the evidence compiled by the Board of Trade-as to the value of peace-ful-methods of settling industrial disputes. For during the past ten years it is calculated <that the workers have

secirred increases in wages amounting tb nearly £15,000,000 by taking odvan° P f the very inadequate machinery Home on the lines of the -colonial wages boards and Conciliation Councils. Here surely is ample and convincing proof that hi the vast majority of cases peaceTul methods of settlement supply the most effective way of asserting the just claims of Laibour; and the moral" to be" drawn from these facts applies- equuJly to industrial conditions throughout the Empire and the civilieed world.