The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1926. THE RAILWAY CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume 23, Issue 23, 28 January 1926, Page 6

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

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1926. THE RAILWAY CRISIS.

.• m ■ For the etiuso that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance,, For tha future in the distance, And the good that tot can do.

The National Union of Railwayrnen has accepted the decision of the Wages ] Board, and the menace of a strike which I threatened the great transport industries, j has for the time vanished from the hori- | zon. It is impossible not to sympathise I with the railwayrnen, who were able to prove to the satisfaction of -the Wages I Board that their earnings at best leave j little margin for the minor luxuries'and comforts of civilised life. But the industrial and economic conditions prevailing at Home are such that the railway companies could make out a strong case for rejecting all proposals for increased pay. As we have already explained, the Wages Board agreed to leave existing rates unaltered for all at present employed. But'newcomers were to be paid on a lower scale; and it was on this point that opposition to the award asserted itself most vehemently. The position seems to have been very critical; but in the end the moderate party triumphed. The irresistible logic of facts and figures convinced the majority of the delegates that under existing conditions they could not reasonably expect to get anything more out of the railway companies; and therefore | they have accepted the award of the Wages Board. The importance of this decision is not to be measured even by the magnitude iof the dangers and losses which are inj separable from a strike in the transport j industries, and which Britain has now 'j so narrowly escaped. If the railwayrnen had persevered in their determination ito reject the award, the Wages Board I would have collapsed from sheer im|potence. The whole system of peaceful j negotiation at Home would have bej come, in the vigorous language of the railway companies' delegates, "futile and farcical,? and the strike, or some other form of '-direct action" would have been the only expedient left for the settlement of disputes in this great industry. And not only in connection with the railways, but throughout the British industrial world, the principle of conciliation and arbitration would hav e received a shock to its prestige from which it could not speedily recover. Th e acceptance of this award is, therefore a } victory of momentous importance to th e I great cause of industrial peace. We I may add that it is at the same time a great personal triumph for Mr. J. H. ■ Thomas. For many years the leading 'representative of the railway workers in all industrial disputes, Mr. Thomas : needed all his wide experience of affairs and his well-tried influence and authority to induce the railway unions to 1 accept this award. His success will : serve to enhance 1113 well-deserved j reputation as one of the most rational ' and moderate, as well as the most courageous, of the champions of British Labour. But, at the same time, it is possible that the, main body of the workers hardly realise the value of the service that Mr. Thomas has performed ' for them. Not only has he dissuaded them from the disastrous folly. of | ■ striking, and thus inflicted a heavy j defeat on the extremists; he has induced | the workers to accept what their leaders j think should be accepted; and ho has j thus placed them in a far stronger post- , tion for negotiation when the next inevitable dispute arises between the *-_ipanie. and _ J -~ /mnlovpes.