THE REWARD OF LOYALTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 37, 13 February 1926, Page 8

THE REWARD OF LOYALTY.

In 1917 there occurred a great strike in the New South Wales transport services, the tramways and railways were liekl up, anil the industrial life and the internal activities of the State were for the moment suspended. This happened, we need i hardly remind our readers, at a critical ' moment in the Great, War, when it was essential for tiio safety of Australia and the Empire that nothing should obstruct the processes of production and transport or weaken the efforts that the Commonwealth was making in the cause ■of civilisation. Happily for Australia, •t certain proportion of tramway and railway employees remained faithful to their duty. They formed the nucleus of the force by which the strike was ' broken. In the eyes of those responsible ; for the strike—chiefly men who would : gladly destroy not only the Empire, but , the whole existing economic and social system—this loyalty was a heinous crime, and with the advent of a Labour Government in New South Wales it was appropriately punished. The men who stuck to their posts during the strike ! had naturally stepped into the places of the traitors and deserters. The Lang Government, eager above all things to I placate and conciliate the extremists of j the party, decided to "regrade" the ; loyalists—in other words, to deprive them of the promotions that they had so justly earned. But this punishment for conscientious devotion to duty was not severe enough to satisfy the "left wingers," and they have now petitioned Government to reduce the wages of the loyalists as well. As was to be expected, Mr. Lang has given a sympathetic reply to the deputation, and no doubt appropriate action will follow. We wonder how the people of Australia really regard this sort of thing. Here is a case lin which a number of men are being i penalised publicly and officially by the j State Government simply because, at a j most critical moment, when the fate of the Empire was at stake, they decided to do their duty and to cast in their lot on the side of law and order against the forces that had apparently banded together to overthrow the whole existI ing- political and social system. The only offence of these unfortunate culprits is that they have infringed the principle of "solidarity;" they have defied the unwritten law according to which the members of the "classconscious proletariat " are to obey, withI o.:t question or hesitation, the irresponsible command of • the selfanpointed loaders who from time to iime demand the active renewal of the class war. Xo doubt, from the Marxist j standpoint, all this is perfectly proper and legitimate, and evidently Mr. Lang thinks so too. But we trust that the people of New South Wales will not calmly endure such a perversion of public justice and such an outrage on public decency as Jlr. Lang now apparently means to perpetrate at the bidding of his masters, the "uncrowned kings" of the movement.