Work on the Wharves.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14918, 17 March 1914, Page 6

Work on the Wharves.

The public have no desire to remember with any vindictiveness tho action of those workers who assisted the Federation of Labour in its* war upon the communi*}'. On . behalf of these men it can be urged that they were as much deserving of pity as of blame. But it. is really impossible that they can bo relieved of all responsibility for the action which they took in defiance of all advice and entreaty,, and with their eyes open to the consequences which they were warned might be expected to follow. They disregarded tho advice and. the warning; they weighed the risks, and they decided that they would win, and that therefore they need not show any regard for the interests of the public. They are now appealing for the sympathy of that same public. Excepting by those who are ready to shut their eyes to facts if by doing so they can obtain with the foolish a reputation for generosity, it will not be denied that if plain justice were done the public would insist upon the payment by the strikers of the price which they undertook to -pay in the event of failure. As we have said, however, the public would much prefer to sea the strikers escape if possible tho natural consequences of their own foolish handiwork. Whether it is true, as the strikers' delegates said who conferred ' with the local members of Parliament yesterday., that there will be "great destitution" during the coming winter as a result of the preference which is given to the original members of the Arbitration Union, wo do not know. Experience has taught us all the wisdom T?f taking nothing for granted when dealing with the friends of _ the Federation of Labour. But there ms no doubt that a great many ex-strikers aro missing tho employment which they willingly risked in the belief that they could control the Port. The trouble is that the employers cannot, and must not, break faith with the men who opened the wharves and worked the shins. It is quite idle to talk of the employers as "applying the lash."' The public would make its opinion felt very clearly and promptly if, in order to recognise the right of men to defy the community and then to he rewarded, the employers broke faith with the men without whose aid the strikers would have been able to work their wili. And this brings us to the point which is certain to occur to the plain man. He will reflect upon what would have happened had tho strikers, through 6uch cowardice or opportunism on tho part of the Government and tho employers as the Opposition recommended and prayed for, succeeded in winning. iSupposing that subsequently the conditions on the wharves were such that the public wanted any concessions from the triumphant Reds, or that those watersiders who had not been Red Feds . found themselves being starved out and begged for relief. Does anybody sup- , pose that the Red Feds would have i made any concession? Would they { not have said: "You challenged us to . "a fight, and you knew what tho

" : resnlt tvoulu be. Then take the 'consequences. You surely cannot <?x----"pect generosity or mercy from those '•whom you ..ought to crush?"'' O f course they would and Mr McCombs and Mr Isitt would have been conspicuous by their fnilure to find excuses for tin.* complaints. There is room in the present situation, however, for enquiry jus to how best to assist the unwise men who are suffering for their folly. Hut any negotiations—which must rest on a basis of good faith toivnnls the men who opened the ports — must he undertaken, not in a spirit of

impudent bluster, but, as Mr Davey pointed out, in "a fairly amicable, equitable and honest manner."