The Australian Strike Settlement.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15777, 19 December 1916, Page 6

The Australian Strike Settlement.

Our Australian correspondent in the letter we printed on Wednesday last, indicated that the public of the Commonwealth were too glad to see the coal strike ended to care very much about the terms of the settlement. Perhaps such an attitude of mind is natural enough, but it is to be feared that tlio public will pay in the long run a price greater than they would have paid had the strikei-3 been allowed to remain out until they agreed to liave tho case settled by arbitration in tho proper way. Tho result of the strike was undoubtedly a victory for the strikers, although the terms of the settlement hardly allow one to say that the mineowners were defeated, sincc they aro to lose nothing by the new arrangement as to working hours. The special tribunal set up by Mr Hughes to cffcct a settlement is empowered to compensato the mine-owners for any loss they may sustain. This compensation will, of course, bo paid by the consuiners of coal, i.e., by tho general public, so that tho victory of tho strikers was a victory over tho public. To the politician, of the day the events of the day are allsufficient, but thoughtful people in Australia have begun to ask themselves questions. Thus the "Sydney Morn- " ing Herald," even while holding that the maintenance of the coal supply is the most important thing to a country at war, as Australia is. has theso comments upon the settlement:

"Tho community breathes again. But the lesson of a strike in time of war has been set. Has it been learned? People will not soon forget the implications of a complete hold-up of coal; and before the war is over many who entered the shadows of the present local trouble with a light heart and now leave it sobered and thoughtful will have gone fairly deeply into the causes of our discontent. But do the mass of the people realise what lies beforo us in the present settlement of the coal strike? Are wo to assume that arbitration as we have so far known it, is dead and done with? May any body of workers in the near future through the 'one big union' take the community by the throat —simply because it is war tiipe, and for the_ Empire s we dare not lot dislocation go toe* far—and demand whatever they may please to ask?"

Since nothing can be more important ai this time than tho avoidance of any situation which hampers any part of tho Empire in the performance of its part in tho war, perhaps no price could have been too great to pay for the ending of the coal strike. But it must not be forgotten that the price can be ygrv hgavy, and Australio- is unlikclj* in time to come, to escape paying that prico in. full in the shape of very serious and injurious dislocations of industry.