Industrial Unrest.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16946, 22 September 1920, Page 6

Industrial Unrest.

Hardly a week passes notv without the development of some fresh trouble in the coal-mines. The very latest development is a decision by tho men at the State mines to adopt a partial.' strike, cn grounds utterly unconnected v,-it'i pay or conditions. Referring to this unwarranted action, the Prime Minister expressed what wo are sure is the fooling" of a. growing majority of the people of this country. "If thcro " was going to he serious trouble," he said, "ho would sooner face it and be " done with it tlhan be up against this " policy of pin-pricking any longer. It' " thoro was going to be trouble," he added, "ho was ready to face it." Nobody is more 1 anxious to avert serious industrial trouble than tho Prime Min-1 i3ter; nobody else has worked for industrial .peace so hard and so faithfully. But who can wonder that, when he sees all 'his labour for peace undone l>y conspirators bent on promoting turmoil and I unrest, Mr Massey should prefer tliat I tho trouble should como to a head? Tho average miner, it is pretty safe to assume, i 3 not fond of turmoil or of tho modern ''scientific" striko policy, and thoro can be no doubt whatever that tho average miner has other things to do than think out every week these new pretexts for striking or going slow. The variety of tho pretexts for these " irritation'' strikes, and the pertinacity ■with which tho policy of irritation is j pursued, make it clear that the trouble j is tho work" of a small group of men j bent upon waging "the class war" by: any means available to them. The coal | situation is intolerable. It need not j bo intolerable,, and it would not be, if j tho men were allowed to carry on undis- j turbed under anyvagreement which they j might maKo with thoir employers. But J it will remain intolerable so long as the j men are under the control of leaders j iTiho have no use for industrial peace. These leaders, who control other important bodies of workmen in addition to the eoalminers, are conspirators against the community. While they remain in control of the vital industrial unions, the country will never haver peace; tho community will be harassed unceasingly. Sooner or later this condition of things will end in an explosion; it cannot end in any other way. If, therefore, tho explosion comes soon, it will be to the ultimate advantago of everybody. Better an open clash, which will bring some definite settlement of the issue between the excrenusts and the public, than the pre- i sent insecurity and unrest.