The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1908. THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 147, 16 March 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1908. THE STRIKE.

The latest, news, from blackball is of extreme' gravity. - Not only have tlie- miners repudiated the - agreement; arranged on Thursday, but they ; are endeavouring to persuade the workers in other mines to come out, and they are organising; a canvass to enrol the whole of organised labour/in the Dominion : under the' standard of' revolt-. It was apparent from the' beginning that the strike, so far from, being an attempt to secure relief for the men from harsh' conditions, had for its object only the 'coercion- of the Blackball Company Into surrendering its' liberty to its employees. Whatever Idoubt might have remained on the point is swept away by the present attitude : of the, men. They are now fighting without disguise for, the 'complete overthrow of industrial order., The pretext,upon which, the Union has repudiated the honourable obligations imposed upon the ineii by ; Thursday's' agreement is. both • dishonest ahel insolent. It is evideiit upon the face of it that Mr. Leitch, the mine'manager, coilld not/possibly have promised; as the price of settlement, that he would so grossly. humiliate himself as to state, publicly, in the Arbitration Court that he would not " victimise " the men .in future. To-day we print an bxpjicit denial by Mr.! S. Brown, ; who was present. at the conference,! that any such promise; was made/ But it is quite clear that the men,, inflamed by; the speeches •. of " Comrade•j'xtzgerald and other agitators, and emboldened to go to any length of lawlessness by ,the illegal encouragements of outside Unions and Trades Councils, were determined to continueithe, stEikS in any case, and, were, therefore, utterly.'careless whe-' ther they put forward a plausible pretext, or, indeed, whether they put forward any pretext at all. Tliey have 110# completely.. alienated the sympathy of every fair-minded inan in the Dominion, and all their future .acts of disorder will" earn for' thefn only untempered censure. In the face of this lamentable position, the action of the Government is a matter of the gravest importance. With the whole body °f law-abiding citizens looking t6 it for action, the Government t .cannot stand idly by and talk in philosophic platitudes, while - a state of things continues which\is' not only dangerous to public order,' but 'an intolerable affront t9 law and justice. The duty of the Minister for Labour is so plain, beyond question or evasion, that it is extraordinary that hd still refrains from doing it. His credit, and the credit of the Government, are deeply involved, and the Government) no. less, than _our .industrial legislation, is on trial in the jjilsis.. ror dayi past jjersdiifl and or-'

ganisations throughout the Dominion have been flagrantly setting at defiance the law that prohibits the encouragement or the aiding or abetting of strikes, it is the Minister's business to prosecute at once all these offenders, and to instruct his prosecuting agent to press- for the maximum penalty. Does he intend to_ uphold the law, or does he desire it to go forth, that, in order to further the alliance between the ■ Government and Labour—that lie recently pleaded for as a matter of . national importance—he is .prepared to sacrifice the law and the general public to the lawless whims of his ally?., We can hardly'believe, that the Government's anxiety to keep in office by keeping on-friendly terms with Labour, until aftef the election will continue to rule the Minister until the end 6f the chapter. There is only one way of honour in the crisis, and if, as appears to be the case,-thief Government's hesitation is due to a fear that it -will gain less votes than it will lose by doing its duty, the Minister may take heart. ■ He _ will have the support of all good. citizens, both inside and outside the ranks .of Labour, in-upholding the law.' \No Government, of course,'can pre-, vent a strike. Nor can any Act of Parliament—not even the Arbitration Act,' which Mr. Millar pathetically claims to have been successful in the pasj—convert the world of industry, into a sinless Eden.But the Govertiment has, so far as it can stake anything in a thousand speeches, staked its reputation on the success v of the Act, not merely as a preventive of strikes, but as a.- remedy for the evils that create industrial unrest and war. The Act. has plainly failed to restore order' at/Blackball, and . the. restoration of order will come, in all probability, from those economic forces which'the friends of Socialistic'legislation deride whenever "'they are mentioned. We by no means believe'that the general body of workers approve of the strike. We do not eyen believe, that the Blackball-miner's, if ..tliey liad.been left: to themselves," and had not been tampered with, by, agitators, woul d ■ be, on strike' to-day.' It is the agitator, who is at the root of the present trcm-, ble: Hisi hand .has been .visible at every stage, and most obviously in the persistent references to "victimising," a word, that, has the-very ring'of the noisy demagogue' of the Trades Hall and the Socialist rally,. The workers are blind to their own interests in tak-ing-for their guides these counsellors of ruiil,' who live' by the encourage: -ment of discontent amongst their, followers, ■ and whose interest it is to. fo-_ ment discord and ill-will between Piasters and men. While the public is anxiously- hoping that the < strike _ will not extend beyond. Blackball, it ds .also looking to the.', Government for prompt -action against- the law-break-ers. '