THE REIGN OF THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 197, 14 May 1908, Page 6

THE REIGN OF THE STRIKE.

The attention of the public has been so much engrossed during tho past three months by the Blackball strike that several similar disturbances on a much more modest scale have gone unregarded. Now the Blackball affair is over, but for the settling of accounts, the public may profitably consider a series of outbreaks which would justify us in calling this country a land of strikes, and tin present time as the new strike epoch. The strike of the Dcnniston miners, which ended in wliat was practically a victory for the Union, was followed in February by a strike, or rather two strikes, at the Wanganui Freezing Company's works. There two sections of: the employees struck for higher wages, and the Company was forced to. grant their demands. In"' 1 April there was a strike of bakers' drivers in Hastings, ,Which quickly. collapsed without any gain lo the men, and which has prompted tho Inspector of Factories for the district to make tho excellent ioke of warning the men " that any similar offence in future will be followed by'enforcing tho full penalty tho law allows." The other day a body of employees fit the Burnsido freezing works struck for higher pay, and the employers ' had' perforce to grant their demands. ■

When the efforts of Messrs. Witty anil Davey persuaded the Belfast strikers' to j return to, work last year,, some ■of the Ministerial journals declared that tho circumstances of tho men's surrender had demonstrated the birth of a new, public opinion upon strikes. It is pretty evident that, so far from this optimistic diagnosis being correct where organis3d labour is concerned, tho trades unions have grown fonder., than ever, of thestriko as a weapon-of coercion. Nobody can longer chorish any illusion upon the point, nor can. anybody deny'that the current spirit of lawlessness and defiance has been encouraged, in organised labour hy the Government's refusal to protect the law' that has been defied. If tho Government does ; not intend to cure the tendency of labour unions to, break, whenever it suits them, the awards that they have pledged themselves to obey, the question arises: Is it proper to continue the constraint of employers to -an unescapable .observance of .their, duty to,their employees ? : .Wbat equity, is there in, an which is so administcrcd .'that employers must carry out their bond, while the workers all over the country are able successfully to repudiate- all their honourable, obligations? The Government must do one of two things:; either ;it must , teach the workers ..that; they cannot break the law and yet escape, a sharp and prompt .'correction, or it. must wipe off the - Statute Book an enactment , that can be converted into a prodigy, of gross injustice.; The old system of freedom to strike or' to Ibck out may have been wasteful and clumsy. It was at any rate free from the . injustice, of the present system, which forbids lock-outs, but which, as administered by the Government, permits the workers to strike and to : gain what, with so complacent an administration, it would be foolishly sentimental to seek through' the'slower processes prescribed by the law; '