The Dominion. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1909. THE DISPUTE AT BROKEN HILL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 403, 12 January 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1909. THE DISPUTE AT BROKEN HILL.

In recent years Socialism has been so much discussed , that. its name has lost most of its ,terrors. .Well-meaning but ignorant people-make distinctions between "revolutionary" and "evolutionary" Socialism as between two things different in kind. Those who see no difference in kind between the ,- various species of- practical Socialism are constantly abused or laughed at. for suggesting that there are any terrible potentialities in_ Socialistic activity of any kind. In Victoria just now the Australasian, public can see a very instructive example of what Socialism involves. A labour dispute at Broken Hill has grown almost to the dimensions of a civil war, and from the'; peaceful field of industry there has emerged a-spirit of dangerous disorder which is animating scenes of ,riot and anarchy such- as we have been accustomed to think of as- being peculiar, to Europe. New Zealand, we,believe, is not yet ripe for such violent outbreaks as Tom Mann and his friends of the "Bed Tie Brigade" found it so easy to engineer at Broken Hill, although it does not do to express oneself too confidently on the point. In Australia, as in New Zealand, "the Labour movement" has become frankly Socialistic in its aim, owing, of course, to the ability of fluent and rccklcss demagogues to obtain tho admiration and support of a working class which has had neither the time nor the opportunity to study social economics. Between tradesunionism and Socialism there is no natural affinity whatever; Indeed, as was pointed out in the recent "trades union funds" case at Home, which we discussed the other day,- the doctrine of the Socialists is vitally opposed to the interests of trades-unionism, and destructive of the very objects for which labour guilds exist. -But the-point which we desire to emphasise is this: that tho Broken Hill affair illustrates the- fact that Socialism runs naturally to disorder and destruction, and that sooner or later the Socialistic movement in any country must cofnc ; into violent-- conflict with the stable elements of society., Comparisons will naturally be made between the Broken Hill disturbances and the famous riots at Ballarat in the 'fifties. It was in 1852, not much more than a year after gold was discovered at [ Ballarat, that the Victorian Government, which had experienced grcat- N difficulty in collecting tho -fooa for minora' Ikonoas, ..and which urgently roquirod fund?.

decided to double the fee, then standing at 30s. In_ doubling tho fee, the Gov?f n °ri antici P^ n g difficulty, appealed to fcha &HMTB o! Hew South Wales and Tasmania.for the loan of troops. The miners were frenzied with anger, and a series of public meetings of protest persuaded the. Government to withdraw its new decree. Friction continued, howover, and the trouble between the Government and the miners over the licenses culminated at Ballarat in an attack upon the .Eureka stockade, after a dramatic episode at Bakery Hill, where tlie diggers burned their licenses and declared that they would talcc out no moro of them. The riots were quelled by force, and several of the rioters wer.e tried'for high treason, but were acquitted. It is generally'allowed now that tho conduct of tho diggers, reprehensible though it was, had something to commend it. In essence, it was that thing for which Enghave always had much rcspcct: the resistance offered by an oppressed population to a tyrannical authority. The rising of the miners at Broken Hill is quite a difforent affair.. The leaders of tho attack ■on the Eureka stockade would have. had little but contempt for the Socialistic doctrines which the leaders of these men are preaching every day in the meeting rooms of organised labour. They made war on the Government's forces, not because they desired to bring about a redistribution of the wealth of j society, but.becauso they, considered themselves unjustly interfered with and harassed by the Government. The temper of tho worker has changed. He' is still very far from sympathetic towards tho ideals spread before him by the Ton Manns whom ho has commissioned to negotiate for him; he sees in- tho noisy agitator with the red tie only a.valuable fighter. on ; his side. But the encouragement given to the Socialistic idea by weak-kneed . Governments in..: Australasia is changing the character of the worker, and changing the character of tradesunionism. There is not wanting evidonce that the more- sensible amongst the labour leaders in Victoria are shocked at tho violence of' the 'extremists, and this encourages tho hope that there is still in "the labour movement" a sufficient body of sano opinion to force trades-unionism away from the Socialistic ideal/ In the meantime tho "evolutionary" Socialists will do well 'to give a little thought to what tho t Broken Hill outrages show the next stage of thoir evolutionary progress must be. With enough encouragement in the way of public complacence in the matter of State Socialism, trades-union- J ism will pass very easily from resolutions to dynamite.