UNIONS OR THE LAW?

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 728, 29 January 1910, Page 5

UNIONS OR THE LAW?

f WHICH IS TO RULE? * SENTENCES ON THE, STEIKERS. By Telegraph-Press Associatlon-OonyrlehL Sydney, January 28. The sentences passed on the four stake leaders, Petor howling (twelve month* with hard labour, the maximum under the Act), Daniel Hutton, William O'Connor, and James Butler (eight months each), under the new Industrial Disputes Act with taking part m a state meeting at Uulli, m tho southern are widely commented on. Bowling's Able Plea. In his address to the Industrial Courts Bowling contended that on various occasions tho employers had admitted the right of tho men to state by paying them all wages duo after they had struck. His arrest at Newcastle would have led to serious results but for his command over the thousands of men who came to the railway station to welcome him. It must be remembered s that the amended Act upon which the oharge was formed had been rushed through Parliament without any time for reflection on the part of the members concerned, and before tho people had a chance to bo consulted. Even Conservative England recognised tho right of workers to strike. Tho Taff Vale do-" cision had kid this down. Yet ho had been arrested for conspiracy for prosiding at a meeting at which the men had decided to claim their rights. Had he known that the law rendered him > liable to imprisonment for three years 5 or for life, ho could not have done any- ■! thing else than he had done. The evi- *- dence did not support the charge thatihs wont to the . South Coast to oncourage the men to remain out. Tho difficulties of the men could not be settled by & Wages Board. He went to the South Coast because he knew that tho battle had been lost by treachery. No matter what the verdict was, he was satisfied that tho Judge had given the case every consideration. ' The Judge on the Bulll Mission. ' j In passing sentence, Judge Sogers ex* ] pressed the hope that the Court of In- ) quiry about ,to sit would discover tho j causes of the Newcastle strike, and what I ever abuses there were, either on th« ] side of the employers or employees, 1 would at all events bo brought to lighf ! and corrected. The southern men had j evidently struck out of sympathy, and n a, sense of loyalty, to unionism. The ] defendants were sent to Bulli practically * ) at tho behest of the No. 2 Congress, and 1 it was said now that their mission was ' i a peaceful one; but they th« miners to leave affairs to be managed by j the No. 2 Congress. "You are on holi- i day; keep it on until the congress decides." , Press Vlewt.-The Law Vindicated. ' ] Both the leading morning journals. -, comment 1 on the sentences passed on Bowling and the other leaders for aid- ' , mg the colliers' stake. ' ' I The "Daily Telegraph" says:-"The> ' j sentences on tho leaders simply mean \ that the law of the land is vindicated, I Whether that'law was wisely or unwisely J onacted is a question about which there I may be, differences of opinion.' Bowling i and his confreres, took tho position that \ they were above the law, and were re- 1 sponsible to tho higher'authority repra. sentod by the trades unionists; and it is. 1 for a deliberate assault upon tho \ supremacy' of Parliament that they are ! now under sentence. What cared, they I about tho people whosaVvery i have been sacrified by the simultaneous I stoppage of public.utilities like gasworks, \ waterworks, tram'services, and ferry set- I vices? Nothing. Their immediate pur. pose was ,to prevent all such services < being carried on until the people, in dire distress, agrised to nationalise &i mines. Civil war could not go much further than this outburst of unionism gone' mad." The "Sydney Morning Herald** remarks conviction of Bowling and the others affords an apparently muchneeded object-lesson in tho power of ,ths .State to enforce by penalty its enact- , ments. Certain persons assumQd that ' , their defiance would make the law a dead-letter.. They make this assumption At their own risk, and have now been ■ convicted and sentenced. Thaw is no room for sympathy with ,them in their present position. As a State, we are . determined to suppress strikes, not out of hostility to labour, but in the inter- \ ests of labour itself." , Labour Sympathy With the Prisoner!.' j Tho.Sydnoy Labour Council passed a 1 resolution of sympathy with the ira, '' prisoned strike 1 leadors, and arranged to make provision for their wives and fami-1 lies. The annual conference of the Political Labour League expressed sympathy with tne imprisoned men. COMPULSORY WAGES BOARD.^ TAKING EVIDENCE. , : (Eec. January 29, tS ajn.) Y. Sydney, January 28. ,'- The Compulsory Wages Board has* : commenced taking evidence in co'nneo tion with tho stake.