NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 119, 13 February 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Moke drastic action than that now taken by Mr. Hughes in the marine engineers' strike has probably never been recorded in an Australian labour dispute. It is a remarkable thing that the recalcitrant strikers should include men fighting for the difference between £51 and £(il a month. More remarkable even is the fact that the Prime Minister issuing this proclamation of virtual outlawry on the strikers is a man who has been one of the most conspicuous figures in the Labour movement in Australia. The embargo is laid on aiding the Marine Engineers' Institute as an organisation, not on the individual members of it. Iho Government has not attempted to prohibit the individual engineers, for_ instance, from operating on their private bunking accounts. The proclamation is aimed at preventing corporate action by the strikers. The engineers, who number in all from 400 to 500, have dislocated Australian industry for between two or three months, and have thrown, idle from 25,000 to 30,000 other workers who stand to gain nothing from the dispute.

The interests of trades unionists as consumers and as producers are thrown into sharp contrast Ly the

proposed increase of faros on the London underground railway system. In 1918 no fewer than aoj million passengers were carried on the underground lines, and last year the number was estimated to lbo much in excess of this. The increased wages secured by the men in the recent _ railway settlement have resulted in a bill to increase fares, and the prospective increase in the cost of getting to and from work has been followed by a meeting of trade union delegates in protest. On the other side, Mn. Thomas, for the railwaymen, declares that they refuse to be sweated to provide cheap travelling for other people. Collisions such as these are bound to cause hard thinkI ing, and their educative effect j should be valuable.

The German war criminals in their dobates among themselves as to whether they should voluntarily surrender to the Allies might profitably cast their eyes back over the pages of history, and take heart nf grace when they remember what occurred when the six burghers nf Calais surrendered in LI-IV. Edward 111 of England, after his victory over the French at Crccy, laid, siege to the then strong city of Calais, and seems, to have lost his temper in an unkingly way when these obstinate townsmen held out for a year. At last starvation forced surrender, and the King, in a spirit not at all in accord with our modern Geneva Convention, ordered that six of the chief burgesses should be given up to him with halters around their necks for execution. The doughty townsfolk found the task of calling on their leaders for this sacrifice as distasteful as_ the Germans do now, but the situation was saved by Eustache St.' Pierre arid five others nobly offering themselves. In the end the weeping intercession of Queen Phimppa. Edward's Consort, saved the burghers' lives. The situation to-day is not on all fours with that at Calais, but if the Germans wish for justice tempered with mercy they can hardly expect it by skulking like rajs in their holes.

The "Roadless North" wants roads very badly, but it docs not want _ the old patchwork county system of making them, which in too many back-block districts has resulted merely in fho burial of good money in bogs. Tho Mangonui County Council, with a view to obtaining good roads at a minimum of cost, has now arranged for a_ conference of all the county councils north of Auckland, to consider a proposal to combine their road works, and let them in one contract to a big Australian road-mak-ing firm possessing up-to-date plant. The originator of the scheme, Mr. Allen Bell, states that the firm in question is willing, to accept twenty-five or thirty-six-year bonds in payment, and the rate of interest will be no higher than demanded in the ordinary way. The works now in sight in the northern counties represent over £250,000 in value, and if combined will make, it worth the while of the Australian contractors to ship over an extensive modern plant.' If this enterprise is agreed to by the other county councils and taken up by the contractors, a valuable objectlesson for the rest of the Dominion will bo provided. In any case, a departure from the old rule of thumb in road works has long been called for.

The chief difficulty in forwarding the British housing scheme, according to a statement by Mu. Lloyd George cabled yesterday, is the refusal of the trades unionists' to suspend their regulations despite the fact that 050,000 demobilised soldiers were anxious, and sufficiently skilled, to provide the necessary labour. A similar difficulty, though on a smaller scale, is postponing relief of the housing shortage in New Zealand. Some time ago tho local Repatriation Board suggested that a hundred returned'soldiers might be trained as carpenters. The scheme had all-round merit. It offered a ready means of reinforcing a. seriously undermanned building trade and at the ?aiin> time would have enabled unskilled men to qualify in a skilled occupation. Nothing" has been heard of the scheme since it was referred back from a conference to the unions and other bodies concerned, and it is presumably dead. In that case there is no gain to building tradesmen who were, and would have been, in any case, assured of full employment, but there is a _ serious loss to tho whole community in the delayed progress of housebuilding, and a regrettable loss also to tho returned soldiers who might have been trained. A community which neglects such measures, offering all round and material benefits, is lacking in the first cements of really efficient organisation. Tho most militant " trade unionists will be forced to that conclusion if they fairly weigh tho facts.