LETTERS TO EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 28 April 1924, Page 8

LETTERS TO EDITOR

THE RAILWAY STRIKE HOW MUCH BETTER OFF? THE FOLLY OF THE STRIKE. Sir. —Many questions are being asked m regard to tho railway strike. The first is: How long will it last? The answer to that is tliat it will last until the ordinary man and woman in the street begins to think, or in other words, to use the brains with which they are endowed. Presently, the ordinary man and. woman will ask why should the railways workers, or the wharf labourers, or any other small section of the community, stop or prevent the public from using their own property, and put them to considerable inconvenience and loss ? That question will sink in. The wharves were not built for the wharf labourers and the railways were not built for the railway workers. These men are employed for eo long as they render efficient service, when they cease to render such service, then the thinking begins. There is little doubt but that the Alliance of Labour has egged the railway men on to demand an increase of 2s. 6d. a day, and a 44-hour week, and told them that they would be behind them. Supposing that the Minister of Railways had agreed to the demand, then the same increase would be immediately asked for by the Post and Telegraph men, the wharfies, the miners and the men of all trades and occupations. How much better oft then would the railway men bo? The Alliance of Labour say pay the 2s. 6d. a day out of tho taxes. Who pays the taxes ? They are added to the cost of living, and paid by the man, in the street. The man in the street pays for all additions to wages and taxes with something extra for passing it on. Thirty years ago I was on friendly terms with a permanent way man in regular work in the South Island, Ins pay was 6s. 6d. a day, his family consisted of three, he had saved enough to buy a small farm of 12 or 15 acres, on which he kept several cows, he had an up-to-date trap and a well-bred horse. There was emulation at that, time amongst the women, ae to which was the best and most economical housekeeper. Eight years ago I bought a chesterfield, an easy chair, and a morris chair for £2O, last year I paid £l6 10s. to have the three recovered, some of the same material being used again. The heavy cost of. recovering was caused by the rise in wages. . Who gains by the rise? Nobody, instead of gaining, the ordinary man in the street is worse off. He may have more money to spend., but saves less and is, on the whole, worse off. Now for the 44-hour week. If the railways belong to us all, it is to our profit that they should be worked to the best advantage, otherwise we hai e to pay in increased cost of living. If the trains have to be worked six days a week and it is for tho benefit of all that they should be so worked and in the most economical manner, then the hours that the men are to work is a matter for reasonable arrangements. The men knew what was expected of them, when they entered the service. There is no special virtue in' a 44 or 48-hour week. The average farmer, who is the mainstay of the country works 12 hours a day with a few extra hours on Sunday thrown in. If he contented himself with an eighthour dav he would soon be on his beam ends. The man who is of value to the community is the man whose whole heart is in his job, and who does not stop to count the hours and watch the clock.

It will in time dawn on the railway and other workers that they are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp which they will fail to catch. The only tiling in life worth anything is good, faithful, honest work, and plenty of it. The. Alliance of Labour say that this is a “class war.” Can you imagine anyone talking such “tommy rot.” With a few exceptions not worth mentioning we are all workers, perhaps more so than the leaders cf the Alliance of Labour. The war, if there is one. is by a section of the community trying to benefit themselves at the expense of the whole communitv. The men know that they are well off, if they could improve their position by leaving the service they would do so at once and no one would blame them. As it is they occupy a strong position and are using it to force the public to concede them special advantages. Can they hope for one moment to succeed, and if they did succeed would their position be" better or worse than it is now? —I am, etc., W. J. TENNENT. Masterton, April 24, 1924.