The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1926. A LITTLE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 217, 9 June 1926, Page 8

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1926. A LITTLE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE

In their day, the Australian miners have made very free use of the strike weapon, and time and again have thrown many thousands of their fellow-workers in other industries out of employment. To-day thirty thousand miners in New South Wales,| Victoria, and Tasmania are in the novel position of being out of work not on their own account, but because a thousand engine-drivers and firemen choose to remain on strike. Apart from the miners, many seamen and other workers have been thrown idle, but from the outset, it is the miners that have chiefly been feeling the pinch. Of late their plight has become so serious that they have had to apply for Government rations, and to-day it is reported that these are now being issued by the police. The miners, it is clear, are being roughly dosed with the medicine they have not infrequently compelled their fellow-workers to swallow. Probably the miners would before now have found a way out of their difficulties but for the extent to which the idea has been developed in “militant” Labour circles that any and every strike is of necessity praiseworthy. When the engine-drivers and firemen decided early in May to strike for higher wages, it was reported that the miners generally were opposed to this action, holding that the time was not opportune for a strike. Their objections seem to have bfeen grounded chiefly on the fact that their own relief funds were exhausted, and that if they were idle for any length of time they were bound to suffer much hardship. The engine-drivers and firemen unfortunately were in a position to disregard the poverty of the miners. The strikers. themselves number only a thousand, but they belong to an organisation with twelve thousand members and the engine-drivers and firemen still at work are paying big strike levies. In these circumstances, the strikers were able to announce a few days ago, when the hold-up had lasted for a month, that they were able to remain on strike for at least five weeks longer. The miners obviously are in a quandary.' Until recently their headquarters organisation, in spite of angry mutterings by the. rank and file, gave some official support and countenance to the strikers. Within the last few days, however, following on the failure of conferences, there have been suggestions that the Miners’ Federation should threaten to find men to replace the strikers unless the latter agree to resume. It seems quite possible that the remarkable spectacle may shortly be witnessed of one of the most “militant” organisations in Australia taking active measures to break a strike. If the events of the last five weeks help in any degree to awaken in the minds of Australian unionists a sense of responsibility to their fellow-workers, the unpleasant experience of the miners may serve a useful purpose. The real moral of the affair is that there is the same need of payirig regard to the rights of others in industrial affairs as there is in other walks of life. Miners and others in Australia have repeatedly ignored and trampled on these rights, but the sharp lesson now being taught possibly is one that will be remembered.