Evening Post MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1912. MAKING READY FOR THE REDS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1912, Page 6

Evening Post MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1912. MAKING READY FOR THE REDS

If "tHe Reds" were lees noisy, less blatant in their profession of power to shatter society, they might bo taken more seriously by the general public. Very many New Zealanders have rather laughed at the bluster of the "Revolutionists" and have been no more perturbed by their direful threats than they would-be terrified by the swish of a swaggering small boy's tin sword. There is indeed a suggestion of the boy-pirate or the juvenile "Buffalo Bill? in the methods of some spokesmen of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, but it is a mistake to suppose that the new movement is not a menace to industrial and social peace. Nearly two years ago, when few observers outside the ranks of Ultra-Socialism gave much serious thought or attention to the clamant Federation, The Post pointed to the goal which the leaders wished to reach, and remarked that the apathy of friends of law and order was helping the advocates of lawlessness and disorder to flourish. The red flag has fluttered much emeu that time, and the army of revolt has gained many recruits. Some success, without the stress of a. pitched battle, has intoxicated the field marshal and his staff officers, and they have a delirium now, imagining that their opponents are as ante to be crushed under foot. The Federation looks through one side of a curved glass when it regards itself and sees itaelf as a monster, formidable, terrible; it tiiim the glass to gaze at its foee, and sees them warped and dwarfed to contemptible stature. Hence the arrogance and the boasting, tho fury aaid the frenzy, of the "Insurrectoe." They have faith enough in themselves to movo mountain* — but mountains are mountains. The scouts of the Federation have discovered one mountain in Auckland, and they have puffed and puffed like the wolf in the nursery tale, and they have failed to blow it down. An Atlas shoulder supports that mountain; it is the shoulder of the Farmers' Union. We referred last week to the notice which was signed by the president of the Auckland executive. It was plain epeech from strong plain men, who prefer work to words. They did not attempt to copy the Federation's example of thunderous dictation, but they announced unmistakably that if the Reds, without warrant, tried to molest the farming industry the farmers would prove strong enough to protect their interests, and at the same time help the general public a-gainst the syndicalists. Thia is a fair attitude for the northernfarmers, and a good one for New Zealand. The whole country would have cause for gratitude if the farmers of the two islands made preparations to resist the tyranny of a general strike. Rumours of an impending trial of strength rumble continually over the country. The Red Federation, the brigade of braggadocio, has been checked at Auckland, but this reverse has stimulated the baffled conspirators against the country's peace and welfare to undertake a campaign of organisation. Every possible effort will be made to inflame the minds of workers to hold themselves in readiness to "down tools" at the call of an executive clique. This, foolish strike doctrine has been roundly and soundly condemned by the best Labour men, here and abroad, but the luridnesa of it appeals to Eome temperaments. Those who lend their ears to the "Revolutionist" orators may have a notion of "get-rich-quick," and they do not pause enough to perceive the fallacy of tho arguments presented to them tempestuously. Professor Mills, a rational Labour organiser, a sane man, tried to speak reasonably the other day to a meeting of timber workers at Auckland, and he was greeted with a roar of "roti" It is recorded that "the meeting ended with cheers for the Federation and hooting for Professor Mills." The meeting obviously did not wish to hear sense; the uproar was an indication that the timber workers' heads had been turned on tho lathe of the Federation, which, paradoxically, s Wells the heads while shaping them. If this mood of unreason spreads, it will be well for employers and the Government to get ready to show that the public is not to bs tied to the tail of the wild-cat FedeTfc' tion. Though the "general strike is only in the ah - for the present, the threat of it is insistent enough to be seriously considered. There are many hands owned by patriotic New Zealanders, who have a care for hearth and home and for their country's welfare — young men and men aol bo young, able ond willing to pick up the tools downed by "Revolutionists," but these forces ha^e to be organised. Private employers can do much and the Government cwnto much tg <t«ius $h« madjiiuticii*

of agitators who aim at a class tyranny, a Socialist autocracy which would be as i aoxious to the general body of workers as to employers. The Federation hopes to close down the coal mines and to control the transport workers if the longthreatened fight takes place in earnest. This is what Mr. Semple meant when h» boasted of "paralysing tho country." Tho Government, representing the whole public of Now Zealand, has to work for the whole public. Hence ene of the Government's duties is to make enquiries about maintaining supplies of coal for industrial and domestic purposes in the event of a general strike. Now is the time to prepare.