Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1915. STRIKERS AND THE PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27, 2 February 1915, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1915. STRIKERS AND THE PUBLIC

Half a week has gone since the Maori's firemen decided that a certain " incompatibility of temper" — as an American phrase has it-<-existed between them and the third engineer, and they resolved to divorce themselves from the ship. "We shall not serve," was the sudden ultimatum, and four hundred intending passengers were left to seek unsatisfactory solace in a series of informal indignation meetings on and about the wharves. The days since Friday have not brought a sufficient reason for the firemen's impetuous strike, a vexatious surprise to the public. Mr W. T. Young, secretary of the Seamen's Union, would naturally wish to make the men's arguments appear as plausible as possible to the public, even if he believed that they had blundered. Wellington citizens know that Mr, Young has no lack of language for such a purpose, but for once the late president of the Federation of Labour seems to be at a loss for words. His effort to excuse the men's hasty action merely emphasises the absence of an adequate reason for the "hold-up" of public and privato business. Mr. Young has hinted at the possibility of " a general strike," but the words were not uttered threatfully. The secretary apparently means the public to understand that the spread of " sympathy" among seamen may be too much for the union's executive to keep within bounds. The suggestion may be that the seamen may prefer suffering again in " sympathy " with a few men wl#_se breach of an agreement put them in the wrong at the outset. In this trouble it seems that the strikers have not honoured a line whicli was much flourished in Wellington fifteen months ago : "Be true to your class." On the evidence so far available, the Maori's firemen considered only their own interests, and did not pause to think how their sudden irritating strike could injure their union. Similar conduct in the waterside strike by numbers who professed to be Socialists or Social Democrats justified the argument that their behaviour was both unsocial and undemocratic. Improvements in the industrial legislation of Canada, Australia-, and New Zealand have been against the general unfairness of sudden strikes or lock-outs, and the public is becoming firmly convinced that it has a right to consideration in disputes which affect the health and safety, comfort or convenience, of the public. An unwritten law on that matter has existed in the public mind for some time, and towards the end of 1913 that feeling took definite statutory form in the Industrial Disputesi Investigation Act, which the Maori's men infringed. They made a bad beginning, which continued obstinacy can make only worse. No amount of "sympathy" can put a semblance of reasonableness on a case which even Mr. Young's special pleading leaves in all its original ugliness. A spread of the strike will mean a useless spread of suffering for the strikers and their families. A challenge on such an issue could not be met by a weak surrender on the part of employers and the public. In addition to losing the fight the firemen might have to submit, by pressure of public opinion, to amendment, of the Shipping and Seamen Act, by the insertion of a dauso extending the present minimum of twenty-four hours' notice (embodied vi the agreement with employers), and by a change in the following provisions, which help the firemen to have a "close corporation " :—: — Section 53, subsection 1 : — " A peTson shall not be entitled to the rating of greaser unless he has served at least three months as fireman in a steamship engaged in the home or foreign trade, or for three months in a similar capacity on land, nor as fireman unless he has w served at least three months as fireman in a registered steamship plying within restricted limits, '^r has served at least three months on land as an engine-driver or fireman." Section 54, subsection 1 : — " All 6hips engaged in the home or intercolonial trade, and whether registered in New Zealand or otherwise, shall cany the number of seamen, and if a steamship the number of seamen, greasers, firemen, trimmers, and apprentices, or boys, spe. cified in the Fourth Schedule hereto." These sections aro in the public interest, provided the workers affected do not flout the spirit of the law. If certain firemen persist in taking unfair advantage of the present law, an amendment will be necessary.