WAR UPON SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 38, 14 August 1917, Page 6

WAR UPON SOCIETY

Concerning the development of the strikes in Sydney and Melbourne,. there is ■ little or no information, but private advices say that the former "has altogether a semi-revolutionary aspect, and Government and people are accepting it." Every known fact and every respectable opinion go to show that the Sydney railway and . tramway strikers, and those other strikers who are aiding them, are fighting' in a bad cause, and are making war upon society. If the State and Federal Governments have any strength—and so far they, have shown no sign of weakness—the strikers will be beaten, but how long it will take to beat them will depend on the degree of extension of the strike. This phase is explained in the letter from our Australian correspondent, but there is no exact information 'to ,show what extension has occurred since the date of his writing, last Thursday. Even if coal-miners, waterside workers, and all fcransport Amen combine to paralyse services and grip the community by the throat, the community will eventually win. It is x onry the time-factor that is doubtful. Meanwhile, however, there are many innocent arid helpless sufferers.

The close censorship imposed does not necessarily mean martial law, and people here should not rashly give credence to extravagant rumours about what' i* happening in New South Wales. The best insurance against the extreme step of martial law is to take early and thorough measures to guard against excitement and prevent' violence; and our Australian correspondent indicates that the State Government took prompt and effective action in this direction—so effective that only minor assaults, committed in dark places, had been reported up to last Thursday. A strong police grip, reinforced by voluntary assistance, may succeed in nipping violence in tha bud. On the other hand, Governmental weakness is unjust not only to the community but to the strikers themselves, sinae^it tempts them to couraes that must in the end bring stem reprisals. The distinction which we drew, in our article of Bth August, between the unjust cause in which the Sydney strikers are fighting, and'the cause espoused by the watersiders in Melbourne, is emphasised and explained by our Australian correspondent to-day in his informative letter. As we pointed out last week, an export strike aimed at certain foods to reduce their price (and, be it noted, not exerted against military supplies) wins a measure of public sympathy, despite its unconstitutionality. Between the Sydney and the Melbourne causes—and methods I —there is a great gaja, and the fact proves that a Government which expects •orderly work "from -wage-earners must not be a defaulter in the'matter of checking preventable exploitation. Neither igust H shrink from its task when the issue has become, as in Sydney, a trial of strength against union tyranny- and | i-social sabotage."