INCIDENTS OF SYDNEY STRIKE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 38, 14 August 1917, Page 8

INCIDENTS OF SYDNEY STRIKE

COLLEGE BOYS AS PORTERS

WAITRESSES GO ON STRIKE.

The strike goes on; but it seemed yesterday (Bth inst.), says the Sydney Morning Herald, as if the public were beginning to breathe more freely. People get used to all sorts of inconveniences if they last long enough, and the unsual thing becomes the usual. Yet this was not the reason—certainly not the chief reason. The . public alarm, had abated because the railway and tramway services were greatly improved, compared with the previous two days. "To-morrow you'll sec- thero will be a. whole lot of them coming back," remarked the dliver of an Ocean-street tram yesterday. "And on Friday," he went on, "there'll be a regular rush on the part of the others. You oan feel it in the air. There's nothing in the strike — no foundation to it—a. thing built on sand. That's why there's no public sympathy with it. Unionism has never before had such good cause for complaining of its leaders. These leaders an simply taking the unions on to the rocks. But tie tramway men are not fools. Th«y have gone out because they wanted to be loyal to the other fellow: but now that ■they sec that there's nothing in the card system to justify complaint, except by the man who shirks his work, they are coming back." "Most idiotic strike there' ever was," commented a passenger riding on the fornt seat alongside the constable.

"That's what I'm saying," said the tram driver.

THOUSANDS OF OFFERS.

"Thousands of offers have been received," said one of the officials on the Bth inst. i Apart from the letters and telegrams received by the Railway Commissioners from all parts of the country, people are calling personally every day at various Government offices and offering their services. Many of 'them are returned soldiers. , "They are telling ns not to 'scab' on our mates," remarked one of these returned men yesterday. "Well, that's why I'm here. I'm not going to ecab on my mates in the trenches. I'm against anything that's going to help the Germans." It ■was a coincidence that placarded on a wall hear by was a recruiting poster which had at the top of it the words : ."What about the men in the trenches?"

There was a steady stream of callers at the Central Railway StaWon. "They're coming in all the time," said the stationmaster, Mr. Doig, who is himself doing more than two men's work at the present time. "It's a deplorable strike," he added. "We have as fine a body of men as you could find anywhere, but unfortunately they feel that it's their duty as staunch unionists to stand by their fellow-unioniste. . Many of them — a great many of them —are disgusted at the pretext that has brought them out, but they feel that they've got to do what they're ordered to do. You can't help feeling very sorry for them, especially those of them who are getting near the retiring age and stand to lose so •such." Among those who called at the stationmaster's office yesterday to volunteer were engineers, firemen, and carpenters. But the great majority were men ivhc offered to serve "in, any capacity." Again, there were many students among them—from St.'. Andrew's College, from Moore College, from the Sydney Grammar School, from Fort-street School, fiom St. Aloysiug' College, and _ the Church of England Grammar School, North Sydney.

NEW TYPE OF RAILWAY PORTER.

A number of the students were put on right away, and a Herald representative saw them in their now role. Olergymen's sons, bankers' sons, . barristers' sons,. merchants' sons, had suddenly become railway porters. li> was: on No. 1 platform, where a country tram was waiting to be despatched. Trucks, full of luggage and parcels of all descriptions, were being pushed along by these bright-faced, patriotic youths Other trucks were laden.with newspapers. '.'Don't you think it's up to us?" said one of them. "We've ?ot our brothers fighting in the trenches, and we know what they'd do if they were here." "How do you like, the work?" "Oh—dead easy. Fine exercise, though—bucks you up like. How, do we look in these- things?" He was referring to the uniform. They were all wearing uniform—daTk-biue coat with brass buttons and cap with gold braid. Smart-looking, spick-and-span, wore these lads from the University and the colleges and the schools. "What time did you start york?" "Nine o'clock'." ' "And when do you finish?" The station-master, who was listening to the conversation, supplied the.' answer. "Half-past 8," ho said. At tho luncheon hour these new porters of ours were called, into the office and handed something that was called "soup money " To be precise, each one of them was given eighteon-pence to buy lunch.

And perhaps it was they who were the cause of another strike—a strike of giris in the refreshment-room. At all events, somebody or other went there for lunch, and the waitress attending to the table refused to serve him. Another/ went in, and a second waitress refused.- "We belong to a union," the girls said, "and we're not going to serve men who are taking the place of strikers." A BILLY DECLARED "BLACK.". One of the clerks from the stationmaster's office was refused a meal by one of the girls. "No," she said, "you're doing work you shouldn't be doing." It even' went further. A number of the clerks are in the habit of sending a billy to the refreshment room to be filled with hot water. Yesterday the billy was declared black—and, indeed, it was already very black, as black as the Railway Department's coal. The incident amused the clerical workers. After the luncheon hour the girls had a meeting, and were addressed by the manager, the rooms being temporarily closed to tho public. As a result, the services of three of the waitresses were dispensed with. "VBBY ORDERLY." Apart from this incident, there was no unpleasantness at the Central Station. A number of police were on duty there, but there was little for them to do. One member of the force said he , was from Bathurst—"and it's quieter hero thau it is in Bathurst," he added. "You Sydney people are very orderly."