"INDUSTRIAL REBELS"

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 78, 28 September 1918, Page 4

"INDUSTRIAL REBELS"

TRAMWAY MEN PROTEST.

Tramwaymen generally feel very keenly the fact that they have been termed by the. Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) "industrial rebels." In. a letter to the editor* Motorman P. Yates calls upon Mr. Luketo apologise for. his "most slanderous statement.'.' The writer continues: "If we are industrial rebels why did I no^ rebel against carrying 211 passengers on car No. 49 last evening. An inspector checked the car and -found no missed fares or overri4eß, which is conclusive proof that my conductor ie no rebel. . i Men have been imprisoned for making a less serious statement." J "A Loyal Rebel," writing to the Editor, recounts his part in the great war, and continues : "As one cf thosci ■ who has been spared to return to my family, I' take the Mayor's words as a' personal insult, an aspersion on my loy-' alty, and a stain on my manhood. I , have been seven years in the tramway. v service, including my term of active' service, and I have always been con- 1 scientious in my work, as my record will show. Was I a rebel when I enlisted on Bth August, 1914 ? or' when I went 'over the top* at Messines ? It is pretty hard after two and a-half years' of loyal service to my country to re- = turn, to New Zealand to be branded as ■ a rebel. . . I got three pieces of shrapnel, and a dose of Hun gas! Having fought for the right to live, surely I am entitled to sufficient wages to keep my wife and family in the .necessities of life? It would be better to leave my bones to bleach on French soil than to return to be exploit- | ed by a body of public men whose cl»ief, Mr. Luke,'is comparing very favourably with the sweated labour . combines in Europe. If demanding a living wage for my services' to the council is rebellilon, I then I am indeed a rebel until the crack ■; of doom. When a man in the position of Mayor of Wellington descends from \ argument to abuse, his is indeed a lost , cause." . •