THE FOLLIES OF PEACEFUL PICKETING

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 86, 8 October 1921, Page 4

THE FOLLIES OF PEACEFUL PICKETING

Mr. Glenn, M.P : , asserts that an official or officials of the Shearers' Union are meeting shearers en route through Wellington to North Island shearing sheds, and are advising them not to work at Arbitration^ Court rates; and, as part of this scheme, have picketed the Tinakori-road, which leads to runs in Wellington's immediate hinterland. Mr. Glenn does not state that the officials or pickets have used any pressure other than the pressure of persuasion. We take it, therefore, that he is not questioning the legality joi the proceeding, but the wisdom of it —its wisdom from the standpoints of the ehjj&rei',, tfee sheepfarmer, gad .the

country. The answer to the question is plain enough. The shearers' refusal—whether original or inspired—to accept reduced rates is bad for the sheepfarmer and worse for the shearer. The shearer is being wrongly advised, and his advisers are not the friends either of the shearer or of the country, though they may think they are. But a union official's advice to shearers not to sell labour at so much per hundred is no more illegal than Sir John Higgins's advice to farmers not to sell w"ool at so much per pound. Either or both forms of advice may be uneconomic, but there are some things that cannot be learned, except by experience, and there are some persons who do not learn even the simplest things except in that way. jAt present there is not enough in wool, to warrant the t shearers' refusal, and we hope that class bitterness will not be used to cause bankruptcy on the one hand and poverty on the other. Unfortunately, purveyors of class bitterness cannot be dealt with by law unless their activity takes extreme forms.