WAR TRADERS AND WORKERS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 428, 6 August 1915, Page 2

WAR TRADERS AND WORKERS.

[TO THE EDITOR.] —1 wish to draw attintiun to the unfairness and want ot tact, on ihe part of a speaker at the patriotic meeting this afternoon in Queen's Square, in referring to the .strikers tn Ihe Old Country, and condemning iJie workers, mid making no releren<o at. till to the other side of the questio-n. Not a word did he say about the employers, wlto arc (wiilt exceptions), in the opinion of a great many workers, try ing to get more than an extra twopence in profits through tlie war. I think there are ■t great many manufacturers in the Empire who are trying at the present time to get. the highest price they can obtain for what they are producing, and I know for a fact the farmers and graziers of this country are trying to get. the highest price thev can obtain for their wheat, sheep and cattle, till just as necessary to tlie Allies as guns and ammunition. It thev are right, the labourer must lie right in trying to obtain the highest price for his labour. In my humble opinion Dot It are wrong. It is wrong for cither tlie workman or tlie employer to try to make a penny extra profit through the war. and the sooner both act with that spirit, the sooner we will defeat the Germans. I think it bad taste In pul all the blame on the workers, or put their case unfairly, when we know that in the armies of the. Allies the workers are a Lmg way in the majority, and arc giving all that it is possible to give--their verv lives.-- 1 am. etc.. AVALTER HUTTON. Hastings. -I b. 17>.

[AA'i' are. agreed that exploilat icn at any time is a crime, and that, it is a great er cm ne during war time. But the speaker to whom our correspond out refers was not alludiiig to exploiters. Iml to strikers. I heir ol'leme lay not in demanding an extra, two pence, but. in refusing I" produce what is in fact, the life 1ib,";.1 of Ihe machinery of defence while the enemy is doing his utmost to crush us out of existence as a nation. We have condemned the action ot the coal owners in refusing the meii .s demands, but we condemn a thou sand times more, the method the men adopted to enforce the coueessi'.ms they demanded. A\ hat if the strikes of the munition workers and the colliers hail eonlinueil a few days longer and mtr armies bad been mas sacred and our fleets sunk .' It was probttblv ihe magnitude <i' the strikers' crime overshadowing the lesser one of the exploiters, t iiat led the speaker, whose lemarks are criti i-ised l)v i hi r correspondent. to omit anv mention of llk'iii. It exploiters had ent off sit]?p)ies of l'o<al. coal, or miinit ions and cmiangt red the safety of our Heels or our armies, their action would have aroused tar more indignation ami condemmil ion than the strikers' act'uii has apparenilv incurred. Act the olli'lice is identical. - Ed. 11.8.T.'l