"FIGHT ABOUT TO COMMENCE"

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 198, 22 August 1917, Page 5

"FIGHT ABOUT TO COMMENCE"

EXTENSION OF THE TROUBLE

"You can take it from me, this fight is about to commence." ' -The words (say the ; Sydney Morning Herald' of the 10th inst.) are those of Mr W. Morby, vice-president /of the Labor Council of New. .< South Wales, who presided over a meeting of that body on the preceding night! All the indications at a late hour that night were that the strike was about to extend to a large number'of unions.

"The deputation this morning;" said Mr'Morby, "is our last word. We offered something more than we should have done oh second consideration." The Labor Council has decided to appeal to every union in Australia, for assistance for the strikers. Late on the 9th inst the Strikers' Defence Committee stated they bad x decided to carry on the fight until the card system was withdrawn!. A declaration by the ActingPremier is to the effect that the Government is prepared for evei-y emergency. A mass meeting of wharf laborers on the 9th decided to cease work until the card system was withdrawn. On the .same day all the mines on the South Coast were thrown idle. . This was done by the miners acting in sympathy with the strikers in Sydney. Carters engaged on the wharf declined to carry goods that had not been handled by wharf laborers. This extended the trolly and draymen's participation in the strike from the railways to the wharfs. It was considered certain that the whole of the northern mines would be idle on the 10th. Only a few of them worked on the 9th. Crane drivers at Newcastle have joined the strikers. Train and tram services showed an. all-round improvement on the Gtht" In addition to better passeneer services, eight goods trains left Sydney for country centres.*^'* A large number of -men who had boon on strike returned to work. "Tell your menfolk to go back to work," was the reply of the' Acting on the 9th to a deputation from tbe-wives of the strikers, which urged the Government to give way.' Early on the' 9th a notification under the Necessary Commodities Control Act was issued by the Attorney-General of the State'declariiig that the maximum wholesale and retail selling prices for all necessary commodities should be those prices ruling on August Ist.

VIEWS OF THE HON. J. T. PAUL

The Hon .J. T. Paul, M.L.C.. writing in Saturday's Otago Daily Times, says:— We have not been kept posted by the cables, though it is generally

s^-_^_*___________*_!___?__ra|__sKrasa_*«-«i .-. • >.-v?flB-t----known now that the strike has spread--far beyond the railway and tramway men. Goal and transport workers - are directly involved, not to men!;en other classes. For the moment reason lias given way to force, and the end is not yet. Labor war is very much like international war—indeed, human relationships are much the :same in all things. If a certain situation or atmosphere is created misunderstandings grow. If -key canhbt'E'b'e satisfactorily cleared" up they lead; to further misunderstandings and ultimately to serious'breaches. And then, unfortunately, . no solution short of an appeal to • force seems possible. If tiie rulers--of men, and ..men themselves, could realise that life depends to a large extent on a spirit of co-operation, and that neither man nor nation lives for himself or itself alone, many of~ humanity's tragedies would be avoided: It must be frankly admitted" that when the break comes men actirrationally. But that does not help us much. Industrial war must beprevented before it becomes industrialwar. And if that be paradoxical it • .is none the le-~s true. The tragedy haying-"arrived in the neighboring. Commonwealth there seems nothing; for it but a■ coh-' nuance of. the struggle until 'one'side is exhausted. "The-. exhaustion is not the last word in thedrama. There will long remain tho bitterness inseparable from such- happenings. Maybe it is part ' vfti humanity's burden; in its. striving on- - ward and upward, but there are. few who could not wish that the. march, of progress might-be kept free from/, something which as closely akin to > civil war.