AT BROKEN HILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8771, 12 January 1909, Page 4

AT BROKEN HILL.

There are probably quite a number of men at Broken Hill to-day who .are reflecting upon the futility of violent methods in cases that are plainly meant for settlement by reasonable argument. As the result of listening to and being led away by revolutionaries of the Tom Mann order, a section of the miners who weiit on strike on the Barrier find themselves called upon to answer a criminal charge. There is really no excuse for actions such as those which characterised Saturday's proceedings at Broken Hill, but they are perhaps the natural outcome of the interference of unthinking agitators, whose chief idea of argument is a vague appeal to the workers to " Arise and Strike off their Chains." In the Broken Hill dispute it is. contended that an effort is being made to reduce wages to a point below what is fair and reasonable. But the endangering of life and property only serves to prejudice the miners' chance of securing justice. People are apt to say that a cause which needs the support of violence cannot be a very just or equitable one. Further than that, in the last resort arbitration and discussion must be made the medium of a settlement, so that nothing is gained by disorderly preliminaries of the nature referred to. • The indications to-day ! are that this stage is being reached at' Broken Hill, and it will be generally ; hoped that the! negotiations in progress will be successful in arranging a mutually satis-j factory understanding. i