Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1917. THE STRIKE THAT FAILED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10112, 20 October 1917, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1917. THE STRIKE THAT FAILED.

The collapse of the great Australian ■strike, recorded yesterday with the return of the waterside workers in Melbourne and Sydney, and the resumption of the inter-State shipping services, is another proof, if such were needed, oi the utter futility of the methods known as "'direct action," advocated by the I.W.W. and Labour extremists. At the bidding of a few irresponsible men, who openly admitted, before the strike had been in operation for three days, that the industrial upheaval they had brought about was intended to "bring the Government" of New South Wales "to its knees," the men in the employ of the State railways "downed tools," in the endeavour to hold up the transport services. Tho "card system," which was made the excuse for their action, had become necessary, and the Railway Commissioners had notified the men twelve months previously that some such system would be introduced, "because the output per individual in the service had fallen oil' so enormously." Even the Australian Worker (tho official organ of the Labour movement) had, and still has, a similar system in operation, which Mr Hector Lamond, M.P., its many years manager, declares is more searching in its demands for particulars of the men's time than the system introduced by the Commissioners. Yet the Worker denounced the latter as "unjust," "tyrannical," "dehumanising," "a relic of a barbarous sweating system," and so on. The railway men, inspired thereto by their leaders, objected to the system before it was introduced, on the ground that they were unable to fill in the cards through lack of time and not understanding what was required of them. To dispose of their objections, the Commissioners arranged lor the overseers to take the particulars and fill in the cards for them. Then the "cloven hoof" showed itself; a lew of the men made trouble amongst the others and declared that they were being made the victims of a "speeding-up" system that would deprive the slow workers of their employment ; and the union leaders, taking advantage of the agitation, called the men out. without waiting to take the ballot required of them by the union rules before such a step could be legally Maken by the men. With the railway and tramway men out, an orgy of strikes followed, the leaders of the' movement working on the fears and sympathies of other unions, in their endeavour to paralyse not merely the transport services, but every trade and industry upon which til/ public were dependent.