PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1914.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12808, 4 June 1914, Page 4

PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1914.

IX this country we have legislated against Trusts, though our laws in re gard to these only affect certain combines. Recently the Red Feds attempted to further develop a Labour Trust, and it is interesting to note that in Britain there is a strong movement in this direction. We are apt to be swayed by sentiment in cases where labour is concerned, and usually, indeed, there is reason for sympathy to be extended. But it should not be forgotten that labour is, like most other things, an article for sale, for which the possessors naturally desire to obtain the best possible price. This is also the desire of every combine, and when Labour attempts by combination to compel buyers to pay a higher price it becomes, to ;ill intents and purposes, a Trust. At the same time, if its operations are properly directed by reasonable men, and if its members give full value for what they receive the result must be beneficial to tho community as a whole. Our Red Feds did not propose to do this, nor apparently do the Syndicalists in Britain where a great building strike is now in progress. A London contemporary, discussing tho movement, says:—"The authors of this audacious and dangerous scheme have planned a huge simultaneous strike of the miners, the ruilwaymen.

and the Associated Transport Workers of the whole country, supported by as many other classes of skilled and unskilled labour as can be induced to join in the movement. It is proposed to paralyse British trade, and to imperil the whole prosperity of the country in order that the Syndicalists' programme of a general strike can he carried out so effectively as to enforce the 5s per week advance on all wages at one stroke. The Syndicalists are trying to obtain the support of the trade unions of the country for this campaign of terrorism. They have been propagating their principles among the rank and file of the trade unionists in order that the saner Labour leaders may be forced by their own followers into acquiescence. Strenuous efforts have been, and are still being, made to win the trade unions for this Syndicalist enterprise. Fortunately, there are many indications that some of the leading trade unions will refuse to co-operate, but the Syndicalists have not abandoned their plans, and are still making extraordinary efforts to realise their culmination. Strenuous efforts are being made to secure the co-operation of the typesetters and mechanical staffs of the more important British newspapers. It is believed that no more srffective means can be adopted for the creation of an industrial panic than by an enforced suspension of trade and of the main sources of public information. The societies concerned with the newspaper workers are stated to be proceeding cautiously, and there is every indication that they will refuse to share in this movement by agitators."

ON the face of it the offer made to I almerston Borough Council by the Australasian General Engineering Company to establish a tramway service appears to be an excellent one for the Borough, and certainly infinitely better than the scheme recently advocator by the Council, in that it does not involve the borrowing of a large sum of money, and the ratepayers also take no risk. It is rather surprising, however, that the Council accepted the offer without members carefully considering all that it involves, and it would have been preferable to set up a Committee to investigate and report before coming to a decision. While we are inclined to regard the proposal favourably, we consider that it should be examined carefully by the ratepayers. We shall make further reference to it in a future issue. In the meantime we may remark that the ratepayers should be wary when concessions are requested, and should not merely consider immediate advantages. Had care been taken in the past in the matter of granting concessions it is quite possible that long ere this the Borough would have been provided with an electric light and power system, and would not have had to pay a high price to regain a concession. The experience of the past should cause caution to be exercised in the present. It is always inadvisable to grant restrictions, especially in these days when great progress ia being made in the improvement of other means of traction. For this reason we think the Council should not consent to any proposal that the Company shall have the exclusive right of ■running motor buses on the streets covered by the tram service, nor on the other streets. the Company are given the to run motor services as feeders the #luncil should stipulate that such services must be provided by the Company whenever it is called upon to do so by the Council 1 . Otherwise it may not be long before the residents in the streets other than those along which the trams run will 1 have any proper advantage from improved means of traction. And restriction of area over which motor buses may run would of course prevent the Council or any other Company from giving more complete service by means of motor buses. With the exception of this restriction the scheme is one which, so far as we can judge at present, the ratepayers may j safely endorse.