THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1890.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8353, 5 September 1890, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1890.

There is one feature of the present dispute between labour and capital, which seems to us to be the one gleam of sunshine among the dark clouds that cover the sky, and that is the perfect courtesy of tone that has since the beginning marked all the public acts of the combatants. Whatever may be the state of their inner feelings, it shows a great advance in civilisation that a contest like this, involving the whole means of livelihood of thousands of men, and the u hole fortunes of a hitherto powerful, though much smaller class, should have been carried on thus far without a word having been written that can hurt the personal feelings of either party, or (except a few broken heads at Dunedin) any act of violence. The proceedings on nomination or polling days at an English election a few years ago were absolutely revolutionary compared with the scenes that have taken place here since the strike began. So much the better for those who propose conciliatory measures, for the time lias come, as our table would show if we could print a tithe of the letters we receive, that the neutrals, who are the great sufferers in this struggle, must be heard. The combatants must learn that the enormous majority o£ the people of this colony, who are producers and not distributors, must and will have a voice in this matter. They have no doubt that in a little time they will be able to dispense altogether with the present set of distributors, of whom many of them think that they have

great cause to complain, but to do so now would be to occasion to themselves great inconvenience, great expense, and perhaps some actual suffering. No doubt if a tidal wave were to sweep off all the inhabitants of the principal port towns to-day, Anglo-Saxon energy and power of organisation would assert itself to-morrow, and in less than a week we should have some means provided as a substitute for what had been lost. But before a -system anything like as complete as the present one had been brought into working order, an immense amount of loss would have been sustained. But it is just as well to remind the combatants that they are after all merely distributors, ana not producers?, and that this colony existed, and people lived here very happily, when there were no ocean steamers, and no railways, and no telegraphs, and no gas; and that though these things are conveniences or luxuries, they are not necessaries.

The absence of personalities and violence in the contest, shows that though there are, as there always will be in every contest, hotheaded men on both sides, men of extreme views, yet the bulk of the strikers, and their trusted leaders, are men who, whatever their individual opinions may be (with which we have no concern) are restrained by those considerations which must weigh with any man who is possessed of common sense. On t\e other hand, although no doubt there may be men on the other side who would delight to crush Unionism, yet the company principally concerned, and all the Employers' Association* in their manifestoes, take care not to say one word against Unionism in the abstract, while the Union Steamship Company conspicuously advertise their willingness to receive back their former employes, although belonging to the Unions. In another column we publish a resolution passed on Wednesday night by the Auckland assembly of the Knights of Labour, which seems to point out the only bases on which an agreement between the combatants can bo arrived at. The resolution says : "That this assembly, while fully sympathising ivith the Unions in maintainmrj their principle*, especially those of association and combination, regrets the extreme measures that are being taken, and that tins colony, just emerging from an era of depression, should be involved in an industrial war, which cannot but be disastrous to all concerned.' . The resolution goes on to suggest that the matters in dispute should be referred to arbitration, so that the colony may be relieved from the present disastrous conflict. The question which everyone is asking, and no one answers authoritatively, is what arc "the matters in dispute?" Nobody knows quod homines, tot sententicß. Newspaper editors are supposed to be nearly omniscient, but we nave to confess that we don't know what is the cause of the dispute. There are so many versions flying about that it is impossible to decide between them. .But one thing winch the strikers and vast numbers of Union men who have not yet struck, have got into their heads is that the capitalists and employers want to crush Unionism, and that the fight is for the very existence of Unionism. Hence, they are determined to tight to the oitrer end. Now, let us have no mistake on this point. Let us, as an organ of public opinion, declare emphatically and with all the solemnity such a grave position demands, that if any capitalist or employer thinks to crush Unionism, by any means, he is utterly ignorant ot the forces at work in the social organism. To crush Unionism s Why, if unionism could have been crushed, it would have been crushed years ago— when it was illegal—when it was a conspiracy—when it was disfigured and dishonoured by the crimes committed by desperate men in its name. As for the man who thinks that Unionism will be crushed in New Zealand by the present conflict, if such a man exist, which we very much doubt, he must be a lunatic.

The only basis of conciliation, the only possible solution of the present difficulty, is to accept Unionism frankly, freely, fully, and to utilise it as has been already done in many large trades in England as the best method of organising Boards of Conciliation. When em? ployers and employed meet at regular intervals on these committees or Boards, in oqual numbers, with equal voting power, and on terms of mutual courtesy and respect, a vast number of crude and unworkable projects disappear at once. The employe's soon find that all that glitters is not gold ; that the successful management of any large business requires qualities of mind that cannot be tound everywhere ; that if business men with a, large - ipital involved are to be harassed at every turn by rules made by those who consider their own interests, and not the larger working of the business, it is better to withdraw their capital altogether. Men in short, to use a homely proverb, find out that it will not do to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. The iron shipbuilders on the Thames, where thirty years ago there was a large trade, simply drove, it away entirely by their pei petual strikes and demands, and now the hard-headed Stfotchmen on the Clyde are doing all the work that used to be done on the Thames.

On the other hand, when the employers meet the delegates of the working men tace to face, not standing up as members of a formal deputation bringing a grievance or an ultimatum, but round the same table, on terms of perfect social equality, and prepared to discuss questions in a calm, reasonable, business-like way, they will recognise, and perhaps learn to imitate, some of those high moral qualities which alone have served to render labour triumphant along the line —the sentiment of fidelity to leaders, of honour towards their mates, of selfsacrifice even to the endurance of cold and hunger rather than yielding when they thought they were in the right, or by the negation of those principles which they hold dearer than life itself.