THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1909. THE NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14214, 10 November 1909, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1909. THE NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

The strike of the Newcastle miners appears to be so unjustifiable that nothing can be said in its defence if we ~ are to assume that employers and employed are mutually interested in industrial peace and in commercial pros- ! perity. The Miners' Union apparently acts upon the supposition that the relation of its members with the colliery proprietors is one of tacit animosity, and that hostilities are to be precipitated at the most favourable opportunity without regard to the effect upon industry or to the grave injury thereby inflicted upon the general public. For the proclaimed reason for the sudden and. unexpected strike is that coalstocks are. low and that a complete cessation of the output from the Newcastle • mines will so hamper shipping,. manufacturing, and domestic economy, that the pressure upon mine-owners. will compel them to accede forthwith k to any and every demand which '" the unionist leaders

may decide to make;!.. Just what these demands ' are nobody seemed to know when work .ceased, and no one will be much the wiser after reading. Mr. f Hughes' statement of the men's case. ?It! is ; stated that there were "grievances" and " pinpricks,'' but these alleged grievances have not even been I formulated, so that it is ' absolutely impossible to pronounce upon them in discussing the strike situation. . • The : only point. available ; for discussion •■* is \ the amazing and i; unprecedented action .of the • Miners' '.; Union in declaring a great strike, at the suggestion of their leaders, as a prelude to the formulation of; certain undefined demands upon the proprietors. If the mine-owners had , acted in this extraordinary manner, had closed down their pits without notice, and' without giving any reason for doing so excepting that, it seemed to them opportune and strategic *to " thus; coerce their employees into a submissive frame of mind, there would; have been >, a great' outburst of indignation from every union in 'Australia. But we have reached a stage.when civic obligations which bind the, mine-owners may be ignored and denied by the ] Miners' Union with an appearance j of impunity, unless it should happen that this exhibition of the tyranny of irresponsible organisation drives public opinion ,to , action. Possibly the miners' grievances are. real, possibly they are imaginary, certainly they are exaggerated. But in any case, this strike must be condemned by all who hope for the triumph of reason and humanity and for the placing of the relations between Labour and Capital upon a higher plane. It is a resort to the;: most brutal of industrial weapons in the most brutal form. It is a precedent which, , if, followed widely, .would render all industrial activity uncertain and air industrial peace impossible. ••' * :fi -- ' v' ' '

The Dominion of Canada,' by legislation which has received hearty endorsement from the , representative organisations of both Capital and Labour, has checked industrial wars v which affect vitally the entire community by making illegal any strike or lockout in certain vital industries until formal attempts at voluntary conciliation have been tried and found wanting. By this method Canada is checking railway, tramway, gasworks, coal mining, and similar strikes and lockouts, which it is soundly held so affect the public that they constitute a public grievance. In Australia, the urgent need for some such legislation—the Arbitration Act having < obviously failed—is very evident. Coal consumers in Sydney are already paying 15s per ton more than they paid last week, while the best Newcastle coal has gone to a practically prohibitive figure. Already sr ips and .trains are being laid up,, at any time mills and factories must "begin to cease operations, *hile the : great multitude of small buyers of coal are being reduced to great straits for the fuel which is a civilised necessity i even in , warm Australia. And why? Nobody knows. The miners have " grievances," and'because the miners have vague " grievances" which they are now formulating many hundreds of thousands of innocent i people must suffer. ; These grievances are to be discussed, not calmly and '■.. judicially, and with a fair consideration orthe invariable two j sides• but with a pistol held to the ' heads of the mine-owners, and with the hope that a popular : panic will force the ■ Government to intervene should the mine-owners refuse to be thus terrorised. The gravity of the j situation cannot , well be over-esti-mated, nor can the impossibility of permanent good resulting from this ill-advised strike be ; too ■; strongly emphasised. f. That • miners are a hardworking and deserving body of men nobody will question. They work arduously under great difficul-' ties and at much risk. They are entitled to compensating wages and to equitable-conditions. But all this does not make it any better for the community when the miners take it upon themselves to dominate the industrial situation and to disturb the entire community; in an unreasoning manner. Nor can it, as we have said already, lead to a better understanding or to future peace. New Zealand will not be directly injured. Our own coal industry may even be advantaged by the blocking of Australian supplies and the demand of consumers for Auckland and Wesiport coals. But there is no gratification in gaining at the expense of : our neighbours, or through the effect of a dangerous movement the ultimate results of which none can foresee.