NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14240, 10 December 1909, Page 7

NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

r-» ! SUNDERING UNION TACTICS. !''ABACTION AGAINST STRIKERS. (/ROM OUR OWN COKBESrONDKMT.] Sydney, December 4. <r«B New South Wales coal strike, as ! H been shown, was in the larger Labour .Let a mistake from tho beginning. ' What is m° st important to Labour is, not, to succeed in imposing the conditions of comparatively few employees upon a few ynployers in one district, in one trade, hut to establish such an influence upon parliamentary government as will direct ' .jjo whole course of legislation in conformity with the Labour platform. By 'dint of careful organisation, extending over » l° n 5 series of > cara « this oh^'l I ■rid in some measure been attained. The itabour party is no negligible minority in | tho Federal Parliament. It has held Ministerial office, and when not in office it, has been time and again successful in " loosing its will upon the dominant party. The term of tho existing Parliament has all but expired. Tho election 0 f a new Federal Parliament will take dace early next year; and in this new : Parliament the Labour party had a chance of gaining a majority in the Senate. It had a good chance of improving JU position both in tho Senate and tho "House of Representatives. All that was needed was to gain the confidence of ' wavering voters by a policy of peace and moderation. The lesson of the Fisher Government required to be pressed home : 'that the country could really trust the labour party. Then tho democratic in|§2&i;'of Australians might have been relied on to bring the. party warm support from classes outside its own organisation. S HE STRIKE AND THE PARTY. EE STRIKE AND THE PARTY. ho Newcastle strike has upset the tactics based upon these conclusions. The longer it lasts, the further it extends, tho snore certain becomes tho prospect of Labour defeat at tho Federal polls. The Deakin-Cook coalition has found the wari try necessary to join its disunited forces. Labour in revolt! The country in danger! its enemy seems likely to be delivered into its hands. And, in the widest aspect, the cost of even a general strike might not appear too high » price to pay for three years of settled and sober go- . . . ■- .-■■■,

wrament. The worst foes of a Labour party are .always those of its own household. There l. iS natural conflict between the longsighted strategy which the politically educated leaders desire to adopt, and the short-sighted means which the followers seek from day to day for redress <jf local or personal grievances. And the constitution of the party is such that half •the time the followers are in command, and the leaders only" rule on sufferance, 'By | pandering to the prejudices of the troops they are supposed to control. For '» conscientious man, the worst post in the world is that of leader of a Labour party. It was his final recognition of lite fact that drove Mr. Watson from polities. • Mr. Fisher has a thicker skin, but 'it has commenced to chafe. Either he /aiust.take a course which .is not his own i<SBOWe, a course which he disapproves of, 'orhe must see/his influence and authority by degree*. ; One way or the other, the leader is sacrificed to the mob. The only alternative is to make a cynical 'best of things, like the Labour party in stha New South Wales Parliament—to 'take what politics offer, shout with the 'crowd, and do nothing. '*

Tike Labour party leaders strongly disapprove of Mr. Peter Bowling. But he gives tongue to a Labour grievance, and the bulk of union sentiment goes with ■ iiffl. The unions see only what is under ■tfaeir noses. ,-■ ■ '. THE WEEK'S FEATURES. The three events of the week are the Government's motion to apply the Industrial Disputes Act ; the stopper placed on the Bowling strike plan by the Railway Commissioners' demand to purchase at before-strike rates the whole product of the sinkers' two mines and the breakway of the Coal Lumpers' Union from the ibike Congress in connection with unloading the P. and O.'s collier Palermo. The New South Wales Industrial Dis-

juries Act adopts a cumbrous system of . conciliation that is theoretically and practivity inferior to the New Zealand plan. . Despite costly and awkward machinery, many agreements have been made under it, . blowing the historical New Zealand course. Employees generally have gained better auditions of labour and better wages— equivalent (if an Employers' Federation Climate' can be trusted) to a gift of £500,000. Employers have gained stability ,of trade. The final burden is doubtless brae by the public. ' And the -Industrial Disputes Act pro- ''■ obits; strikes—a- penalty up to £1000 or v two months' imprisonment per striker, in- ■ sjgator, or aider! It is an empty threat. «* the first place, a refusal to work is no <Mitte, and" current publie opinion will not gnait it to be dealt with as a crime. When a concerted refusal to work amounts, ; Bat to a quarrel with an employer, but to * conspiracy against the community, the ~<•*** and opinion are different. But the •New South Wales Act does not distinguish. '■ Consequently the threat cannot be enforced You cannot put 12,000 men in Pol} you cannot collect 12,000 fines without riot and bloodshed; and if you attack the leaders, they become martyrs, and there J' no punishment. Probably they are made men" for life, and the chance of setting the quarrel goes right over the hori'.'2oll. :

•'Nor does the Act satisfactorily provide W a compulsory industrial board. That Jo bo appointed has no power adequate to .«• present crisis; and the Government 1 weat • ° a December 1 to enforce strike PWjaltiee, if carried out, will immediately «»ke the Industrial Board impossible. „' PLAN AND COUNTER-PLAN. Toe railways interference has been more *|iecesnful. : Instead of refusing to carry '» strikers" coal, the Commissioners now "firm their right to buy all the coal at a Pnce to suit the public—a very different intention, shifting the controversy into ™«plored regions of law. But the main rj>|at is that the contention looks reason- , 1 . < !» an d the proprietors of the Bellambi ' m l 7 hare made it seem still more rea- ' ™nable by offering the Commissioners, "in -{?• public interest," 7000 tons of coal on - 4 ff \? term »- The plan of using a 'Waited coal supply, sold at high prices, to ;3pport the strike fund, seems to have J"* 1 * spoiled ; and the idea of opening furmines is no*, appreciated by the union £ i ttn(l file, whose idea seems to be i$? y - to stop work until they starve, and "S commence again with an agreement . J™* could have been reached at the beMft of the strife ! tip* efosal ' of tho Sydnev Coal Lumpers' •^°™ nto unload the "brought by the ■'«&'«# n Company from Ceylon for the | hta Its mail steamers is the most damag- ! «t&. Dg that has vet happened to the , 52i" ' *, Not im] <*« the recusants defy I -ZLiiT"" but they definitelv. turn the i ~C!^.P p,nion against the strikers. Be68ini»' Vend Bn< i the miners, public S.!'?? ave ™K- Unable clearly to I|t|3ff*f2|h« merits of the st,ike people ; tt**ien ir- ! for a starting point; and f ' hid f~ **«»ed ground by professing rcadi- [ *&<£» Cl,ss terms of settlement, while . 7? *S?W mused dteussion ujatil Ike men

returned to work. The indirect loss due, to the strike was borne without much complaint, owing to an instinct that the men were free to refuse work if it pleased them. But the general opinion does not justify the sympathetic strike. If it goes farther, and the refusal to labour is again declared to involve the right to prevent others from labouring, that is a union claim that will be definitely resisted. HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? CAN HOLD OUT MONTHS. Mr. Hutton (one of the northern delegates to the strike congress), and Mr. Burns (treasurer of the Miners' Amalgamation) contend the strikers can hold out, and will hold out, for months, if necessary. Why," said Mr. Hutton to a Sydney Morning Herald interviewer last week, "we have been going into training for this for the last 12 months. Work litis been so slack, and the conditions forced on us by the proprietors have been so hard, that it has prepared us. You don't know how long men can last when they are determined. In the great strike in the Midland , counties in England about 15 years ago, in the time of the Featherstone riots, we were out for 17 weeks, and we had very little support. There were 150,000 miners out, and towards the end of it they were living on cats, or anything. j Then, again, there was the Scotch strike, in 1895. Sixteen weeks the men were out, and they had scarcely a penny of help. Fifeshire and Clackmannan spent about £30,000. The rest of Scotland had to depend on those two counties for their support. Sixteen weeks they stood out. I was in the North of England myself at the time. That shows clearly how men can stand out when they take it into their heads." , , THE MINERS' RETALIATION. AN EFFECTIVE WEAPON. SpeaKing at Lithgow the other day, Mr. Peter Bowling (the secretary of the Miners' Federation) said that since the last strike the proprietors had been formulating a scheme to weaken the unions, and managers, acting as tools in the hands of the proprietors, had instructed the latter to do it systematically. Before the strike took place 600 or 700 men were out, and 700 others must have been brought in in a few days, because of the tyrannies of the managers. The strike congress had in it more power than all the Parliaments, and from it must emanate tlYe central authority, able to hold the reins and in 24 hours to give a complete checkmate to trusts and combines that might dare to dominate industrial life in future. So far it was a victory for the strike. Referring to the two mines run by the unions, he said he had addressed unionists that afternoon, and there was no longer any doubt amongst them that the i scheme was a most effective weapon to use against the owners. Everything was assured in the scheme, and there was no responsibility on the unions, except to see a reasonable price paid for the coal. But another advantage was that after the strike the owners who would probably be 'attacked by the other proprietors were prepared to sell the federated unions the two mines at a valuation to be made by an independent valuator; manage them for the unions, carrying on the trade in the markets they already hold. The owners wanted not a penny-piece down, but to be paid out of the profits accruing to the unions. . ■ ; - . -. > I