SECTIONAL STRIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19156, 23 October 1925, Page 12

SECTIONAL STRIFE.

FOLLY OF THE STRIKE. HIGH COST TO COMMUNITY. PUBLIC WEAL PARAMOUNT. ADDRESS TO EMPLOYERS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON. Thursday. In his address to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Employers' Federation the president, Mr. T. Shailer Weston, said the seamen's strike had greatly altered the prospects for the immediate future. The refusal of a minority of the seamen to abide by the decisions of their executive resulted in a complete stoppage of our overseas trade. But for the unanimous determination of the primary producers and general public that this stoppage should not be allowed to paralyse our export trade, the strike would have continued and the Dominion would have suffered a catastrophe equalling the economic debacle of 1921. Although prompt action had prevented a catastrophe, the strike had still been a serious calamity to New Zealand. The regularity of shipping aimed at by the Meat and Dairy Produce Boards was now impossible for this season. The early lamb trade would be seriously affected, the local wool sales would be sluggish owing to lack of shipping space, storage charges on all produce would be increased and dairy produce, owing to the delay, would be thrown upon the London market afc a time when supplies from the Continent in the early Northern spring would be in competition. Country's Heavy Losses. "Unless the Northern Hemisphere experiences a bad spring, it can be safely said that before the present season 1* over the shipping strike will have cost the farmers alone some' hundreds of thousands of pounds, the revenue of the country will be lessened and the normal increase of savings checked," said Mr. Weston. "If the present local Government loan of £5.000,000, so urgently required to assist the small farmer and for workers' dwellings, is not completely subscribed, it will be in the main the result of this strike. "This strike is a very clear example both of the vulnerability of the .present system of civilisation and, at the same time, .of its most effective method of defence. But for the minute subdivision of labour throughout jthe world's trades and industries, it would be impossible for its present population even to exist, not to mention enjoy its present standard of comfort. If every man had to provide for all his own personal wants by the efforts of his own one pair of hands, starvation and its attendant diseases would speedily reduce that population to hundreds where there are now millions. The danger of this minute subdivision is that one section of the community, by refusing to play its allotted part, can throw the whole organisation out of gear. Inter-depenclence of Community. "If a fire fiend were to run down Lambton Quay, throwing a fire-bomb into every third shop throughout its length, ho would be promptly arrested, would excite no sympathy and would be sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. Yet the damage he would have done would be small compared with (hat which has already been inflicted upon the consumers and general public of New Zealand by the present seamen's strike. If minorities of unions continue to break industrial agreements and awards, and if extremists encourage and assist them in so doing, the consequent suffering may, in time, induce nations to treat such actions as offences against the public weal, to be. met with heavy punishment. "Personally, I would prefer that m New Zealand the force of public opinion should be a sufficient deterrent. Our community is highly educated, and the evils consequent upon sectional and irritation strikes are so clear and convincing that the general public should he prompt in expressing itself, and ruthless in preventing their continuance. No section of the. community can afford to estrange itself from the rest of its fellowcitizens. Once public opinion learns from past losses and sufferings to make itself felt, promptly and decisively, one section of the community will hesitate long before declining to play the part allotted to its members in the scheme of subdivision of labour. It is so easy a task bv sectional and irritation strikes to throw the modern industrial machine out of gear that tho deterrent punishment must be correspondingly effective."