STRIKE LESSONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8028, 6 February 1912, Page 4

STRIKE LESSONS

It was plainly to be a policy of force, at any cost to the community—government from tho cart-tail instead of any properly-constituted tribunal. We believe that the City Council made a mistake in recognising the “Strike Committee,’' of which several members have palpably proved unable to govern Uieuifldves.

The annoyance of the “Evening Post” expressed in the above terras is not unnatural. It is very regrettable that an opportunity should have been given for the ’■syndicalists” (or one-strike-all-striko advocates) to have got their noses into the tramway dispute at all. They would not have done so if it had not been for the arbitrary attitude taken r.p by a section of the City Councillors when the Tramway Union lir.se brought pressure to bear on the City Council in regard to tho _ Fuller case. Tho Trade Council organisation, a temperate and peace-seeking _ body which desires reform by evolutionary rather than revolutionary moans, would have been quite competent to have dealt with this dispute by tho ordinary methods of arbitration, hut there were mischievous people behind the scenes who represented that a stand must he made if the working-classes wore to .be convinced of their mental, moral, social, and financial inferiority, and it was made clear and evident to the workers concerned that if they were not to .he beaten in tho conflict they would have to link up with the insurgents in the labour ranks. As far as wo arc concerned, we cannot sufficiently deprecate the excesses to which Messrs Semple and Hickey go in tho use of provocative and intemperate language. Wo are sorry to notice some Trades Hall men who were induced to follow a bad example in this respect. All of these gentlemen will yet learn that however vituperation, may servo as a weapon of exasperation to both sides, it is a sign of weakness rather than of strength. A righteous cause can never be well served by terroristic advocacy, although terroristic advocacy is apparently the only style of argument that some people can bo brought to understand. While, therefore, wo deprecate tho excesses of some of the strike leaders w© admit that they wore forced into an extremist assertion of principle by the thin-veiled antagonism of certain of tho City Council representatives. This antagonism served to throw tho forces of trades unionism and “syndicalism ” into common cans©, which, was extremely bad tactics from tho point of view of those who wish to prevent the coherence of tho warring factions of Labour. Wo give no credence to tho of tho “Evening Post” that all is lost, and that tho Wellington tramway strike is merely tho forerunner of disastrous upheavals which are to occur in tho immediate future. Industrial troubles are as often brought about by tho fatuity and pig-hcadedness of individuals on the employers’ side ns they are by the perversity and unreasonableness of the representatives of Labour. A good employer never has a bad servant. It is tho rotters on both sides that cans© all the trouble. No allusion to this subject would be complete which did not make reference to the debt which this community owes to Councillors Fletcher, Fitzgerald, Fuller, McLaren, and for their calm and reasonable advocacy of tho rights of Labour in tho recent* crisis. Hindmarsh did some excellent service, too,'but this was to an extent nullified by one bad break which could only servo to incite bitterness and strife at a moment when the utmost diplomacy was essential. Tho councillors mentioned were not, we are glad to say, identified in any way with tho violent propaganda of Messrs Semple, Hickey, Young, and Reardon.