The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JANUARY 31 1921. THE ONLY WAY OUT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10812, 31 January 1921, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JANUARY 31 1921. THE ONLY WAY OUT

Some much-needed plain speaking' to La]jpur extremists was indulged in last week by Mr Blakeley, president of the Conference of the Australian Workers’ Union, in session at Sydney. Stating that the organisation, favoured arbitration in preference to the strike by 16,138 votes to 10,157, he added:—“Those who advocate the strike are unintentionally selling the workers and betraying unionism. Some people preach that emancipation can he achieved only through* blood and fire; but ballots are better than bullets “ There speaks, sound and statesmanlike, the voice of sane Labour. The only question is whether Mr Blakeley is not too charitable in his characterisation of the action of the extreme Labour m6n who counsel the strike in place of arbitration. Consider widespread suffering inevitably due to a strike—the loss of wages by the strikers, and the privations endured as a consequence by their wives and families; the loss of employment in allied trades, often tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of men being thrown out of work, though they have no direct connection with a strike, and the resulting privation suffered by them, their wiv'es, and their families. Consider, too, the likelihood that strikes may result in violence, and the many occasions on which the cause of Labour has been lost through misguided men resorting to violence. In view of all this, one cannot hut feel at times that those who advocate the strike, and especially those who also preach that emancipation can only be achieved though blood and (fire, are intentionally, not “unintentionally,” selling the workers and betraying unionism. Either that, or they must be the most stupid of men not to see what must he the inevitable result of the carrying out of such doctrines. Ballots, undoubtedly, are better than bullets. This is," indeed, only another way of saying that representative institutions are better than sheer anarchy. Surely, a self-evident proposition. As a matter of fact, the problems now confronting the civilised world—the difficulties and differences, whether between the nations or within each nation—cannot he fought out; they must be thought out. By means of bullets no solution can be found. Nor by means of blood and fire. That way madness lies —the utter ruin of our Christian civilisation. To advise the workers to resort to violence, is, in truth, to advise them to “take a header into chaos.’’ The problems that face our civilisation to-day must be thought out calmly and dispassionatley. Then, by means of the ballot, the solution can be accomplished. But, in the last analysis, the alternative lies between ballots and bullets, be r tween representative institutions and utter anarchy. Fate propounds to onr civilisation—. as Fate has propounded to all the civilisations that preceded ours—the riddle of the Sphinx, which to answer not is to perish. On. the lines of. force and anarchy no answer can possibly be found. Though we all fought like .Kilkenny cats, the problem could not thus be solved. Clear thinking, the ballot, representative institutions, offer absolutely the only way out.