The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1913.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 48

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1913. ) THE WEEK.

“ Kunquam ailed nal ora, Blind eapiectia diiit.”— JCVBSAL. . . . “ Good nature and good tense must ever jo.n. POP 3.

Two outstanding facts, in close relation tiie one to the other, mark

the present position of affairs in the Dominion: the one that all work at the •waterfront in the principal ports is being carried on under police protection; the other that, despite the possibility of earnin'' aijfthing up to and over £6 per week for unbilled labour, hundreds of men are walking the streets of the cities with thenhands in their pockets, and all the while the work to be done is in no sense being overtaken. From the point of view of the public the position is intolerable; not only is the cost of the police protection requisite for the maintenance of law and order, and for the prevention of intimidation mounting up daily to a huge amount, but business, both in town and country, is dislocated and trade hampered to an extent incredible in these days of rapid transit and frequent communication. Christmas, which under normal conditions is an exceedingly busy time of year, is fast approaching under most gloomy circumstances, and prospects point to this harassing state of things continuing over an indefinite period. The absolute irony of the whole business consists in the ungainsayable fact that the strike is being prolonged, nut because there is any controversy between shipowners and waterside workers over conditions of work or rates of pay, but simply because both sides are contending for the recognition of a principle which they both believe it would be fatal to surrender. Every waterside worker on strike would be willing and eager to resume work to-morrow on the conceded to the arbitration unioii?st, if only the shipping companies Aver* willing to forgo the absolute insistence upon registration under the Arbitration Act. And apart from the question of registration, it matters little to whom the employers pay wages, if the work be satisfactorily performed. So long, bower*?, as the employers persist that there can be no- permanency of agreement and »io guarantee against future trouble failing arbitration registration, and so long as the strikers decline resolutely to accede to what they regard as compulsory registration, there can be no satisfactory settlement of the matter. Although the daily defalcations from the ranks of the strikers and the daily increase in the number of arbitration unionists is helping slowly to reduce the number of vessels detained at the several waterfronts, it must be apparent that this process of solution is exceedingly slow, laborious, painful, and unsatisfactory. It seems hopeless to expect any help from the Government, and Parliament is otherwise occupied; but it is high time that the long suffering public, and especially the farming community, took a hand in bringing about a settlement. It stands distinctly

Under Police Protection.

to the credit of the farmers that at a most crucial point in this industrial struggle they rendered such valuable aid in loading vessels and in affording police protection to the workers, as to effectually break the back of the strike, by impressing the strikers with their power and influence. To the farming community, therefore, the shipowning fraternity owe a debt of gratitude which in common justice they should seek to defray. It should now be possible for the Farmers’ Union to approach the Employers’ Federation with the view of ascertaining whether some guarantee of permanence short of actual registration cannot be discovered, in order that the large body of strikers who are eager and willing to work may be employed at a time when so much work requires to be done. Having discovered this way out, the Farmers’ Union could thou approach the Strike Committees and offer their mediation with a view of putting an end to an unfortunate struggle. The shipping companies are in the best position to make the concession, since they stand to lose less than either the strikers or the public. Many of their vessels are laid up and their crews paid off, and so soon as the boats are put into commission again the full cargoes carried and the rush of passenger traffic will speedily recoup them for their temporary loss. Hut the public—of whom the farmers form a net inconsiderable part —are losing heavily for every day that the struggle is prolonged, aiul without any prospect of ever being able to make up the less. Since the shipping companies are, or should be, the servants, and not the masters, of the public, it should ho possible for as much influence to be brought to near upon them as will incline them to listen to reason, and not remain passive in their obduracy. The strikers are beaten, the Federation of Labour has been robbed of its prestige; Jet the employers rest satisfied witli so much victorv, and not persist in carrying the thing through to the bitter end.

There arc points of similarity in spirit between the strike in New

The New Unionism.

Zealand and the industrial outbreaks in Dublin and Durban which merit consideration. And the establishment in the United Kingdom of an Employers’ Defence Union with a guarantee fund of fifty millions sterling is an illustration of the same spirit of antagonism between Labour and Capital. All over the world there are manifestations of a now unionism of Labour which is having its reflection in a nounionism of Capital, and the clash between those two great organised forces is becoming mere and more pronounced. The essential distinction between the old spirit and the new may bo summarised in a sentence; the old strike merely hobbled industry, the new strike aims at stopping the product altogether. A recent strike in Italy is thus described:—“The strikers do not claim only economic advantage, but aim at tbe subversion of the present basis of the capitalistic oligarchy. The strike must therefore become a kind of national earthquake, overthrowing the social organisations resting on the exploitation of the workers for private advantage.lt is the preaching of this gospel which furnishes the root reason for the “ direct action ” of syndicalism, and the substitution of the strike for political action as a means of redress fur the grievances of the wageearners. In the United States there is a movement on the part of the 35.000X00 workers who heretofore have not been eligible for membership in the old trades unionism. This new unionism is as bitter in protest against the old unionism as against the capitalist organisations which it assaults. This new unionism in America appeals to the grade of labour below the craft unions of skilled labour. The humanity of this new movement is said to he all embracing. “It exists for the sub-standards of all sorts, including not only all ages, races, and sexes, but all crafts. In the old unionism workers organised by crafts, according to the took used. The new unionism organises according to the product created by the industrial group. The old unionism organised in the textile industry separate unions of weavers, loomfixere, menders, twisters, mule spinners, raid so on. Each craft was selfish, striking or working without reference to the others. The new unionism takes in office boys, charwomen, bookkeepers, engineers, mill hands, whoever contributes in any way toward making any product.” This new solidarity of labour naturally involves a new threat towards society as at present constituted. Under this one union idea any worker works at anything without being a “scab.” and all workers stop together. Not only does the new unionism aim at lessening hours of labour, improving conditions of work, and increasing rates of wages, but at eliminating all competition between workers while preserving competition between capitalists, so long as the capitalist class survives. The sabotage of France,, the syndicalism of Italy, and the industrialism of America are each, and all destructive and revolutionary, and this destructive and revolutionary spirit has its reflection in the present strike in Now Zealand. The following description by an expert of the ambitions and ultimate goal of this new unionism may he recommended to all who desire to understand the true inwardness of what is taking place to-day in our Dominion:—“Their aim is to divert solely to labour the entire values which labour produces-, and in their view labour is the sole producer of everything. It is not designed that anything shall he left for capital, and the expropriation ' which Socialists, contemplate by procedure through forms of law and order, the new unionism proposes to attain by direct action, by simple theft, in language not theirs, although the idea is not at all repugnant to them. Instead of the State giving Industrial control to the workers as the Socialists desire, the syndicalists look to the workers taking such control

and giving to the community. Socialists, or some Socialists, would make gociety the thief. Syndicalists would make society the receiver of the stolen goods. In both cases the earthly millennium is to arrive by the establishment of a thieves’ paradise.”

The Opposition, now consolidated under the leadership of Sir Joseph Ward, has apparently conceived that it has only one mission in Parliament, and that is to obstruct. Compared with all previous performances in this direction, the latest Opposition effort stands out prominently as a piece of perverse stupidity, from which nothing could possiblv be expected, except sheer and senseless waste of time. When any Opposition relinquishes its legitimate function of criticism and descends to absolute obstructive tactics, the desperate nature of its position is readily realised. But when such deliberate obstruction coincides with a time of grave industrial crisis it is evident that the members who lend themselves to such a cause are totally blind and deaf to their responsibility to the country. The only thing which in any way justifies a minority in Parliament in deliberate and protracted obstruction- is when some vital principle is at stake. But when the forms of the House are misused and prostituted for the sake of trying to score a petty party advantage, no words of condemnation can be too strong. The repeal of the Second Ballot, the ostensible reason for the stonewall. it is on all hands admitted to be a necessary measure; in actual practice the Second Ballot has proved ineffectual, costly, wearisome, and unpopular. The present system of representation, faulty as it mav be, was in no wise improved by the addition of the Second Ballot. To devise an alternative scheme, suited to the scattered population and peculiar configuration of New Zealand, is no easy matter, and the Government have done wisely in postponing its consideration to a more suitxible and convenient season. But for the Opposition to make reason of this postponement for a stupid stonewall against the repeal of the Second Ballot is as mischievous as it is mistaken. It was well, therefore, that, having allowed the offending members rope enough with which to hang themselves, the Chairman of Committee, with the full concurrence of the Speaker, should have taken steps to bring this unworthy obstruction to a close. It is to be hoped that Sir Joseph Ward and his followers will take the hint, and for the remainder of the session they may devote their superabundant energies to the task of expediting rather than obstructing the business of the country.

A Stup'd Slonuvrall.