The Lesson of the Shag Point Strike.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6246, 19 June 1890, Page 3

The Lesson of the Shag Point Strike.

(Oamam Mail) The manner in which a settlement of the Shag Point dispute has been negotiated by the secretary of the Maritime Council, proves that tho combination of labor organisations is not only one of the most powerful, but also one of the most beneficent and wisely ordered democratic instruments of our time. Under the generalship of the Council’s secretary, the men have substantially gained the day, , , .

Mr Millar managed a most difficult business cleverly and by the use of language and arguments well worthy of a diplomatist. Ho acted on the principle that either unionism must be respected or it must be abandoned. He was quite right. There was no room for any half measures. The fight was clearly one of capital against labor—it was a struggle for the mastery, which, if once attained, would have placed the miners entirely at the disposal of the proprietors ; that the Shag Point miners would have become outcaste, amongst tbeir fellows ; that the same experiment, would bo tried by other employers with more or less success ; and that the miners of the country would be split into factiousunion and non-union men—who would be constantly warring with one another and disorganising the labour market, and causing fluctuations in the prices of the commodity they produce. Is it desirable, in view of the recently-exposed evils arising from unassociated labour, that such a retrograde movement should be permitted ? Unionism may be designed to prevent evils, but it will be powerless unless brought into operation. It has been brought into operation to good purpose in connection with the Shag Point embroglio. Both parties to the dispute may learn .useful lessons from what has taken place. The men will realise that they wield a power that can set in motion the industrial classes, not only of the Colonics, but of the Empire, and that that power is so momentous that it behoves them to act with the greatest caution, to keep strictly within the rules laid down for them, and to do nothing whatever on their own personal responsibility. The manager will be all the more guarded in his treatment of the men now that he knows unionism is so potent that even his own position is not altogether held at the will of his employers. _ The proprietors will see that it is not to their interest to back up the manager whatover may be his conduct, and merely on the assumption that he is acting in their behalf ; but that, in order that their operations may proceed harmoniously and uninterruptedlj, they must “ render unto Csosar the things that are Cfcsar’s.” It is to be hoped that the settlement that has been effected will be a settlement not [only of the lines on which both parties are to proceed, but that it will also prove a settlement of the ill-feeling that has existed between ther men and the manager, and that all concerned will perform their duties faithfully and well, forgetting the past, except in so far as it may lead them to avoid mistakes and quarrels in the future. It would bo a serious calamity if a Shag Point strike were to occur often. The losses to the proprietors must have been serious : but the men have also suffered considerable loss and inconvenience, and, as to the women and children, tbeir condition was such as to beget universal sympathy. Xhe lesson has, indeed, been a bitter one all round, and it has necessitated sacrifice and humiliation that is not likely to be thoughtlessly courted again ; but the issue has proved to the thoughtful observer that the industrial classes

can, by means of united action, precipitate, if they ohooee, a general paralysis of trade, j and that they are now a factor n our social system that can no longer be ignored and j made subservient to the dictates and the aggrandisement of the capitalist.