WORK AND WAGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 42, 18 February 1913, Page 8

WORK AND WAGES.

1 A GJAXI CXI OX. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright., (Umteci Press Association.) Loudon, February 15. The Amalgamated Hallway Servants’, General Railway Workers’ and United Pointsmen and Signalmen’s bilious j have amalgamated, under iho title oi tue National Union oi llaii waynien, with a membership of a hundred and fifty thousand, and funds of naif a million. TRANSPORTERS OX STRIKE. Transporters at Grimsby have struck) demanding from the Croat Central j Hailway an increase of sixpence ]);>r| day. UNEMPLOYMENT BOOKS. • j i London, February 17. The Insurance Commissioners have received 2,365,050 applications for un-i employment books. Five thousand’ eight hundred and seventy-three wer- , red used, on the ground that the appli cants were ineligible. AGAINST THE REFORM PAH IV. Westport, F { .; )rU ary ,17. At a large gathering in the \ ietori , Theatre to-nignt after an address In -dr Semple, organiser of the Fcderatioi d Labour, resolutions wore carrier agreeing with the recent Labour Con’hrenco in its endeavouring to unit; wiie labour bodies in Xow Zealand, and pledging the meeting to do all n As power to defeat the Reform Party, believing tnat its policy was detri metanl to human progress. “MADDEST FOLLY.” A DEAN OX STRIKES. Preaching in the Newcastle (N.S.W.i Cathedral on “Unions, Good ami Bad,’ Uic Dean of Newcastle, Dr. Goldin; Bird, said: — “There is a big and very real danger to which unionism is exposed. . “The danger is that of becoming the tools of those who have their own interests'at heart, rather than that of the union they represent. The paid exponent of workingmen’s wrongs should be looked upon with a gooc deal of suspicion. He may be quite loyal to the interests of those whe pay him, or he may not. Coming right home to our own neighbourhood, which has gained a somewhat unenvi able reputation for industrial unrest. Jet us see how far strikes pay. “There are two methods by whicl a decision as to ‘strike’ or hio strike may he reached. An aggregate meeting may be called, or a secret hallo; taken. One may almost dogmatise and say that the former will mean ‘strike’ and the latter ’no strike.’ The reason is known to all. -Tire formes method has been almost universal!.' adopted for many years, yet the secret ballot method is the only reh way to obtain the true views of tin majority. it may be argued thu. strikes do benefit the conditions cl the workers, oven though tlic*y brin, temporary trouble and suffering on many in no way connected with tin dispute. Facts prove the fallacy o this. No strike yet has ever in tin end benefited the miner. During th 18 weeks’ strike commencing in 1009 £-150,000 was lost in wages hy tin

j miners, and they gained no beneiit b} the strike. Every.day £6OOO is pah to the miners of the -Newcastle am' Maitland district when the miners ar< all working. Yet during the last iw< } ears there have been 90 stoppages Owing to continued unrest trade Innbeen permanently lost to Newcastle and many of the collieries are workei at a loss to the owners. The lessor of throe years ago seems to he forgotten, socially and economically. Strikes are the maddest folly, ant never benefit the striker; Yet unti men, when a dispute arises and strik. talk commences, demand a secret hai lot the majority will he ruled by tin minority, and stiikes will .continue One of the causes of dispute to-da x , is the demand for the abolition of tin doable shift, the object being to decrease the output of coal, and consequently increase the selling price, h otder that the hewing rate may Ik increased. How will this work? Tin cost of coal increases, and the con snmer suffers, and can ill afford the extra expense. The miner may gain hut does lie want to gain at the ex pense, not of the owner, but of tin general public? Should not the Col fiery Employees’ Federation remembei that miners are not the only worker; in Newcastle, although they are best paid? Stoppages and strikes do net alone affect the getters of coal, but a much more numerous class. A general stoppage at the pits means unemployment, not only of colliery employees, but of thousands of others who depend for their employment upon the working of the mines. A strike means financial ruin to scores of small tradespeople, and brings good to not a single person, whether he be a worker above ground or below, save only to the paid organiser of industrial unrest.”—Daily Telegraph.