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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16725, 28 April 1920, Page 2

The extremists of the Labour Party never made a bigger blunder than ■when they arranged for a strike on the railways during the visit of the Prince of Wales. J.u private life 'domestic discords are hushed when, a guest is in the house and no one but disloyalists wishes that the visit of the heir to the throne should have its pleasure marred by industrial strife. The defence of its action .put forward fey, the executive of

tlio enginedrivors’ union is absolutely contemptible. The executive presumably consists of the lenders of the men, bub its members have not the pluck to take tho blame for ordering tho strike and explain that ■ they left the matter entirely in tho hands of the rnon. That tlioy intended them to vote for a strike is obvious from the fact that nob a single member of tho executive lias resigned as a protest against a strike at such a time. No one in their senses can doubt that tho strike was carefully engineered for tho tune of tho Prince’s visit, yet tho executive has the impudence to say: “There Iras been no premeditated action in striking at this particular juncture, and such a thing has never occurred to tho executive.” Fortunately the public is not so easily fooled as the executive apparently believes. Tho verdict of tho public will bo that tho railway men are playing a dirty game. Tho majority of tho men .are good sportsmen like their fellow-countrymen, but they have been misled and put into a position of which they must already foci heartily ashamed. Tho rights or wrongs of the dispute matter nothing now, . for tho strikers have lost all claim to sympathy from tho public. That their case is a weak one is ob-. vious since they have not dared to put it to a fair test, but have, endeavoured to weight tho chances in their favour by striking at a moment when they hope tho Government will be willing to make any concession in order that tho' visit of tho Prince may pass off without any interference due to industrial unrest. The country will not readily forgive the men who have cast such a blot on its good fame.