The Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1911. THE LABOUR WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10232, 15 August 1911, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1911. THE LABOUR WAR.

The position at Home is graver than ever. It was supposed that a settlement had been reached in London, and that with the beginning of the new week work would be resumed generally in the metropolis. But the Port Authority, with what can only be described as utter madness, thought fit to refuse employment to a number of men who were prominent in the strike, and the rest of the workers very naturally declined to go hack to work. Experience has shown again and again that the only possible course after a struggle of the kind is for both sides to wipe the slate clean. This has not been done in London, and the capital is still suffering an almost complete paralysis of business. In Liverpool the threat of the employers that if the strikers did not resume work a general lock-out would be declared at the docks has been carried into effect, and yesterday 110 work was done on the water front. On Sunday night the workers, anticipating the idleness of Monday, paraded the streets of the quarter where the labourers mostly live. They were, as might have been expected, in a dangerous temper, and some little trouble with the police rapidly developedl into a serious riot, the military having to be summoned to restore order. But these local disturbances are not the gravest aspect of the industrial trouble. All over the country the workers are being infected with the spirit of discontent. Every little group that believes itself to have a grievance is agitating to have it remedied, and tiie consequence is that strikes are occurring in all trades and all districts With the two main ports paralysed, the country's trade is necessarily crippled, and before the week is out we may find all the business of the Motherland at a standstill. The railwaymen on many important lines are out. The tramway employees are either striking or are threatening to strike. A Government does not resort to the employment of troops unless the situation is serious in the extreme, because that measure always has the effect of hardening strikers and inflaming the passions of the workers. But the statements made in the House of Commons show that at Liverpool, at all events, there is no escape from this course. Troops have been sent to London for a j different reason. There it is absolutely j necessary that men should be found to j handle tho food supplies. In Hull last j month women were actually employed to land stores from the ships, and the position this month must be far more serious than it was then. London cannot be left to starve, and the Government is taking the only possible course in ordering the troops to guard the workers who are engaged in handling t'ood ; . The strikes have taken the country unawares, and yet the possibility of just such an industrial struggle as this was clearly foreshadowed months ago. It is amazing that the plainest lesson of history should be ignored year after year. Grave strikes always occur on a rising market, and for obvious reasons. A few years ago the transport industries were terribly slack. Ships were being laid up because there were no charters for them, and the cargo services were being cmtailed on all the recognised routes. The ship-owners met in conference and came to ail understanding regarding their interests, and tho dull trado caused a severe restriction of wages. Seamen were Had to get berths on almost any terms, and the transport workers ashoro put up with hardships and poor earnings because they had to take what they could get. But trade has revived amazingly, and it ought to have gone as a matter of course that tho workers would share in the benefits of the improvement. But the employers elected to continue the old conditions. They were deaf to the grumblings and growlings. Even the sharp lesson of tho recent shipping strike was lost on them. Now they and tho whole country have been caught napping, and, apart from the losses that have been caused directly through tho paralysis of trade, the employers will have to make concessions considerably in excess of wlmt would have kept the workers quiet and content. The Government announces that it is considering ways and means of tiealing with such crises in future. We can only hope that it will be bold enough to adopt the obvious solution, and that Great Britain will in future be given the opportunity of settling its industrial disputes in a sane and civilised fashion.