The Waikato Argus, [PUBLISHED DAILY] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 8500 Weekly. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1912

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5157, 14 November 1912, Page 2

The Waikato Argus, [PUBLISHED DAILY] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 8500 Weekly. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1912

The excessive leniency with which the police and magistrates have treated the Waihi strikers, disturbers of the peace and coercers of other men has resulted in a really serious riot. A constable and a citizen have been wounded, and the head of the man who fired the shots has received such severe treatment that it is doubtful whether he will recover. We have published the details of the affair, as they have occurred from time to time. It appears to us, as it will to the public, that, if by any lapse in the law strikers are privileged to pursue the course adopted by them at Waihi, it is quite time the law was amended and enforced with the utmost possible stringency. Strikes always do, and always must, inflict an injury upon all classes of the community. These cannot be prevented by any possible legislation; the right to work or not to work cannot be taken from any man, the law only reaches him in this respect when he appears at a Magistrate’s Court charged with vagrancy, because without adequate means of sup" port. It is quite another matter* however, when the non-workers adopt coercive measures to make all men like unto themselves. The worst feature of the whole business, excepting the riot, which has resulted in bloodshed, is that the I.W.W. agitators have had little difficulty in persuading a considerable number of men to join their ranks. This they have done, and their silly victims have signed the death warrant of their liberty The lesson which has been instilled into the mind? of the authorities is, that in future any man who is guilty of conduct calculated to insult his brother citizens or is guilty of conduct calculated to create a breach n t ihe peace should be immediately arrested and sentenced to an adequate term of imprisonment. The fact of his being on strike should not be accepted as a reason for mitigation.