The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920. THE MINERS’ MISTAKE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17779, 30 January 1920, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920. THE MINERS’ MISTAKE.

Those who are suffering loss or inconvenience in consequence of the “go-slow” tactics of th.e coal miners are apt to blame the working miners for their troubles. The sufferers are many and are distributed all over the Dominion. Essential industries are threatened with suspension or paralysis. Good housewives are finding it more and more difficult to replenish supplies of coal wherewith to keep the home fires burning. Naturally, then, popular indignation finds expression in .terms of censure, directed for the most part against the miners. And while it must be admitted that the miners, or, rather, the working miners, are by no means blameless, it is well that the public should be reminded that the chief culprits are not to be sought for in the mines. The men who are most blameworthy are the despotic “bosses" of the Alliance of Labour —an unholy alliance on which the working miners have no direct representation, and over whose autocratic action they have no control. The “N.Z. National Review" regards the miners’ obedience to these “bosses” as suicidal and criminal folly; but it is evidently of opinion that that obedience is not being rendered very willingly, and that “were a secret plebiscite taken of the working miners by some independent method, there would be an overwhelming majority in favour of abandoning the policy and accepting the owners’ offers.” But, as the “Review” remarks, it is one of the grave defects in our system of arbitration and conciliation that no such machinery exists.” As a remedy, it is suggested that legislation should be provided at the earliest possible opportunity to provide that in case of a deadlock such as has now existed for months in the coal industry, a secret ballot shall be taken of the whole of the workers in the industry by responsible Government officials and the votes counted by an independent returning officer. This it is claimed would help to overcome the arbitrary domination of a handful of parasitic union officials who stand between the employers and ' the workers, and who have decreed that the miner must be satisfied with a quarter or a third of his normal earnings, so that the mana and Prussian-like authority of the labour “bosses” may be maintained. So long as the miners continue to subject themselves to the domination of these men, so long, we fear, will the opportunity for arriving at an amicable and satisfactory settlement be deferred. We believe the “Review” is right when it says that once free from the dictatorship of these undesirables, the miners would have no difficulty in speedily securing a settlement of their differences with the employers, and resume their normal production their own betterment and the welfare of the people of New Zealand.