The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1936. THE BELGIAN STRIKES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1936. THE BELGIAN STRIKES

yHAT public sympathy is with the men augurs well for their cause, because in the matter of industrial disputes it is public opinion which is the deciding factor in many cases. Nor is public opinion very often wrong. It has an uncanny way of discovering on which side lies the balance of merit. It has many sources of knowledge and it has much in the way of instinct which, while not an infallible guide, is a very real help. The demands of the strikers do not appear to be excessive, while the cry of the German “YVolf! Wolf!” indicates that the employers are not a little conscious of the weakness of their own ease. The effort to raise the cry of anti-patriotism in an industrial dispute is always a two-edged sword, for it takes two parties to prolong a dispute as well as to start one. If it be unpatriotic for one of the parties to continue an industrial dispute, then it must be equally unpatriotic for the other party to pursue the same .course. The point of the matter is that strikes are a matter of psychology, and when the mass psychology is conditioned for them strikes will occur. Because humanity is emulative strikes occurring in one country or district will cause similar-events to take place in neighbouring countries or districts. Where there is no machinery for bringing the parties together, and where there is no means of enforcing a settlement in a judicial manner, strikes are bound to occur. In times of stress, too, it is almost certain that some individual will take a senseless step which he would not, under norma! conditions, even think of taking. The reason for this precipitancy of conduct in times of crisis is that some people cannot resist taking action in the limelight. It is the same impulse which causes the Indian to pursue a purposeless Court case, namely, the desire of a nonentity to come into prominence for once. In the case of the Belgian strikes it would appear that such an incident has taken place, and that an employer has fined a worker a portion of a day’s pay for some trivial offence. It should not be concluded from this incident that such conduct is general, nor that it is from intolerable conditions that the strikers are rebelling. The condition of the people of Belgium from an educational standpoint leaves much to be desired, for despite the presence of many schools, both religious and secular, ignorance and illiteracy are fairly high, and where elementary education has made little progress, or even where it is not consistently diffused throughout the community, industrial negotiations are carried on with extreme difficulty. In Belgium to-day, therefore, unseemly incidents are likely to occur, but they should not be invested with an undue importance.