THE NEWCASTLE STRIKE LESSON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 12982, 25 January 1910, Page 4

THE NEWCASTLE STRIKE LESSON.

Much misery exists in the noith and south., and nothing can he gained hy prolonging the straggle. —Cable re the Newcastle coal strike. The above is only one item in a long li-t illustrating thefolly and iiselc.-Miess of the out-of-date industrial weapon known as the strike. At Newcastle the proprietors have lost a certain amount of business. hut they have their coalmines loft. Hie strikers'have lost, their wages, and have nothing left. Now the absurdity show.* signs of being over, and the men find that, once again, it has been proved that strikes rarely succeed. The case oi the Newcastle men was certainly a hard one, lor they had no efficient arbitration system to right their grievances, and the proprietors, prior to the strike, absolutely refused to enter on any proceedings by way of ••aneiliation. The collapse of the strike carries a forceful lesson lor dissatisfied New Zealand*workers, and should convince them that arbitration is at all times preferable to the strike. And if our arbitration system do not give all the satisfaction that is wanted, it may be suggested that its improvement will be more legitimately and permanently effected by means of the ballot box than by the useless weapon employed at Newcastle.