The Waikato Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. STRIKES: CAUSE AND EFFECT.

Waikato Times, Issue 12188, 25 September 1911, Page 4

The Waikato Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1911. STRIKES: CAUSE AND EFFECT.

A writer in the current number of Life states that the only gainers through the strikes that have been devastating Great Britain, and indeed the whole of the civilised world lately are the professional agitators. There is food for reflection in the statement. Tho professional agitator is not unknown in New Zealand, indeed many labor disaSections have been traced to the master hands of these men, who are apparently content to batten and fatten upon the workers so long as the latter are content to keep them in affluence and starve themselves. Hard things" but perfectly true things, have been said of these gentry in the Arbitration Courts of the Dominion, and, (well-a-day) the workers themselves have been the first to repudiate them. With such eager champions the aigiitator has no need to defend himself ; he can rest content in his security and seek fresh circles in which to stir up strife. It his not yet occurred to the workers of the world that the first men to feel the pinch of a strike are the wage-earners themselves. Wages are lost, there is an increase in the cost of living, and the funds of the various unions are depleted. And still the mad struggle continues. The labor unrest of the world to-day is probably without parallel ; the suffering is very great and the expense enormous. The waste is 'beyond compilation and the loss of wages incalculable. On this comes the cry of increased cost of ' living ; it •does not seem that anything else can happen with long and disastrous strikes in ©very quarter of the globe. Britain at the present time is strike mad. Men have been wantonly called out and their wives and families left to starve ; there has been a terrible waste of foodstuff because there hav e lieen no railways to carry it ; there have been no men to load it into steamers and no sailors to man the ships to carry it to its destination. These things have not been caused alone by low wages, -because it has happened that in many instances higher wages were offced —and refused. There can be no reason to contend that wages in England do not require increasing. A study into the economic 'question will prove that in many cases they do ; but more good can be done by arbitration q l - - a Royal Commission than a general strike, with its attendant horrors, and lately there have been plenty. The deportaion or the death of strike manufacturers would clear the a)ir, lighten the burden of the workers, lessen the cost of living and give us a healthier and more contented community generally. In the restriction of the agitator lies the salvation of the workers.