The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1910. GAOL FOR A LABOR LEADER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2722, 29 January 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1910. GAOL FOR A LABOR LEADER.

In all probability a good deal of sympathy will be extended towards the Australian Labor leader, Mr. Peter Bowling, in the fate that has come to him through Tiis connection -with the Newcastle strike. In our opinion that sympathy is entirely misplaced. The Judge who sentenced this man to twelve months’ imprisonment testified to the great natural ability displayed by Bowling. The possession of these faculties -merely emphasises his offence. Instead of using his influence with the men to induce them to combine and seek -their aims by legitimate means, he encouraged them to defy the law, and at the same time to ignore every consideration of humanity. Tho coal strike, has worked harm enough in all conscience, 'but if Bowling had had bus way a general strike would have been declared long ago, and the misery that would have followed such action is something that neither Mr. Bowling or anyone else could measure. Apparently he did not care. His one object was to reduce the mine owners to submit to his demnds, and in attempting to injure them he reckoned little that he was injuring an innocent community ten times as much. Now he desires to pose as a martyr, and grandiloquently pleads that no one shall ask clemency for him. A man who will deliberately seek to bring about a condition of affairs ‘by which a whole country would sustain almost irreparable damage, and by which thousands would he brought to dire distress deserves no clemency. A general strike would have brought in its train industrial disorder and probably loss of life. All of these things Bowling knew, vet in the early stages of the strike lie gave voice to most (inflammatory speeches, and quarrelled viciously with Mr. Hughes because the well-known Labor M.*P. desired that', the miners should seek the redress of their grievances by strictly legal means After a sharp stru Mr. Hughes dropped out and Mr. Bowling was left in control. One of his pet schemes was the working of a ■'couple of mines by tin men themselves, the profits, from which-were to pay the cost. of the strike. The-idea was delightfully simple, but the bottom was almost completely knocked- out : of the scheme when the Railway 'Commissioners refused to carry the coal. The final blow was given when the men struck in their own mines because of some unpalatable conditions imposed by their leaders. The next important phase look place when the Government endeavored to induce the men to accept the jurisdiction cf the Wages

Board provided for by the law of the State. There is little doubt that the men, who by this time were heartily sic'k of the strike, would, if left to themselves, have agreed to the propovi. tion, hut as the voting took place ,n open ballot, they dared not go against the instructions of their leaders, and so the proposals were rejected. As a last effort to “save his face” in wliat was evidently a losing game, Bowling proposed a Conciliation Board on special lines devised by himself, but this suggestion came too late. Some time before, the Prime Minister, finding the law incapable of dealing promptly and effectively with the grave situation that had arisen, brought down a special Bill, and got it put through Parliament. Under this new Act, Bowling has been tried and found guilty of promoting a strike, with the penalty already mentioned. He has no grievance in the matter and no claims upon clemency. For three months he has been defying the law and inciting others to defy it, and now lie lias discovered that the law of the country is mightier even than a Labor leader or unionism. Mr. Bowling may have some admirable qualities, but they are unfortunately associated with other attributes that make him a most dangerous man to have in any industrial community. Unionism fills an important part in modern industry, and so long as it works along legal and’constitutional lines, it is worthy of all encouragement. Left to themselves, the workers can as a rule be depended on to seek their ends in a legitimate manner, and they achieve far greater success in this way than they do when using the unjustifiable weapon of the strike. It is.when the agitator type — usually an indifferent workman himself —gets the ear of his fellows and sways them with his rough and ready oratory that they begin to think of throwing down their tools and of playing havee with the community as a whole. The time has .come for a lesson to these breeders of mischief, wlio live on the game of beggar mv neighbor, and whose existence depends upon a continuance of strife. The sentences bestowed by the New South Wales Court should serve as a .timely warning to labor agitators in the future that the law cannot be defied with impunity, and that the public has no sympathy with those who wilfully and deliberately seek to gain their ends in a dispute by easting the whole country into a .state of industrial chaos.