March, 1912. 



History of the Month. 



:iry life and prosiKi iiy, their daily comfort aiiil 

 joys, the smooth running of the wheels of industry 

 viver the whole Commonwealth. Evidently to them, 

 all this is a haphazard con/dition of things that ma\ 

 he upset by haphazard and brainless methods. Thcv 

 f'»rget the existence of constitutions and laws, ani! 

 the regulating levers that control all the forces th.i 

 gf to make up a prosperous and well-ordered com 

 munity. That is a lesson that blatant unionisn 

 is slow to learn, that desirable and necessary changi - 

 arc only to be brought about by comparatively slow 

 nu-th(xis of education and legislation, slow not li\ 

 choice of those Liehind the scenes, but because of tli 

 n.iture of the work. And the Brisbane insune<:tioi 

 i-ts, in the first moments of hilarity at having para 

 Used a city and stopped its supplies, received a 

 >tinging blow that made its head buzz, because it 

 tried to do what education aloite can accomplish, 

 it was a .self-inflicted blow. Unionism banged itsell 

 uij against the foundations the peo])le had built tn 

 preserve not only their national identity, but indee.l 

 their very lives. And the foundations' were hard'r 

 than the fooli.sh heads that butted into them. 



—Prone in 

 the Dust. 



When the revolutionaries recovert 

 from the shock, they found theii 

 disrumfiture complete. Society had 

 l)een injured, and rose to protect 

 itself. Fortunately, Society had at the head of af 

 fairs men who resjiected her. Its Premier, Mr. Den- 

 man, was not the man to l)e over-ridden. He did 

 the right thing in committing the care of the city 

 to the Commissioner of Police. That gentleman, 

 Major C.ihiil. is a man of action and re.sourcc. 

 It *>ecamo at once evident that more than mora! 

 suasion was needed in dealing witii tlTT" strikers. So, 

 as the Commonwealth is bound In tlie Constitution 

 to supply military assistance to the St.ites in the 

 event of int.rnal troubles making armed interven- 

 tion necessary, apf.lication was made to it for help. 

 It was bluntly n-fused. Refeience to that will come 

 later. So the Police Commissioner called for special 

 const.ibles. The response that he got makes one's 

 blood leaj). Hundr.-ds of men rose to the occasion, 

 and even the bushmf-n -warmed in, and added their 

 picturesque effectiveness to it. The effect was magi- 

 cal. With this force at his disposal, the Commls- 

 sioner rov.ed the insurrectionarv crowds, and struck 

 fear to the hearts of tiie revolutionists. They rea- 

 lised what they had .-ome up against. The forces 

 that make for law and order h.id asserted theni- 

 .celves. 



fn the meantime the city began to 



recover from its surprise.' It began 



to find out manv things, that it was 



hungry, that the strikers had bwn 



kept within hounrls, that life and property were 



beins made .safe by the authoriiies. that ilic tram 



servic- was N-ing m.tintaioed efli-ientU if ,,01 fnllv 



The City 

 Recovering!. 



[The ISulUt.n. 

 A OKNEBAL STKIKB: THE CRY OP THE CHILDREN. 

 " What are tliey HglithiB- alxHit?" 



;■ I don't know. But tlieyve atoppeil our food and baby's 

 milk. And we never did them any harm." 



and that they might venture to do a little trading. 

 Life began to renew its normal activities. Th 

 threats of the strikers to traders was fouml to be (.1 

 little effect. Independent labour began to come in 

 at first slowly, then faster and faster. More trams 

 ran as the days passed. Shops began to fill up 



with hands. And each day saw the strikers dis 

 credited. Some of the members of the New South 

 Wales Government passed scathing strictuivs on the 

 strike leaders. One of the largest Svdnev unions 

 condemned it in very he.Trty terms. The hope that 

 was expressed in the beginning that there would lie 

 a general uprising died away. And at the time of 

 writing, the strikers' places are being filled up, and 

 the outlook is dark for them. 



The 



Rc.Tson ? 



.And what was it all about? Was 

 it something so important that a 

 city's .supplies had to be inter- 

 cepted? Had the ordinary house- 

 holder done something that twrited this sharp pun- 

 ishnii-nt? Were the tramw.iy men ground imiU-v lli. 

 heel of the sweater, with wages so poor that their 

 wives starved and their daughters sought the wages 

 of sjn? Were the hours of work so long that the 

 in-n's strength failed (hem, leaving them in a con- 

 litinn that ei'.langered the lives placed daily in 



