The Rev 



EVIEWS 



Tf MHEHj\?<aB ASD GliJSJiRAT^ I.1BH ASSURANCE BUILDING, SWA2VSTOiV 



STREET, MELBOURNE, 



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THE HISTORY OF THE MONTH, 



Two 

 Convulsions. 



Melbourne, FcWru.uy 22, 1912. 

 Australia has been stirred to its 

 depths (luring the month by two re- 

 markable happenings — remarkable 

 for the revelations they give of the 

 trend of public thought on the question of industrial- 

 ism, and of the real position of the unionist party. 

 They are the Queensland strike and the South Aus- 

 tralian elections. The Strike came almost like a 

 liolt from the clear sky. It was hurled upon us so 

 hurriedlv. Now that two or three weeks have 

 <'lap.sed, the fact of precipitation becomes more and 

 more evident. The strike was the result of hot- 

 headedness and want of thought. The leaders are 

 featherweights, and lack all the elements of suc- 

 cesivful advice. It is a standing marvel that 

 workers are so often willing to follow without ques- 

 tion men who possess no qualities for leadersjiip. 



Mo.st of the strikes of Australia 

 have failed precisely Ivecause the 

 unions neglected to take stock of 

 their own powers and those of their 

 And Queensland unionism, imagining 

 that all the world was wrong because it was denied 

 one small thing, saw red before its eyes, lost its head, 

 and ran amok. It forgot that the world is not to 

 be won in that way, and that it threw aside the 

 only potent forces that can produce national up- 

 heavals tow-ards the best nationhood. And it has 

 found, loo, that its unw-orthy weapons are turned 

 upon itself. Had it counted the cost, the strike 

 never would have happened. One calls to mind the 

 w.irning in Luke xi\'. 28. which mav lie df<'med as 

 qipliraiile in general principle: 



For which of you, intentlinp; to luiilil 11 tower, 

 sittfth not (h)\vii first and couiitcth the cost, whether 

 1x1 have sufficient to fini.sh it? Lest h.iply, after he 

 hatli laid the f(inn<l.Tt ion, and i.s not aljle to iinisli it, 

 all that heholtl it l)ei;in to mock him. .sayinij;, 'I'his 

 man lie(j;an to hnikl, and was not nlile to finish. 



Or what kin^;. t;oinj; to make war ai;ainst another 

 kin<;, .sittetli not down iir.st, and consultetli whether 

 he be ahje with ten tlionsand to meet him that comelh 

 against tiim with twenty thousand. 



But to sit down and consider and count the cost was 

 the last thing the strikers did, and now the mock- 

 ing time has come. 



Counting 

 the Cost. 



opponents. 



Brisbane and some other centres 



The Sudden woke up one bright m'orning to find 



btorni. itself in a condition bordering on 



those of siege. One liranch of wia'k- 

 men had struck, and forty-three other branches of 

 trade had struck too, to show how they sympathised 

 with the downtrodden and persecuted one — forty- 

 three unions, that had no quarrel with their em- 

 ployers, who w-ere sati.sfied with their wages, and \r> 

 wh'jm the world was a L'ood place. Brisbane's 

 people had no idea they were sitting on the edge of 

 a volcano. They might have imagined that in this 

 land of prasperitv, folk with nc> real grievance were 

 sure to be contented and sane. But they reckoned 

 without taking " blatant unionism " into account. 

 For with that factor in the jiroblem, one gets most 

 astonishing results, and lawlessness and temporary 

 insanity brings most unexpected things to pass. And 

 .so on that eventful day Brisbane found the tram 

 systeni held up, sho))s were closed, the wharves were 

 idle, food supplies were stopped, firms were pre- 

 \ented from making and selling bread, and chaos 

 ruled. The unionists assumed the role of dictators. 

 They said that no trading should take place but 

 what they permitted. They issued permits to cer- 

 tain places to carry on business, and dictated the 

 terms on which others could resume. From hence- 

 forth emjiloyment must be in the hands of unionists. 

 " You may open your shop," they said in definite 

 terms to some business establishments; " you may 

 open your shop if you send your old hands to us 

 to join the union. If they won't join we will supply 

 you with men of the right colour. If you w-on't 

 agree to this, you may pha.se vourself, but you 

 sha'n't trade." 



.\nd so they ruled the city. They 

 were going to compel Brisbane to 

 do what thcv wanted, and by un- 

 guided anl unregulated force. They 

 would smash the windows of any place where the 

 Irador wanted to sujiply the needs of any of the 

 |iopulaco. They became a revolutionary mob that 

 r.iiscd its standards of what it wanted, and tried to 

 st'cuie it by brute force and mob violence. Do men 

 who take up this position realise the extent and 

 strength nf th<> foundations which make their ordin- 



Iftmos 

 Rex.— 



