THE ERA OF EXTRAVAGANCE 285 



week the conference realised the fatuity of the step they had taken, 

 and on the 1st of October telegrams were speeding all over the country 

 ordering the shearers back to work. After this it was a case of 

 sauve qui peut. The Melbourne stevedores resumed labour on the 

 llth of October, and kindred associations followed suit in rapid suc- 

 cession. The men were not always able to secure equally good 

 terms to those prevailing before the strike. In some trades the 

 competition of the unemployed brought down wages, while many 

 employers, before risking their capital by beginning operations afresh, 

 enforced legal agreements, and made conditions for their own safety, 

 which the workers in some cases declared to be very hard. Cargoes 

 of coal were being delivered in Sydney from Japan, others were 

 known to be on the way out from England. The Newcastle miners 

 having by their loyalty to the Intercolonial Labour Conference 

 brought disaster upon the trade of their port, which it took ten 

 years to recover, held counsel together, and with bitter denunciations 

 of the agitators who had led them astray resumed their work before 

 the end of the month. 



Both in Queensland and New South Wales, where funds were 

 exhausted and an army of unemployed were recruiting the ranks of 

 free labour, there were many urgent appeals to declare the strike 

 ''off". But the Committee of Finance and Control in Melbourne 

 had still a little money left, and they were hopeful that Sir Bryan 

 O'Loghlen's attempt to induce Parliamentary intervention might 

 yet succeed. So, to save their face as the Chinese express it they 

 turned a deaf ear to the suggestions from the other Colonies and 

 waited events. Then suddenly came the cruelest shock of all, in 

 an intimation from the marine officers that they had made their 

 peace with the shipowners and had agreed to withdraw their affilia- 

 tion with the Trades Hall Council. It was recognised as final, for 

 nothing remained worth pretending to fight for. The entire organ- 

 isations of associated labour throughout Australia had plunged the 

 country in turmoil, had precipitated serious business disasters, and 

 had individually suffered loss and privation to keep a body of men in 

 their association, only to receive in the end a polite intimation that 

 the body in question had withdrawn from that privilege rather than 

 " remain any longer the only stumbling-block in the way of a peace- 



