For the second time within the last two months an
organised Government has used its legislative power to restrict, or rather to suppress, a Labour movement. The strike of the railway- men in Victoria has so irritated the community that although their cause is declared to be that of "freedom of labour," the Premier of the Colony, Mr. Irvine, has ventured to call a Session ad hoc, and propose a Bill which makes the strike a punishable offence, and penalises all printed encouragement to the strikers. Any man, who strikes without giving fourteen days' notice is made liable to a fine of £100 or a year's im- prisonment, and is disqualified for ever from entering the service of the State. Strike meetings are made unlawful, strike literature may be seized and destroyed, and its printers are declared liable to punishment. The Bill, which will cease to operate when the strike ends, is not yet passed, but in a test division its provisions were accepted by 58 votes to 30. The strikers, therefore, show signs of an inclination to return to work, the engines are running again, being in part driven by engine-fitters, and the strike will in a few days collapse. It is the old story. The workmen, even in Australia, which is "the Paradise of Labour," cannot dictate to the entire com- munity, which is when irritated the sternest, as it is the strongest, of all employers.
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