At home during the year we had had a succession of troubles between labour and capital, which in some cases had led to resort to the barbarous methods of industrial warfare. He said "barbarous" advisedly, for war was a wasteful and cruel form of arbitrament in the economic not less than in the international sphere. He said nothing as to the rights or wrongs of the disputes except that he believed that none were incapable of reasonable adjustment.
The Government had not escaped criticism. He affirmed, however, that the attitude of the State should be an impartial attitude, should be a neutral attitude, but could not, especially when the interests of others besides the combatants were involved, be an attitude of indifference.
The Government had two clear duties. It must exhaust all opportunities to provide machinery for conciliation, it must maintain order, it must prevent_or punish violence and it must secure the public against the stoppage of supplies and the suspension of indispensable services.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.