The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1910. DIRECT ACTION ?

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 220, 16 September 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1910. DIRECT ACTION ?

For the oavae that lacks attittonen, For the torong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

The British Trades Union Congress lias not cleared the air to any great extent. It has neither condemned direct action nor specifically approved of it; it lias only leaned towards it, implying that under certain circumstances tho weapon may be used. Tho votes of the Congress on the subject present one of those curious pictures of compromise and inconsistency which are common in British political development; and thoso who are disappointed that the Congress did not declare emphatically against direct action should reflect that Labour, its well as other forces in Britain, is passing through a difficult period of reconstruction, and that the uppermost thought in the minds of delegates to the Congress would be to preserve the unity of the party for the coming struggle. Two sections of the party arc in conflict, the direct actionists and the constitutionalists, and tho Congress succeeded in voting on their policies without binding itself to cither. On the one hand it pledged its Parliamentary Committee, which has been against direct action, td convene a special congress to consider direct action if the Government refused to do the miners' bidding, and it resorted to the previous question rather than condemn the principle of direct action; on the other it elected a Parliamentary Committee a majority of which is in favour of constitutional action. Delegates seem to have said to themselves: "We will not commit ourselves at this stage. We will wait and see what happens, keeping tho weapon of direct action in reserve, and taking care to let the Government see that it is J there."

So the trial of strength between the miners and the Government on the nationalisation i 3 su& is postponed, though perhaps not for long. In the meantime the output of coal is going up. and the labour outlook generally I seems to be brighter than it has been ■since the beginning of the year. Leaders! like Mr. Thomas and Mr. Henderson are I opposing direct action with all their strength, not only because they object! ito it on principle, but because they see' j how seriously it would affect both Labour's chances at a general electionj I and 'Labour's prospect of governing I wisely and peacefully ii the people placed the party in power. It looks as |if the leaders wish to stave off the 1 application of direct action until an election is held, which they hope will put Labour in a position to dominate the House of Commons, if not to sit on the Treasury Benches. At anyrate they see the danger of Labour 'being fatally compromised, whenever a general election arrives, by a liaison with direct action. The Labour party ts not confining its' appeal to the manual worker. It widened its qualification during the war to include brain workers, and it now seeks the support of the middle class. Men like Mt. Thomas and Mr. Henderson, Who have mixed so much with the world, realise better than the rank and file how fatal to this hope of Winntng- over any considerable section of the middle class would be the adoption of direct action for political purposes by any of the great unions.. Even the approximate date of tho next general election caiinot be predicted, but our readers will notice that the Opinion seems to be growing at Home that it is not far off. The state of the parties on paper gives no reason to think so; the Coalition is deeply entrenched in numbers, and if only numbers counted, it might view with unconcern tho prospect of years oi adverse by-elections. Out the alliance is unstable, and every by-election that goes against the Government Weakens its authority. The whole political situation is affected by the circumstances under which the last general election was held. What we predicted at the time has come or is coming true, that a House of Commons elected then on war issues could not be a satisfactory Assembly for ordinary purposes. Much of the industrial unrest in Britain is attributable to the workers' realisation of this; they feel that a [Parliament so elected does not properly represent political opinion, and they can point to the .by-elections as proof of their contention. The translation of this resentment into unconstitutional action is quite unjustifiable, but there is the feeling, and it has to be reckoned with. Labour leaders want an early election, not only so that their party may improve its position, bub that the system of Parliamentary Government may be strengthened. They base their appeal for political as opposed to direct action on the representat've nature of Parliament, so they are eager to make Parliament what they consider more representative wf the nation,