A PLAIN WARNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 4

A PLAIN WARNING.

I The leader of the railwaymen in j Britain is neither a profound thinker nor a fanatic. He has a largo endowment of saving common sens°e which leads him to take what he can get rather than light destructively : for more, and to try to guide the rank I and file of labour into the ways of Indus-' , trial peace. He has said and done some ' , foolish things, but on the whole his in-! j fluenee has been powerfully exerted for j compromise, sanity, and co-operation I rather than the ruthless kind of class j i war preached by some men in the' 'Labour party. His attitude is not! ; entirely disinterested—politically. He : i looks forward to the time when the j Labour party will be in power, aud he sees clearly, what some others cannot or j will not see, that it would be the duty of j | a Labour Government to protect the com-' ; munity against an industrial upheaval, I and that in proportion as Labour uses| direct action now it may find it more! difficult to exercise that protection in the days of less freedom and more responsibility. Some such consideration as this was probably in his mind when he gave the advice to railwaymen about strikes reported in our cables to-day, but we should say his predominant thought was the economic waste and futility of the] strike weapon. It is amazing that so soon after the disastrous coal strike men should be talking about another trial of | : strength with the employers and the ' Government. Britain has been terribly ', impoverished by the recent battle, and it , is no exaggeration to say that one or i two more such struggles in the near ' future might literally ruin her. Mr. ' Thomas is wise enough and patriotic'; enough to see this. '-It was mistakenly} i explained that industrial strife was tho first step to realisation of an industrial i'• commonwealth, but those countenancing! ' this would find no inheritance worth inheriting." This is well said, and goes l to the root of the wicked folly of de- •■ structive direct action, the idea of smash- ' ing things blindly and then re-moulding ] them "nearer to the heart's desire," as'] if there would be any certainty that the ! s breakers could re-mould or that there M would be anything left that would be " worth re-fashioning. Is the state of j , Russia to-day an attractive invitation ■ t to the worker to take hammer iv hand? j ' Perhaps that remarkable novel that we * reviewed last week, "The People of the ! Ruins," has fallen into the hands oflr more than one English Labour c leader. It depicts an England literally ' in ruins as the result of internal ] T strife, an England that has lost cohesion.! and is losing all the arts of civilisation, i t a place that answers to the description j c of Matthew Arnold—"a darkling plain, 8 where ignorant armies clash by night." It is a terrible picture—made all the I ' more terrible by the restraint of the! author's art. What will it benefit the \ $ worker if he destroy the cajiitalist and r destroy civilisation in the process? r