THE FOLLY OF SYNDICALISM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 6

THE FOLLY OF SYNDICALISM.

One after another— and occasionally two or three at a time — the Labour leaders of Australia have warned the workers against the suicidal policy of syndicalism. The most recent of these advisers is Mr. Pearce, Federal Defence Minister. His words, reported yesterday, referred to "a femall section of trades unionists striving after syndicalism, v, fooliah, hysterical idea." He

appealed to the workers not to let this small section attain influence. The Australian Labour Parties have indeed had a bitter experience of the syndicalism which the Brisbane "Strike Committee" tried to promote. Tho first notable penalty was a cot-back to the Labour Party in the South Australian elections, and others may follow. An attack was made on the Brisbane public by the aiders and abettors of a tramway union, aaid tho South Australian public took vengeance on the Labour Party of that State, although this party had not condoned syndicalism, so far as wo are aware. At the time our opinion was that the innocent would suffer for the conduct of the guilty, and that tho outbreak of syndicalism would hinder tho progress of tho ordinary Labour movement. The craze for the method of force is having a vogue all round tho world, and the destructive tactics, by injuring trade and commerce, must injure all classes of the community, including Labour, whose welfare depends on the whole country's etate of financial and industrial health. Britain is having a very sad experience of that fact, because the dislocation of industry involved by the general coal strike has necessarily narrowed the avenues of employment for a tim«. After such suffering the strikers may be disposed to listen rather to a rational Lloyd George, the real friend of the worker, than to a turbulent Tom Mann. Many commentatoro on the "Labour unrest" have referred to certain unionists' impatience with s,ny plan of caution, as advised by the older leaders. The man who can get reddest in the face from the loudest talk is the one to move some of the unions in thoir present revolutionary mood. Mr. J. H. Harley refers interestingly to this fact in an article on "Syndicalism and the Labour Unrest" in the March issue of the Contemporary Review. "Oure is the age of the Fourth Estate," he remarks. "Labour is in the limelight. Trampß and stonemasons write arresting autobiographies. Railway men, cotton weavers, and miners, successively combine to make society tremble. The men in great industries tear up old agreements and turn their backs on their chosen leaders. Everywhere there is the disposition to trust to brute force rather than gentle argument. f When George Eliot developed the Radicalism of Felix Holt she made him hato above all else on earth disorganised rebellion and barbarous physical repression. Felix aims at getting a few of his Tough miners into a little upper room, and then he will calmly argue them into the right spirit for facing the problems of the future. Far otherwise would act the Radicals of the Industrial Revolution of to-day. They might bo found with 'King Pataud' turning off the electric lighte of Paris. Syndicalism, open or baptised under the name of Industrjal Unionism, is one of the unsettling influences of the world of workers, and the high priest of syndicalism is the French writer and speculator, Georges Sorel." Tho term "Industrial Unionism" has various mean.ings,.of which "syndicalism" is one only when the unionism ie developed on certain lines to gain power for a general strike. For example, the "industrial unionism" of the New Zealand Federation of Labour has euch a close resemblance to syndicalism that no difference can be detected. M. Sorel obviously has some admirers among the leaders of tho Federation.