FACE TO FACE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 10

FACE TO FACE

LABOUR AND CAPITAL

CRISIS IN GREAT BRITAIN

••A MEETING AGAINST UNIONS."

RT. HON. J. JR. CLYNE'S PROTE-ST.

• Latest mail advices from London aro full of the great tuba railways and other simultaneous strikes which took place in February last. It is shown that there ■was great suffering on'the'-part of the poor as a result of these disturbances. ■The ■well-to-do were not so much inconvenienced, but "the workera were compelled to'walk' miles to and from their ■Jomes and their work in absolutely vile •feather at times.- The general secretary g$ the Transport Workers' Federation atthe unrest in part to delusion. <-»The working classes have been promised -», new Jerusalem onearth," he said. "In the attempt to construct anew Jerusalem at the present time there are a few too many architects." The Time 9 was quite specific in its comment. It stated: "The truth is that ■we are passing already through a. social revolution. Psychologically, indeed, it lias been accomplished, not completely, but sufficiently to warrant the word 'revolution;' Most people perceive that a social turnover, which has changed the status of classes and their relation, has occurred, but they are puzzled and confused about it. It is a gigantic business, needing clear vision and calm thinking, for it isl all new. Wo shall not get through it well if people on tho one sidte took at affairs through the old spectacles or-on the other believe that the. day of miracles has come, and that henceforth two and two will make five." ': MUTINY AGAINST UNIONS. Writing in the Daily Chronicle, Rt. Hon. J. R" Clynes, M.P., President of tho National Union of General Workers and Chairman of the National Federation of General Workers, stated: "The men on j the. Clyde, in London, or elsewhere, who are in a state of mutiny against their trade unions in their haste to secure redress for grievances, ma.y resent any advice to change completely their lineof action. I remain unmoved by the risk of being thought to lecture those who are, . I believe, leading great masses of men | to the ultimate- destruction of their hopes and aspirations. 1 .There are few men who fill positions of responsibility in the trade union and Labour affairs of this country who are not now. saddened by the development of this new form 01 Labour warfare. It rests.with some of us to utter what most men are known to feel. "Conduct which in a few Labour disputes of the past was a rare and regrettable symptom is being •moulded into a system and developed" as a policy in Labour effort. The occasional cases of violence in the disputes of the past are to be elevated to the level of an accepted method for securing economic and industrial changes. A protest against this development is not a. defence of. official opinion. It is the necessary safeguard for the permanent well-being of Labour. A' REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES. "Grievances,abound. Men. and women in many big industrial centres are feeling the ill-effects of -unemployment. They are filled with a fea.T as to their future. Wages in several cases have been reduced. Prices are high. Soldiers are back from tho war and mingle as civilians with their unemployed brethren. These and similar. causes for complaint require the immediate and earnest attention of the trade tmions, and of the Government. '.. "Both attention and redWss can be secured by th« right method. Neither can be obtained by such obvious wrong-doing as we have had reported from our centres of strife during the past fewl days. _ I have some personal experience of dealing with trade disputes for a quarter of a century. I know of no Labour baitle which has won benefits for the wage-earn-ing classes when begun and pursued in anything like the spirit of our presentday straggles. We who require (though :we do not always get it) reasonable conduct, and proper, language from foremen and employers, and who would denounce a manager" if he used strong language in conveying his orders,. should avoid the very thing which in others ,wo would hotly resent. . '."."Those who have only in the last year or ; twp, recognised trade unions by joining them, and thereby have made themselves strong, should not now commit against their unions the offence for which formerly they denounced their employers. "When .employers failed to recognise a union they were upbraided for their unreasonable behaviour. Lat the' men now i recognise their union by conforming to the trade union's rules and laws, which they have made. Let them go back to their branch rooms and club houses and find, as they will in their books of rules, the secret of most of the' successes in the struggles of the past. OBEDIENCE, TO AUTHORITY. "Those successes wore found more hi quietly withholding their labour in obedience to the authority and decisions of their'organisations, in a reliance upon their own good example and power of moral appeal to their fellf>w r workuieii. Class warfare is carried too far whtn raw section of the 'working class assails another section, and by organised coercion ; compels it to break contracts with employers and break the rules of its own j union. Workmen are quite entitled to i discontinue their service if dissatisfied ■with its terms. But certain groups of trade unionists are not entitled to drive other groups of trade unionists into re- | volt against their societies and into uxi- j profitable conflict -with their employer?, "Passive resistance, with a good eanse , behind it and peaceful appeal resting I upon real grievances, will go further in j the interests of workmen than such fool- i ish exhibition of physical force as some newly-fledged leaders of ■workmen havo | shaped as their primary instrument to obtain their ends. These ends, even if obtained, would not, I am convinced, J secure enduring benefits for Labour. "Labour is more than an angry procession of units incited to acts of disorder. Labour must think of what the public thinks, and the public thinks that be-haviour--which: in a week can inflict greater loss on workmen than they^ can hope to gain in a year, is bad behaviour. "Labour cannot ignore this public view, for it is the jury to which we have all to appeal. Labour is asking for a ■favourable verdict from tnat jury. Labour is likely to bo sentenced to a long period of impotency and discredit if its reputation is* left in peril by acts of organised disorder. : LABOUR'S PRINCIPLES ; IMPERILLED. "Labour in its political aspect is a body of doctrine rooted •in great principles which, in tho interests of mankind, we vrhh to popularise. Our cause will not curry conviction while we shoulder resiJ:Vn?ibiKty for tho excesses of the past few wee1.::-:. ,■" 'Delay means failure,' is the cry with, which tin! men on the Clyde justified tho. unwiiU-.orisc-'I decision for what they thought '.vac ::• swift and decisive measure. Har.ti» often nifsits failure. To defy the la\i- resans r^iliive. For one section of v.'oi'k.TK1!' )<> j»;:ks war upon another niC.'l!!:' fn.iliil'C. '.'1: should lint now he too late to reo.ign's:; ibe evil vp.-i'Hs of undisciplined acTiMis 'j.V the leaders of the now method.

They would do themselves credit by recognising the facts. They cannot afford to scoff at patience as one of the elements in working class progress. For patience is the first of the qualifications required in effective leadership. "I am thinking loss in terms of censure than in terms of deep concern for the welfare of the workers who are suffering in this fight, and who will suffer .the more as they fight the longer with the wrong weapons. A good cause deserves a better fate, and a bettor fate would arise from a return to the sane paths of responsible trade union action. A return at once would, I am sure, bring us conference instead of conflict, and give Labour the strength and wisdom to advance its claims." ...