A PARLIAMENT OF LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1919, Page 12

A PARLIAMENT OF LABOUR

GLASGOW CONFERENCE

MOMENTOUS ISSUES

NO REVOLUTIONARY TEN

DENCIES,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 17th September

When I entered St. Andrew's Hall in Glasgow, lo follow the deliberations of the British Trades Union Congress, at which each year the representatives of the whole of the trades unionist- in the Kingdom give then- mandate for the ensuing year to their Parliamentary re: presentatives, I felt that this was certainly the most momentous gathering of these critical months. For this country at least, and for its future, what happened at Glasgow during that week, and tho temper exhibited by the Labour delegates in their discussions, must havo an almost supreme bearing.

It is easy to form preconceptions from, long years of study of a movement unless one has the repeated corrective of meeting tho men themselves, and although I bad met many of these men— probably more than most of the British journalists, by whom their doings have been represented in the press of the Old Country—l had a sensation of immediate surprise and agreeable disappointment at the atmospljere of the debates and the disposition of the delegates themselves. To begin with, the delegates numbered nearly nine hundred, of whom a dozen or two were ladies. Consequently the whole vast space of the floor was occupied by tables, set in ordered rowsj -and crowded closely together! THE TYPE OF DELEGATE/ The delegates themselves were a sober, respectable, pleasant -mannered class of men. They were all well dressed, with their hair neatly brushed, and generally neatly cut... I- did not see. a single red tie amongst Ahem—contrary to pre-con-ception. . On tho other.hand,- the only white cuffs and stiff shirt I noticed were worn by Mr. J. R. Clynes, one of. the leading intelligentsia of the Labour movement, and himself an ex-member of a War Cabinet and a member of the Privy council. Mr. Smillie is a kindly, elderly man, with longish hair getting thin and a loose moustache, not altogether unlike Mr. Hall Gains. He is obviously very sincere, but perhaps he does not quite realise the great events Labour- is about to step. upon. Perhaps, too, he has-been rather carried.off ins feet by the licentious experience he has just passed -through;...-of ..standing: unbridled', in- and upon a.. Royal. Commission with full power of keelhauling' dukes.;and/ coalowners, and wdth.-an., ap^ plauding audience iii.every coalmine of the kingdom.-, —• >:.''■■-.'.-:; :T

It was the.:usual thing for; speakers to stand ; upon their . chairs, in ..order;.-to make their: voices heard. -:One or two of them took their places in the front row of the gallery, which was. crowded every day and all days by the studious and philosophical people of Glasgow,.to speak from this point of vantage, but to them were addressed frequent admonitions and complaints' from delegates, who felt that it was a breach of the privileges of the "house"'- that 'speeches should be delivered except from the floor itself. . For the rest, there were few or, no interruptions; the prqceedinirs were conducted /.with'. the , greatest-, decorum and" an : , evident'" sense of responsibility■ In common with some American,;. correspondents, I -came away with a feeling that;.l.,.liad..-fpr- ; the ; first time in my.lifo seen a "Parliament—or shall we> say a Hou.se._of Commons_-_\_hich .was--really devoting its-.serious-rattention and its earnest conssideratipn to its"'biisine'ssj-.a-nd eschewing' eviry" invitation; to' flippancy and heckling" for their- own .sake.

Smoking was permitted but very little indulged in, • Members-sprang to their feet at the end of -every speech in the hope of catching the' "Speaker's" eye, just as they do in Parliament. Perhaps, the most curious- impression is that caused by hearing delegates refer to each other in their speeches by their surnames only,'as "Shaw," "Williams," "Thomas," and. so on. THE,'HEAVY UNIONS. How the miners come to be such a power in the Trades Union Congress is evident from the statistical statement, though why is not- so clear. Out of 848 delegates," representing. "5,265,426 'members, the minors' unions send. 172, to represent their 683,900 members, which is a good deal 'out •■of;; 'proportion.; r-.Tlie railwaymen haye1 22 delegates for 545,531 members, and the.metal workers 101 for 390,906 members. ' Thus, when matters are' brought to what is called the card vote, uncfer which each union records its .due. number of votes, the Triple Alliance, of which so much has been written, is generally able to carry the day. DIRECT ACTION. The chief interest of the' Congress, in view of the discussions of the preceding weeks, centred in the debate on' what is vaguely called direct action.. There is no .need, to follow the tortuous tactics by which, in the long run, we were rob-bed-of-the-satisfaction of a direct vote on the-"principle. . This was brought about by a miners' representative moving the previous question, which was carried by ' a majority largely composed, of, miners'! votes. . As.Mr. Smillie was the.leading' advocate of direct action, ' and several other miners' delegates supported the proposal, the assumption 'is that the miners generally favour it but were unwilling to show their colours before the public. EDUCATING THE PEOPLE. The question came up again in the form of a resolution condemning direct action for purely political ends, but approving of it, for economic ends. This was an interesting debate, inasmuch, as it bronght out a loading mine-s-' delegate, Mr. T. Shaw, in strong opposition to what he described as tho efforts of Mr. Smillie and Mr. Williams to bring about a revolution. He echoed the regrets that had been voiced more than once, that the Labour Party, who had five and a half million members,, and therefore controlled fully eleven million votes, had not voted solid at tho Genoral Ejection. As a matter of fact Labour polled only two and a. half million votes for Labour candidates, showing either that it was not true to itself, or that it was. not fully educated up to itown strength. The remedy, said Mr. Shaw, was not to resort to direct action to achieve by violence what they had failed to achieve by their votes at the election, but 'to find means of educating the people so that the majority would soon be of their own way of thinking. He appealed to the congress to take to heart the teachings of men like Bon Til-let.-—at the moment Tillett was passing out of the room, and be stopped beside mo to • bear what was being said. I thought it such a queer thing to ho a EX>octa,tor at a Parliament which listened to what men wore daying, and did not interrupt with flippancies or. banalities. Next Mr. .1. Hayday, M;P., strongly urged them to put their -weight' into snob mattte as the care of child life, and of. .the blind.-and not bo'drawn off by political objects pure and simple. Moreover, tho question of dived, action had never be.ii submitted to the mens-bi'i-s, and therefore the congress -was'not

eompetynt Lo make an authoritative declaration upon it.

MUST BE CONSISTENT

It was at this stage that Mr. Thomas intervened, speaking from the platform, and 1 was at once struck by the sort of man he is. He is a rugged Welshman, slow and deliberate of speech, with all the Welsh fervour, and, 1 much fear, all tho Welsh fanaticism. Ho is treated with great respect in this country, a respect which must have more foundation than the mere fact that he is a member of the Privy -Council. He is very rauch in earnest and very sincere. He is handicapped by few of the usual limitations of the class from which he sprang, and his remarks are carefully thought out and well marshalled. The whole tenor of his speech was of caution. What did tho resolution mean? he asked. Who could say what were political and what economic questions? There were two sides to their movement, the industrial and the political, and neither of thorn had been fully tried, because they wore always deserted by people inside the movement. By their numbers and their voles they could easily make Parliament as representative of labour as that congress was. But the two sides of tho movement could hot be run. together. They were absolutely irreconcilable. They could not demand a standard of honour from other people which they were not prepared to concede themselves. (Hear, hear.) It was one of their principles that they regarded as rebels the landlords who-"in 1910 proposed to reject the voice of the House of Commons. They must be consistent. Who amongst them could question the feeling of Labour towards Ireland, with her long, painful history? (Tumultuous applause.) That does not sound like the speech pf a fanatic. !. It was entirely a counsel of caution. Yet, it did not say definitely that direct action was undesirable. On the contrary, it left the suggestion that where the iioase of Commons had been defied—as in 1910, and in regard to Irelaud—direct action was the logical resort. L'

." Mi-, J. Bromley, of the Locomotive En-, gineers and Firemen, deprecated the idea that anyone would rush the movement into direct, action, even if it were approved." It was their'obvious duty to speed-up the education of the rank and file of the' Labour Party, to send to Pair liament clean, honest men, of whom tho country would know that they had fivo million angry men and women behind them if any further attempt- were' made to prevent their voice being effective. .

It was at this stage, with Mr. Clynes already on bis feet, that the closure was moved and carried. It was a little disappointing to see the thing burked like this by a device purely Parliamentary in its character. In the afternoon the roll was called again, and, the fraternal dele-, gates from the United States, Canada, and India were welcomed. A feature of tiiis was the remarkable ovation given to .Mr.. Wadai, the Indian .delegate,.., who spoke of the formation-of "trade's unions and-councils-in his country, and of the, community of interest between the cotton workers of Lancashire and those pf India. AN APPEAL FOR LOYALTY. Mr. Arthur Henderson, who was expecting to hear on the following morning of the result of the Widnes election — in which he defeated Mr. F. M.„ B. Fisher—made an appeal to the Congress for continued loyalty now more than ever. No greater calamity could come to the Labour Party at the moment, when everything was so promising, and the people | outside the movement believed even more than, those inside that they would triumph at their next appeal to the country, than that they should: withdraw their confidence front the weapon they had just forged. He specially asked them to cultivate the international side, a,nd. he., .was,convinced, he.said, that the Government had not the" rifition behind/at as regards Russia and Ireland. ■": MR. CLYNE'S WARNING.- . Mr. Clynes got his chance the next' day to make his well-prepared speech on the subject of direct action. ,It was- in every way worthy of his established place in the Labour movement. He agreed that mines, mills, waterways, land, and other great factors of national life, should be nationally owned and democratically worked. The real question was how it should be done, and he was satisfied that violence^ was no good. If they brought out their million of workers to compel the Government to -do this or that/in the way of nationalisation, what would be the result? It would simply be civil war. Direct action was blessed with a very attractive nnme, and with nothing else. It was far easier to get their men,-out than.to, get them.back, and did they expect' that the Govei-nment would be doing, nothing all the time? .Such a stoppage would require action on-' the part of the Government to keep things going and to get food and other necessities,.© millions of people who were suffering for no fault of their own. It would begin with the breaking of workmen's heads and women's hearts, but it would not end there. They had been fighting as long as they could remember for Labour to capture the political machine. That part of the battle was now won, and yet. as soon as the working man had got the means to capture the •machine, they were' going to tell him that there wa-s'no hope that way Surely, by doing so, they Were- confusing the minds of the workers, and alienating the sympathy of millions of well-meaning men arid .women of 'other: classes, without whose help-;they!'couid liol hope -to capture the niachm^,.' \- They ' could call him a fogey, '/if .-'they ■-. wished, but he was convinced that all real progress was slow, and people must, think a good deal of themselves if they believed that they were ordained completely to turn the world round and change the order of things, so that after'them there would be nothing more to do. It was only within the last ■ hal .century that . the working class had "got the power of the vote, which was the'" hall-mark of real liberty, the stamp of the freeman which ma/dc the poor equal to the rich. "I am well content," he added, "looking along the centuries, to sco that my class in the day in which I happen to live have acquired this enormous power, a I am content if I can do a little to teach them how wisely to use that power. Looking ahead, I can see Labour in the seats of power, and I want Labour's laws to be respected and observed, just, as I ask Labour to.respect and observe them now. We are just on the threshold.of the wise use of the enormous power we have acquired, and while you are asked to use your pressure to get your Government to conform to your wishes on conscription and Russia. I beg you not to go further and challenge the esistence of the State and claim the right to a class dictatorship." REASSURING RECEFITON. The reception which . was given to Mr. Clynes was the most reassuring part of the debate. ■So far as one could judge there was no following for tho advocates of direct action. The congress did, however, echo very, warmly the hopeful warnings of Mr. Thomas, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Cty-nes, so that, in spite of the divisions —none of which was on the direct. principle—one came away with the feoiing that for the present -at any rate English Labour was not' disposed to challenge tho. State itself ;'■ Not all the delegates could overcomo their disappointment at' the apparent failure of Labour at the general election, but almost .all.appeared to iw tha force of -tha "..6vice that nothing should bo dona by Labour to-day which i would derogate from its own right of

compelling obedience .to its legislation when it got into office. PERSONALITIES. Most of the delegates are good natured, pleasant, easy-spoken men of a distinct type. As a class they are distinctly 'generous and open hearted. For the most part the delegates _ recognise that they require administrative experience, which can only come to them with ofiice. It is very encouraging to see how evidently they appreciate and respect those of their number who have already had Parliamentary experience, and particularly those who had held ofiice in war Ministries. The man who most impressed me, not for his ability, but for his possibilities, was Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P. He is evidently a man of very great natural ability and possessing qualities of leadership. It is quite my own feeling that I should not like to see him a leader. He is of that dour, serious, semi-religious type which repels one, not because there is anything innately bad in it, but rather because it is incapable of the saving grace.of humour. One feels that he takes himself too seriously, and he has the eloquence and earnestness to carry other people with him. At the opposite. extreme is tho kindly, human, intellectual . dynes.° And between the two is Mr- Arthur Henderson. It is true that the delegates at- the Congress were not armed with mandates on many of th« more up-to-date questions. Apart from that they showed no symptom of revolutionary tendencies at all. There was an ovident feeling in favour of the schemes of nationalisation of mines and railways which have been propounded, but no evidence at all that this will be expressed in the form of direct action.