INDUSTRIAL TRUCE

Grey River Argus, 18 June 1925, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL TRUCE

BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS UTOPIA CAN LIONS AND LAMBS CO-OPERATE? So many people have jumped on poor Mr Baldwin for his recent appeal for an industrial truce, that it seems a shame to add to their ’.lumber. He is such an “honest’’ man—so obviously well meaning, so kindly His democratic tastes are illustrated by his addie. lion to the plebian pipe In many of his speeches, how beautifully lias he voiced his love of the English countryside; it’s farms; its its winding lanes and quiet villages. He loves the memories of the old days, when man and master were personal friends and the “sack’’ almost tin. known. A man of simple tastes, with nothing of the “high brow’’ about him If we were writing his life for a Sunday dope sheet, we should describe him as a plain home.loving Englishman, a lover of peace and tranquility As w ( » are writing for a Socialist paper, we have to take a wider view We have to recognise that he is a big capitalist, in a big essential industry. We must note that he is elected head of a maglignity Capitalist Party. Wc must observe that lie is speaking for the class which pays him, and <f which he ,is a representative member. This is not set down in any j>ersonal or malicious spirit, but as a plain statement of self-evident fact. The speech, in itself, was in no way remarkable. That it has occasioned such wide-spread,' controversy is an eloquent comment on the poverty of contemporary politics. One searches in vain for a definite tangible, censtructive proposal upon which ■one can fasten and say, “Here is a gleam of hope for the workers’’ It is thickly besprinkled with woolly phrases, such as “Suspicion must be removed; al’, must join hands to pull the ■country into a happier position! all concerned i»n industry should try and get to the root of this kind o f thing! till should take e'dinscl together and see where and how improvement can be made in this country, to achieve the desired result. A common desire to get Io the facts, and a common 'lesire to help things!” And so on, just strings of winding bubbles, float, iug on n mass of verbiage. One bubble' was not so gaseous as its fellows, but Air. Baldwin did not know. ft was the text of his discourse. ‘‘l want to plead for a truce.” This, beyond a doubt, is a direct admission of the

existence of a state of industrial war. Socialists have been engaged in pointing this out for upwards of a century. We call it the class struggle. In spite of Mr Baldwwi’.s candid admission, you will find its existence denied regularly about once a week For what is a trulce? An agreed temporary peace between belligerents! And who are the belligerents? Mr. Baldwin defined them in his opening sentences: “Wc should have said Capital and Labour, or the Workers versus the Parasites the Rich v the Poor, or something equally trite and explicit. Mr. Baldwin phrased it differently. He said this country would be confronted more a»nd more with great combines and great aggregations of labour, and now, he said, when there seemed a faint hope of a removal we are confronted with a gathering storm which, it it. burst, would blot out all prosperity. So there is “Some prosperity’’ knocking about somewhere. Are "we very far wrong in assuming that the '•'l niggle that the truce is concepiic'l with is this j'rosperity and its position on the wrong side of the line? We know it is not on the workers’ side. Mr. Baldwin must therefore be speaking for the other side, the masters. Behind the homely figure of Air Baldwin, we discern the sinister figures of his employers. Ruthless, callous, malignant and vindictive the phalanx of capitalism is packed at its back, and, having battered the workers to the edge ot endurance, their spokesman sug gests a truce. One feels tempted to reply:—Mr. Baldwin a»nd friends, — We are deeply touched by your moving appeal fur a truce in our embittered relations. Naturally a peace-loving, easy-going crowd. w e arc not entirely unsympathetic But there are certain facts which seem to have escaped your notice. We would remind you that in •(”.1 short years you have succeeded in burying a million of us beneath Flan, dors soil, and in maiming a further mil. lion or two preparatory to returning us to civil lif e That civil life contains (dements we do »not consider altogether satisfactory. A million and a quarter of us seem condemned to perpetual unemploy ent You endeavour to keep ns from becoming trouble. some by :> niggardly inadequate sum to which you attach the industry t(*im “the dole.’’ Those .of us fortunate enough to fin,] masters had our wages battered down to a point inconsistent with a full existence. Your promise of a land fit for heroes was ■' mockery; of better education for our Mildren, a bitter jest. You cannot even house us. Your pleas of poverty and lack of funds are falsified by the millions found for rebuilding banks and stores and offices, and what not, by the millions foirnd annually for battle, ships and armies, by the constant ovei\ subscription of gilt-edged loans. And are sick of it. Wc are tired of plav_ ing Lazarus at the feast, we have prV vided. We are”— But we said on., feels tempted to reply i„ thos e terms. One quickly realises that he and his masters would be as ,'eeply impressed l>y our oratorical flourishes as we are by theirs. Prosperity for the rich and poverty for the poor are inseparable. he one is the consequence of the To talk of a truce in such circumstances )S to imply that we enjoy beniff robbed. There can be no true'o between those who live by robbery and tl'ir victims. Only concession one can make is to reeo ß uise that th e division of society into two warring classes doei ""f proceed from human wickedness or Perversity. But it has proceeded from tbiceable historic causes, and, having 'f's.-oier,.,! its laws of growth, v. e can 111 " guide the progress of society into a mor,. harmonious form, wherein •l.isses shall cease to exist, ami class "J 11 - C ',' 0 This is Um missis -<l everv work " l; 'ke pari in inaugurating the new human society * I