THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8294, 24 November 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1906.

The Frenoh politicians who are trying to kill nationalism iu Fiance, and introduce a spirit of socialistic internationnlism, may learn a lesson from the United States. For while America, of all nations, possesses the strongest spirit of nationality, she also cherishes the most] liberal cosmopolitanism. This springs from the fact that America us a nation has an ideal, and this ideal has become part and paroel of an can's mental make-op. Liife and sooiety as formulated in the Declaration of independence and the American Constitution embody the idea of universal brotherhood to an Amerioan citizen. On tbe one hand, his strong spirit of nationality, when imparted to the immigrant, over* comes the idioanycrasioa of the foreigner and absorbs him into the American nation, so, on the other hand, hia recognition of equal rights in own, everywhere and ot all nations, makes him thoroughly cosmopolitan. What makes a nationality? Is it race, language, oreed, climate, oookery, or any other of the important factors whioh give character to a social organism? Few questions are mora commonly debated to-day, and in considering the answer the case of America is too otten left out of sight. Yet no one looking straight at the facts oan deny the existence : • of American nationally, which is in a sense the moat potent of all, for none so readily assimilates alien elements. After a few years—so at least we are told, and with authority the foreigner becomes an Amerioan. In England or, France, even the ohildren of immigrants grow up with a difference of whioh both they and their associates are conscious. One generation does hot suffice to merge them into the type which re-

suits from the gradual evolution of instincts and temperament. America, as a nation, rests flaore than auy other iu the world on an idea—or, '•if on «sentiment, than on the senti* raent of allegiance to an idea. A man becomes an American when the ideas for which Amerioa stands i have become part and parcel of bis mental fabric, and this is easily accomplished by the very nature of those Heas. A coherent theory of life and society expressed itself in the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, and America's assimilating power is largely due to the creed of universal brotherhood, the cosmopolitan principle, which lay behind those elaborate formulations. Nationally roust always imply a community of historic associations, and whoever is brought into contact with Americans finds them conceiving of their commonwealth as a vast society bound together from the first by faith in a common group of ideas. Nowhere else does Intelleotual agreement—the agreement of admiration—count for so much in nationality, nowhere does inherited temperament go for so little. Professor A. 0. Dicey, in the Na« tional Review, enter* a strong protost against the Trade Disputes Bill. He contends that it is class legislation of a most dangerous type, that by inaugurating for the benefit of a class (the members of trade unions) the fatal policy of privilege it undermines • tbe foundation of that rule of equal law to which England owes her precedence. The Bill is a most significant example of the means by which organised labour is striving to make itself a dominant power, superior to the ordinary law of the land. Under one of its claims, a trade uniou is to be freed from all liability to pay damages to any person, man, woman, or child, for any wrong done to the sufferer either by the union itself or its agents. Under another, wide immunities are granted to persons planning or uindncting a strike. That these immunities ar« really privileges to do wrong and curtail other peuple'a liberty is brought out plainly in illustrative cases cited by Professor Dicey. For instance, three men determine to boyoott a fourth. They refuse to associate with him; they refuse to work with anyone who works with hitn; they boycott bis employer; they boyoott any one who deals with his employer. They thus ruin *heir victim, and drive him to the workhouse. If tfteir object was to compel him to join the Primrose League or the laud League they mi,';ht be liable toon Ration for conspiracy, and to pay heavy damages. If, however, their aim is to compel the fourth man to take part in a strike, they will incur no legal liability whatever. Or, again, fifty or beset the bouse'wbere a man whom they wish to "persuade" Jives. If their avowed nutpose is to "persuade" the man to join the Primrose League or the Land League, they ran a risk of being put on trial and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour; but if the "persuasion" is to fake part in a strike or dismiss a non-unionist workman none of the fifty men run any risk of punishment. Professor Dioey declares that the Bill will provoke a series of free fights between masters nnti men, carried on by both sides with energy, that will be unscrupulous, because relieved from legal restraint. l He holds that it "sacrifices to the supposed wishes of trade unionists the freedom of any person or class unable to resist extreme moral pressure, dogenerat t jug sometime-j into illegal violence." Ouq of its worst effects will be B he says, to expose working women to ( gross oppression. Tbe sort of pres- ! sure, call it peaceful or | persuasion, or what you will, with whioh a man of means and resolution can contend, may l:e far beyond the power ot' women to resist. Boycotting, involving as it does the refusal to deal with particular people, the refusal to supply them with tho | nenessities of life, the cutting of everyone who does deal with them, and social excommunication, accompanied as it may 'bo cy assault, slander, and libel, would soon drive moßt women to übey the unwritten law of the union. Epery woman's right to support herself as she pleases will depend, not on the law of. the iand, but on the policy of trades unions.