NEW POLICY OF MILITANCY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXV, Issue 11784, 22 September 1913, Page 5

NEW POLICY OF MILITANCY.

WILL RUIN TRADE UNIONISM,

LONDON, Sunday.

Mr Phil. Snowden, Labour member for Blackburn, in a letter in the "Morning Post," says that it is unfortunate that the Labour trades union world is following the will and the revolutionary appeals of such men as Larkin and Ben Tillett, though there are signs that practical experience in sobering the Home workmen. Labour, he says, has secured small substantial gain from the disputes of the last two years, and when the men win any particular demand every workman knows that the employers indirectly take it out of the workmen. Mr. Snowden says that an irresponsible section of the trade unions exercises an influence altogether beyond its numbers, and the leaders of such unions have been led more often than they have led. Tho new policy of militancy will certainly ruin trades unionism if it is not subdued. The old policy, says Mr Snowden, built up strong reserves and refrained from exasperating both the public and the employers. It secured pub lie sympathy, whereas the new policy is to enter upon a strike without any effort to secure a settlement, to exasperate the employers by every means, and to indulge in wild and sanguinary language. Mr Snowden concludes by advocating State arbitration and trades boards. State arbitration would make trades unionism strong and universal, as it has done in the coloniea.