Mr. Vivian, M.P., in a striking letter in the Timm
of last Saturday notes that many Trade-Unionists who had paid for twenty or thirty years into the funds of an association organised for providing strike-pay, out-of-work allowance, payment during siokness, &c., are now "called on to con- tribute to a fund for promoting political dogma which was abhorrent to them, or forfeit the right to the benefits referred to. This refinement of political tyranny is organised, and
the right to continue it demanded, by men who have never tired of denouncing the squire when he gives his labourer the alternative of voting as he wishes or leaving his job, or the unscrupulous employer who does the same." Mr. Vivian contests the view that this perversion of the true objects of Trade-Unions is only a normal outcome of majority rule. It has been brought about in most cases, so he asserts, by a vote of quite a minority of members—" well-drilled political sharp- shooters "—who control the machinery of trade organisations. Many members, be adds, are now deciding to leave and forfeit the benefits they have paid for rather than support a political dogma they disagree with, and he has no doubt that "if the Liberal Government become a party to legislation for legalising the use of Trade-Union funds for political partisan purposes, they will pay a very heavy price at the polls."
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