21 FEBRUARY 1925, Page 1

There is no doubt that there is a widespread feeling

among trade 'unionists themselves that the political-levy • has been the means of imposing the wishes of the few on the 'many. Wig this feeling that should be made use of. There are:two possible lines of._ action- which are without danger. Those trade unionists whO wish to be protected should be helped. by their non-Socialist friends in every possible way to make their voices heard, and if this is not enough the existing provisions for protecting those who wish to resist the _levy should be made effective. For the Government to associate themselves with a kind of coup d'etat against the trade unions—. for so it would be interpreted—would be to throw the whole Labour world into a. ferment and to repair at one stroke the obviously widening . breaches within the Labour- Party. It would be a policy of madness. The Government require for what ought to be their popular and wholesome Programme of national reform a peaceful atniophere, not the ferocity of a bear-garden.