A public man who is honest enough to confess that
he has made a misstatement always inspires us with greater confidence than the man who, in the name of consistency, repeats a statement which has been proved untrue. We are thinking of Mr. Robert Blatchford, the old Socialist, who, some twenty-five years ago, in his Merrie England, asserted that the worker receives only a third of the produce of his labour, and who now in the Sunday Herald admits that his authority, a Fabian tract, was "grossly incorrect "—the truth being, we may add, that the worker re- ceives at least two-thirds of the produce while the miner receives three-fourths. Our respect for Mr. Blatehford as an honest and independent writer is much increased by his candid admission of error. We hope that Mr. Smillie will follow his example. Mr. Smillie told the Coal Commission more than once that the worker gets only a third of the produce, and he made matters worse by suggesting that manual workers produce all wealth, which is obviously absurd. Such wild assertions by Trade Union leaders naturally cause industrial unrest, as Mr. 'Ratchford says.
Previous page
