The Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress will meet
next week in circumstances for which there is no parallel in its previous history. There are members of the Labour Party holding leading positions in a non-party Government, and their authority is made strong and fully effective owing to the fact that they not i,nly enjoy the confidence of the political Labour Party but also that they are receiving loyal support from the whole body of organised trade unionism. The report of the General Council Poin.s out that in acting as a national movement for the proLction of members trade unionism has not forgotten that Myer brings responsibilities." The nation owes much to the fact that those responsibilities have been so fully realised, and that trade unionists have taken their place in what has become the firing line without loss of effort from industrial friction. This is not to say that there are not many outstanding questions regarding wage-increases and price control on which there are still differences of opinion, and there remains the old bone of con.zntion concerning the Trade Disputes Act—which Probably admits of settlement by compromise. Trade Unionism today has won recognition as never before as an indispenable sPecific function of the national life.
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