ACTION SHOULD BE MET BY ACTION.
A FORTNIGHT ago we expressed the opinion that in dealing with the Council of Action action ought to be met by action. We had in mind the failure of Parlia- ment to protest before the Recess against the unconstitu- tional attempt of a section to dictate the policy of the whole country. Since then we have learned from the letters of many correspondents that there are considerable searchings of heart as to what could be done by the people themselves to meet the illegal policy of the Council of Action, or perhaps we should rather say to meet the frankly revolutionary policy which it is feared may be thrust upon the Council of Action by the extremists. The very existence of such an extra-legal body as the Council of Action at this time of industrial unrest is in itself a danger. Suppose that the Council were to decide either to back up a miners' strike by calling out the entire trade union forces, or else, more subtly, to try to arrange an industrial peace and take all the credit for it. This more subtle course would strongly resemble the pretension of the Council of Action to have prevented war with Russia—a war which nobody wanted. Whether the Council of Action took the sensational course of stopping all the wheels of industry or the more carefully calculated course of acquiring 'political credit for itself by an appa- rently discreet policy—snatching safety for the country, as we should be told, out of the jaws of a stupid and self- willed Government--the danger to Constitutionalism would be equally great. But quite apart from the Colwell of Action, there are so many minor revolutionary forces at work that we do not wonder that many people feel that the time has come for organization among those who mean at all costs to preserve our well-tried institutions. On several occasions we have described the attempts to form leagues or societies to combat this or that revolu- tionary tendency. This week we publish a litter from a correspondent who is trying to form yet another leagu under the title of a " League of British Citizenship." We ourselves have advocated the formation of a British Legion closely resembling the American Legion which has been so great a success in the United States. General Woodward made a gallant effort to bring such an organiza- tion into being here, and it may have been that his only reason for failure—for he has had to abandon the attempt —was that the time was not quite ripe. Other societies which are actually in existence are the National 'Unity Movement, the National Security Union, and the Middle Classes Union. If the Middle Classes Union is not exactly of the same type as the others, it at all events shares many of their principles. The object of the National Unity Movement, which we described on May 10th, 1919, is to resist such subversive acts as may be roughly summed up under the name of Bolshevism. The movement is, of course, not anti-Labour. It is pro-Labour, for nobody stands to lose more than the manual worker by the handing over of the control of the country to cranks and fanatics. The National Security Union aims at protecting the public against the growth of lawlessness and at maintaining the public services. It very wisely explains that it has no thought of taking part in trade disputes as such. It would mobilize its members only in the event of a deter- mined effort, being made to dislocate the industrial arrange- ments of the country or to destroy the personal liberties of the people. As we explained on May 10th, 1919, a. special plan was laid before the National Security Union' for saving the country from being overwhelmed by a surprise revolution, though we do not know whether or not the plan was adopted.
The plan owed its origin to -the acknowledged fact that all revolutions have been brought about by a minority. A. minority, by violent and sudden action, can. Loma a, large enough nucleus, or acquire the control of enough of the machinery of government, to be able to drive into the movement those who are hesitating. Outside the ranks of those who hesitate are the enormous mass of people who will either fall in with a success or be intimi- dated into acquiescence. The plan of which we are writing was therefore drafted on the assumption that attempts at revolution could be nipped in the bud if the majority secured themselves against surprise. Roughly, the idea is that all citizens of goodwill who do not wish the existing order to be overthrown should allow themselves to be enrolled. They would not undertake to perform any drill or indeed to discharge any tasks whatsoever until the moment when it was necessary to band themselves together against an advance of the Red Flag which would mean ruin and servitude for us all. It was suggested that enrolment mi t be carried out street by street, and that the members of each household in a street, instead of waiting to be overborne by the revolutionaries—to be defeated in detail, as soldiers say--shouldagree upon a given signal to meet other h olds of the same street at a particular point. They would then obey the orders of the police. Those who were not wanted would make themselves scarce, and the able-bodied would, of course, carry out what, after all, is the legal duty of every citizen to help the police if called upon to do so. The Government approached very near to the idea of a general enrolment of good citizens at the time of the railway strike, when the danger of national paralysis was near. The idea was dropped, and we cannot help thinking that that was in some ways a pity, although we acknowledge that such a movement would be far more powerful if it came not from official suggestion, but from a free and popular movement. A proof of what can be done by a voluntary banding together of citizens intent upon assuring their right to exist was provided by the remarkable achieve- ments of the Citizens Committee of a Thousand during the strike at Winnipeg in May and June, 1919. In our opinion, however, the best model on all counts for our imitation is the American Legion, which we described in the Spectator of January 24th, 1920. It is ,a League consisting of both men and women, and we cannot do better than quote the preamble of the Legion's con- stitution :— " For God and country we associate ourselves together for the following peurposes : To uphold and defend the Consti- tution of the United States of America ; to maintain law and order ; to foster and perpetuate a 100 per cent. Americanism ; to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in the Great War ; to inculcate a- sense of individual obligation to the community, State, and nation ; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might ; to promote peace and goodwill on earth ; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of jwitioe, freadoni, and democracy ; to consecrate and sahctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness."
U we are not misled by the character of the many com- munications we have received, the public, who were in- different or not sufficiently alarmed a short time ago, are now more ready to consider the formation of some league of citizenship. Surely the wisest thing would be for all the members of the existing societies, and for those who would like to join such societies, to meet together and see if it would be possible to combine their forces. It might not be found practicable to do more than form a central authority which would control all the societies, leaving them to carry out their special objects in a kind of loose federation inspired, however, by one purpose. But it would be much better if all the societies which really want the same thing could be fused into one body. Hitherto when any such suggestions as we have been making have been put forward no kind of sympathy or support has been expressed in Liberal newspapers. Such schemes are regarded as going out to meet trouble. " Oh, how provocative ! " is the cry of the Liberal Press. It has always been so in the case of foreign dangers as well as those at. home. Liberals have temperamentally shrunk from making preparations for fear of provoking their enemies and causing the very trouble they wished to avert. History shows us, nevertheless, that the worst wars have come when Liberal Governments were in power. Let us hope, then, that when an appeal is made for this most unprovocative kind of organization among men of goodwill to secure themselves in their constitutional rights some sympathy may be expressed by Liberals who are as good constitutionalists as anybody else. In our opinion, a British Legion, or whatever it may be called, should avoid all political labels. These, at all events, are a kind of provocation which can easily be avoided.
The essential thing is to maintain the will of the majority. That indeed covers everything else. There is no need to talk about Bolshevism, or Com- munism, or Anarchy, or the doctrines of Karl Marx, or anything else with a definite name. All we really want is the safeguarding of representative government. If revolution is ever to come in this country it must come through the ballot box. If a majority of the electors should vote for turning everything upside down, we should have to accept the verdict and would try to work the new political machinery as well as possible, strongly though we should have warned the country beforehand against such folly. The majority are our masters. They can have as much revolution as they care to vote for. But those who are willing to enrol themselves as good constitutionalists and good citizens must make it plain that they will absolutely refuse to have revolution which approaches by any other road. Burke said of the French Revolution : " If they had thought that such things could happen, such things would not have happened." Lethargy, want of imagination, and unwillingness to believe that majorities can really have the will of minorities thrust upon them alone stand in the way of a voluntary banding together of the people. If the supporters of " the will of the majority " took the trouble to enrol themselves they would probably never have any further or more unpleasant task to perform. The very fact that such a law-abiding association, in- cluding the vast majority of the nation, were in existence would in itself be enough to frighten off the subversive minority. Such an enrolment would be nothing more in substance than the revival of the ancient Frank Pledge. The object in brief would be to insist on majority rule and to refuse minority rule, or, to put it in another way, to see to it that no party in the State should act upon guesswork in interpreting the wishes of the nation. The only valid declaration can come from the ballot boxes. Englishmen have thrown down in turn the tyranny of kings, of aristocracies, of the landed class, and of the Middle Class, and we are greatly mistaken if they are now going to sit down under a new form of oligarchical tyranny which has raised its head in the camp of Labour.
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