Snt,—Revolutions in England do not come from confused and limited
issues. Americans have complete confidence that the strike of the Nation against itself cannot prevail. The danger ahead is not of cataclysm but of disintegration. The increase of cynicism on one hand, of brutality on the other, the cleavage of classes, the degeneration of suspicion into hate, the mounting mistrust of the deliberate and cautious evolution of political settlement, the myriad personal hates everywhere engendered—these are ominous.
Modern industry cannot be split into hostile camps and survive. The corner stone of Trade Unionism in America is collective bargaining. Its comment is the keeping of those bargains. With the plight of the British miner our public employer and employee alike were in large sympathy but the General Strike involving a negation of political government and countless breaches of solemn business agreements has alienated sympathetic opinion. We are still inclined to . believe your ministry too solicitous for the privileges of capital in mining properties. We hold it responsible for procrastination, for needless confusion of the issue, for standing in the last ditch instead of in the first. But stand now it must. It has no other course and it will prevail.—I am, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
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