On Thursday the resolution demanding that immediate steps should be
taken to secure the reversal of the Osborne judgment by a Government Bill was submitted to the Con- gress, and after a somewhat stormy debate was carried by a
card vote of 1,717,000 to 13,000 cast by the representative of one Society, Mr. E. Morris, of the London Operative Brick- layers' Association. We may note that Mr. Kirk, of the Railway Servants' Society, though he accepted the view that the majority must prevail, declared that if a fair and genuine ballot is taken in the railwaymen's societies, the men will vote against being compelled to pay for Parliamentary repre- sentation. On the other hand, Mr. Stephen Walsh, M.P., a miners' delegate, stated that his Association at his advice had decided to defy an injunction. Mr. Shackleton, who defended the Parliamentary Committee, strongly deprecated any attack on the Government at this moment. Forty Labour Members could not compel an immediate reversal of the Osborne judgment. He appealed to them to be more united and less discourteous. " You cannot hit a man in the face one moment and the next go and ask him to grant you a concession." We deal in another column with a situation which is evidently causing moderate leaders like Mr. Shackleton no little anxiety.
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