TRADE UNION TYRANNY.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—We must all hope ti- at the recent case of Mr. Blackall, who was expelled from his Trade Union for working over- time, will rouse Englishmen to the way in which they are allowing their freedom to be imperilled not by legitimate Trade Union organization but by the extension of the activities and powers of the officials of these bodies, often holding extremist views and prepared to enforce them by tyrannical methods.
Will you allow me to draw attention to a new development which may seriously threaten both liberty of thought and the freedom of the Press ? The Daily Herald may be " Lenin's own organ," but it certainly is not the organ of the six million Trade Unionists of this country who persistently decline to buy it. This obstinacy is now to be forcibly rectified by the issue for signature to every Trade Unionist by his Branch Secretary of a card pledging him to buy the Herald in preference to any other paper.
" Nobody can refuse to sign this pledge," says the announce- ment. No doubt, under possible threats of industrial death, many pledges will be signed. The announcement proceeds : " It is a new traditfon, an enlargement of Trade Union loyalty." Slavery would perhaps be a better word.
The Blackall case was a revelation of industrial tyranny ; this new scheme aims at establishing an intellectual and political tyranny. That accomplished, Soviet slavery will not be far off.—I am, Sir, &c., REGINALD WILSON, General Secretary. British Empire Union, Ltd., 9-10 Agar Street, Strand, London, W.C. 2.
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