Mr. Osborne contributes to last Saturday's Morning Post a very
interesting letter on the real significance of the Trade- Union Congress vote. After pointing out that the machinery of the Trade-Unions has been captured by the Socialists, and that this section alone is represented at the Congress, Mr. Osborne proceeds to illustrate the farcical nature of card voting. The delegates, who hold cards each representing one thousand members, can throw these cards and make the members vote which way they like. Thus, although 73,571 railway servants were represented, "owing to numerous candidates contesting the districts the elected delegates only received an aggregate vote of 11,731, and yet they claim to represent and be able to vote for all. Whilst the ordinary members split their votes over a number of candi- dates the Socialists, being organised, concentrated on their few and carried the elections. Neither could they claim to vote even for the 11,731, as they did not submit any views on the question to the members at the time of the election. Not only did Congress vote for all members in the affiliated Unions, regardless of their individual political opinions, but the many thousands who have lapsed through arrears, death, and numerous other causes were all voted for. As a card is given for every thousand members, or part thereof, it means that anything over the 1,000 is counted as two; thus nearly 100,000 men were voted for that are yet unborn. To add to the humour of the whole thing, they voted for myself in the majority as desiring the reversal of the Osborne judgment: "
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