The New Age has called us to task with some
asperity for our statement two weeks ago that " the country is now face to face with a well-engineered conspiracy on the part of the Socialists to lay hold upon Trade-Union funds and use them solely for the advancement of Socialism." It is pointed out by the New Age that the only three purely Socialist London papers are opposed to the reversal of the Osborne judgment, and desire to separate Socialism from the Trade-Union and Labour movements. We are prepared to admit that our reference to " the Socialists " was too wide, and that we should have spoken instead of "the predominant section of the Socialists." It is impossible for the New Age to deny that the Independent Labour Party is a Socialist organisation, or that it is numerically far larger than the bodies repre- sented by the Clarion and Justice. And if it is contended that the New Age itself has a right to speak for the intel- lectual leaders of Socialism, we need only quote Mr. Sidney Webb's advice to the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (reported in the Times of September 19th), that "it was for the members of the Union to demand that the judgment should be definitely and explicitly reversed."
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