THE REVOLT OF THE BOILERMAKERS.
THE British working man must be a very aggravating person to the whole-souled enthusiastic Socialist. He is always deluding those wild but well-meaning sec- taries into the belief that he is at heart a thorough Collec- tivist, and. then suddenly turning round and showing that the old Adam of individualism has, after all, never been eradicated, but remains as ever the rock-bed of his nature. Up to a certain point, the British workman seems to have an insatiable appetite for Collectivism in its crudest and most uncompromising forms. He swallows resolutions wholesale, and readily repeats, "with cheers," all the shibboleths of the school of Marx that he can manage to remember. His teachers are delighted. He is in a fair way to salvation, and the acceptance of the whole pro- gramme, and not merely the thin end of the wedge, seems a moral certainty. And then when all seems so prosperous and propitious to the cause, it is suddenly discovered that the Collectivist principles have never really caught on at all, and that the men who seemed so enlightened are really plunged in the Stygian darkness of the old era, and were merely repeating the Socialist phrases as if they were " Ta- ra-ra-boom-de-ay," or the chorus of the last music-hall song. This process of disillusionment goes on periodically. Last summer the Socialists were enchanted with the pro- gress they were making. They boasted that they had shunted half the Trade-Unions of the country on to Collectivist lines, and it was confidently asserted that it was almost impossible to find a working man of light and leading who was not a Socialist. At any rate, it was diffi- cult to find one who did not talk Socialism and light- heartedly splash about in the jargon of the new Economic philosophers. At the Trade-Union Congress, Socialism carried all before it. The Individualists could hardly get in a word_ edgeways, and the Congress, when it was asked to commit itself to the nationalisation of the land and mines, replied with the utmost eagerness, Not only land and minerals, but all the means of production and transit.' They adopted, in fact, the Socialistic creed in its entirety and without any reservation. The working classes, through their accredited representatives, have gone over to us bag and baggage,' cried the Socialists, and began to appoint sub- committees for the immediate and peremptory introduc- don of the Labour Millennium. Yet the tremendous change in public opinion indicated by the resolutions seemed, somehow or other, to have little effect. Some- thing or other stayed the wheels of the chariot of liberty. Alas ! that completely delusive person, the British work- man, had not been so quickly converted as at first appeared. He had allowed a good deal of shouting; but he had had no intention of acting on that shouting, and the gates of his heart were found to be as fast shut against Collectivism as ever. The Socialists, when they come to look round on their achievement of the summer, find that the net result of their so-called successes has been the maiming, if not the destruction, of the Trade-Union Congress,—a body which, in the past, has been of infinite service to the cause of labour, and which might have continued that service in the future if it had not been warped from its proper functions. The fact that the confidence of the working class as a whole has been shaken in the Trade-Union Congress, owing to its adoption of the Collectivist ideal, is clearly shown by the secession of the Boilermakers' Union, which was announced last Tuesday. That body has, by an enormous majority, decided. to withdraw from the Trade-Union Congress, and distinctly on the ground of the adoption of the Collectivist resolutions of last summer. The public must not be misled by the name of the Union into thinking it a body of small importance. On the contrary, it is probably the wealthiest, strongest, and best organised society in the Trade-Union world. It numbers some 24,000 members, and these are all men who are, in every sense of the term, typical working men, —i.e., artisans working for weekly wages. Again, the secretary of the Boilermakers' Union, Mr. Knight, is one of the ablest, most experienced, most trusted, and most respected Labour leaders in the country. He has not been an organiser of sensational sto:ikes, but if his work is Judged by the terms he has obtained for the members of his Union, he must be pronounced. to be among the most successful Trade-Union officials. He has understood clearly and well the duty of collective bargaining, and has made that his prime business. The trust reposed in him by the men whose servant he is, is most marked ; and on several occasions he has forced unwilling sections of the Union to obey the orders of -the Executive, though contrary to their apparent interests. His leadership has made the Union word as good as its bond. The withdrawal then of the Boilermakers' Union from the Trade-Union Congress, is an event of the first importance. It is not too much to say that the only blow which could have been more dangerous, would have been the secession of the Society of Amalgamated Engineers. The strength of the Trade-Union Congress rests in the old, firmly established Unions, like that of the Boilermakers. Their secession, though it is important in numbers, is infinitely more important in moral weight. The adhesion or departure of this or that new Union matters compara- tively little ; but the withdrawal of the Boilermakers is like the withdrawal of Massachusetts from the American Federation. It is a staggering blow to the prestige of the Con- gress. That this is so, may be seen by the comments of the Daily Chronicle on the event. It has even made curable and,' as we most gladly admit, sincere and earnest contemporary haul down for a time its Socialistic banner. It might be a supporter of the Old Unionism, and. not the strenuous advocate of the New, to judge from a leading article in Tuesday's issue. After doubting whether the Socialism proclaimed at the Trade-Union Congress in the summer would not be "much less to their taste than they imagine," the Daily Chronicle goes on to declare that the Congress "should keep close touch with actualities and. leave Utopias severely alone." "There is, perhaps," the article goes on, "a certain hard-headed lack of idealism in this advice, but we are inclined to think that it is nevertheless sound. Without for a moment questioning their intelligence, we may fairly ask whether the majority of delegates who voted for that resolution quite under- stand what the total abolition of private property in the instruments of production really means. If the idea is not intelligible, is it wise to vote for it ? Is it wise to commit oneself to a principle which one has not really' thought out, and which, if carried into practical effect, would involve the most sweeping revolution the world has ever known ?" When the young lions of the Daily Chronicle roar —or shall we say purr ?—after this very sensible and un- exciting fashion, and the talk about "wage-slaves," "the exploitation of the workers," and "the grinding weight of capital," changes to doubts as to whether Socialism is even intelligible, we may be sure that the cold fit has taken a pretty strong hold of the English working classes, and. that the revolt of the Boilermakers is a really serious matter. Note, too, that there is no attempt to accuse the Boilermakers of treason to their class, or to take them to task for daring to leave the Congress. The most the Daily Chronicle ventures to do, is to suggest that "the older Unionists, like Mr. Knight, might do well to reflect that the very action they are taking may have the very effect of concentrating working-class energy on political action which they desire to avoid. The situation is one which needs calm Judgment and a wide outlook all round."
Before we leave the subject of the Boilermakers' revolt, it may be worth while to give the exact figures of the pall. They are in many respects instructive. The total poll was ;—To secede, 14,241; against, 9,078; majority in favour of the secession, 5,163. Some of the branches of the Union were unanimously in favour of secession. For example, the No. 6 Branch of Canning Town voted unanimously, to the number of 243, against continuing to send delegates, while the Stratford Branch polled 220 against 2 in favour of discontinuing. These figures negative the notion that the action of the Union is to "be attributed solely to the influence of Mr.' Knight. No doubt his influence is strong ; but it could not alone have produced these results. Rather that action is to be attributed to the dislike of the natural Englishman for all proposals for organising society on a Socialistic basis. The boilermakers are typical hard-working, beef. eating, independent Englishmen and they have said with a growl that "they'll be d—d if they'll have any of this Collectivist nonsense." There is the thing in a nutshell, and we shall be greatly mistaken if the Trade-Union Congress does not find it a very difficult task to lure the Boilermakers back to the fold. At the same time we regret the decision, and should gladly see them go back. We do not want to see the Trade-Union Congress killed, but rather desire to see it grow in strength and reason, for we believe it to be still capable, if wisely worked, of forwarding the interests of labour.
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