Colonel Meysey-Thompson's Bill to amend the Trade Union Act of
1913, in respect of political levies, passed through the Standing Committee last week. The irritation shown by the Labour members strengthened the case for the Bill. For if they knew that all or most trade unionists were really desirous of paying weekly levies for the support of the Socialist party and of the Daily Herald, they could hardly have objected to a BM which merely safeguards the right of a non-Socialist workman to refuse payment of the levy. As the Lord Chancellor remarked in Monday's debate, while the older parties have to collect their funds from voluntary subscribers, the Labour Party leaders force all trade unionists, whatever their political views, to contribute to the Labour funds. Mr. Stanton, a veteran leader of the South Wales miners, told the Committee that the Act of 1913 had been shamefully abused by the Miners' Federation and that the Bill would free trade unionists from a peculiarly exasperating form of tyranny. There is, we hope, no truth in the rumour that Mr. Lloyd George will try to please his Labour friends by refusing time for the third reading.
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