We are not pessimists, and we do not want to
aggravate the situation by harsh words, but we feel bound to say that this readiness to seek blood and to fly to killing has a very ugly sound. We presume that the explanation is to be found in the fact that the leaders recognize that the men are beaten and recognize also that their dupes will soon begin to under- stand that the terrible situation in which they now find them- selves is due to bad advice and bad leading. That being so, they desire to cover up their tracks by extreme violence of language. They probably think that if they were to succeed in flogging the men into acts which would lead to a great deal of bloodshed their folly and worse would be forgotten in the general horror. Or even if they are prosecuted for incitements to murder and violence, and receive a term of imprisonment, they will escape the recriminations of the disillusioned strikers, or at any rate be able to say that if a harsh Government had not sent them to prison they would have been able to make a success of the strike.
