TRADE UNIONS AND THE WAR.
THE action taken by the bulk of Trade Unionists since war was declared has been a surprise to various pessimists, who had, without the slightest warranty, assumed that English working men were devoid of the ordinary instincts of Englishmen. The war has proved, what any man with any real knowledge of his country ought to have known beforehand, that class differences are only skin deep. The unity that arises from common nationality supersedes the relatively trivial differences that arise from economic and social causes. The blunder of exaggerating class differences comes equally from persons who profess to represent the middle and upper classes and from those who profess to represent the working classes. On the one hand, there is the more or less insolent attitude of some middle-class and upper-class spokesmen, who write and speak as if the working classes are of different flesh and blood from themselves. On the other Land, there is the Socialist demand for an organized class war. Both points of view are equally unjustifiable, and both have been proved to be wrong within a very few days of the declaration of war.
The most dramatic proof came from South Wales. In this stormy industrial district the Socialists had gained what appeared to be complete control over the mass of the miners and other wage-earners. Just before the war was declared the Admiralty asked the miners to work on the Tuesday and Wednesday followina° Bank Holiday in order to raise coal for the Navy. These two days had previously been reserved by the Conciliation Board as holidays, and when the Admiralty request arrived the Socialist Executive of the Miners' Federation refused to endorse it, and passed a resolution declaring that they did not consider it necessary for defensive purposes that the miners should work on those two days, and that they declined "to encourage or in any way countenance the policy of active intervention by this country in the present European conflict." The Socialist Executive went on to propose that an international Conference of miners should be summoned. to consider what action the miners of the world should take in the present crisis. This demonstration of Socialistic internationalism produced an instant and indignant revolt among the South Wales miners. Within a few days the Executive were repudiated, and ever since the men have been working with enthusiasm and loyalty to carry out the requests of the Admiralty. One of the first requests made was that the Eight Hours Act should be set aside in Admiralty pits, and that the men should work nine hours a day. This was at once agreed to, and in addition the men have been working on several Sundays as well as on weekdays. At the same time, disputes in other mines, which had been dragging on for years, have been promptly settled ; while Mr. Heir Hardie, in whose internationalism the Germans apparently place great trust, was refused a hearing in his own constituency.
The enthusiastic loyalty of the South Wales miners is only typical of the whole body of the wage-earning classes. Even in those districts where it is feared that the war may bring temporary distress there is no hesitation about the duty of the country. In the words of one of the Labour representatives, who, like most of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, is an Englishman before he is a Socialist, "a man's soul is bigger than his carcase." In this connexion it is worth while to remind our readers that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who attempted to take the inter- national Socialist view in face of a grave national crisis, has been thrown over by the bulk of the Labour Party in the House of Commons. Most of the members of that party have been actively engaged since the war began in settling labour disputes that were in progress up and down the country. One significant illustration may be mentioned. In a certain Northern town the men were asked to work overtime to supply a particular material which was required by the War Office. They wired to their representative in Parliament to tell him that no arrangement had been made for payment at an extra rate for overtime work, and wanted to know what they were to do. He wired back : "Get on with your work and talk about the rate of payment afterwards." That is the spirit which prevails everywhere. This universal suspension of labour disputes throughout the country was formally endorsed at a meeting of the Trade Unions at Unity House on Monday, and at the same meeting it was further resolved to take steps to prevent new disputes from arising. One point strongly urged was that employers should make an effort to distribute employment by reducing hours so as to avoid discharging men. In this matter the wage-earn- ing classes have shown splendid loyalty to one another. In numberless cases men have of their own accord come forward and offered to have their wages cut down so that their comrades need not be discharged. The advantage of thus distributing the loss due to slack times is so obvious that no stress need be laid upon it. It is, indeed, the scientific way of dealing with fluctuations in industry. In brisk times the industrial army is working at full pressure ; in slack times the pressure on each individual is reduced, but all remain in the ranks. This simple yet effective plan can be profitably contrasted with the pro- posals now being put forward by middle-class Socialists for organizing gigantic systems of public relief. It is actually proposed by Mr. Sidney Webb that part of the credit for .R100,000,000 voted by the House of Commons for carrying on the war should be diverted in order to finance some elaborate Socialistic schemes for creating artificial employment. The danger that sugges- tions of this sort may be seriously entertained is, happily, not very great, but it is a danger that has to be borne in mind. At every national crisis the cranks rush forward to boom their particular schemes, and in the general excite- ment there is a danger that some of them may obtain a hearing which would be denied to them in times of peace.
In face of the splendid spirit of loyalty and self-sacrifice shown by the wage-earners throughout the kingdom, the suggestion put forward in certain quarters that a body of lecturers should be organized to go forth and teach the working classes their duty is a piece of unwarranted insolence. In view of the letters which have been written to the Press by certain University Professors, it would be more appropriate if the working men of South Wales and Lancashire were to select one or two representative speakers to give lectures in Cambridge on the duty of professorial persons when their country is engaged in a life-and-death struggle with an aggressive enemy. The working men of England understand their duty in a national crisis without the instruction of any University lecturers. Even those Socialists who, as long as war was a remote contingency, talked glibly about their being quite as willing to work for a German as for a British capitalist have forgotten all this nonsense. Probably the very men who talked thus are now the keenest to uphold their own country and their own country's ideals against German domination and German ideals. The idea that it can be a matter of indifference to any employee whether he has to take his orders from a man of his own race or from a foreigner can only arise in the minds of people who have had no experience of being subject to foreign rule. If this idea still lingers among the men whose natural instincts have been perverted by theoretical internationalism, let them go to Alsace and Lorraine and ask the people of those two conquered pro- vinces whether they enjoy being subjected to German rule. Let them go to Schleswig-Holstein and ask the working men there how they enjoy Prussian domination, which will not even permit them to use their own mother-tongue. If the Germans were to conquer England, they would not use their conquest for the benefit of British Socialists ; they would use it for the benefit of Germany and of German ideals. Englishmen would be compelled to servo in German armies, to be bullied by German drill sergeants. and to be placed in the forefront of any further battles that Germany might decide to fight. At the present moment Danish lads who hate Germany with all the intensity of a fervent Danish patriotism are being killed in the war that Germany is waging for further aggressive purposes. Poles, who are only anxious to escape from the German yoke, are equally being killed in Germany's battles ; and the young men of Alsace and Lorraine have been sent away to East Prussia there to fight against the Russians because even the terrors of German discipline would not suffice to make them fight against France. It is because Englishmen of all classes instinctively recognize that the German ideal is utterly opposed to all the ideals that Englishmen for centuries have held dear that there is no hesitation in any part of the country to fight out this war to a finish.
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