THE RIGHT OF THE COMMUNITY' TO EXIST.
IT was M. Clemenceau, we think, who some years ago, when he was challenged to say " by what right " the Government required conscript soldiers to work the railways during a strike, answered in• his pointed way : " The right of the community to exist." That phrase states the whole issue wherever there is an attempt by a minority to impose their views upon the majority by means of paralysing trade and depriving people of the essentials of life. On several occasions we have pointed out that so long as a minority of the people declare their intention to supersede democracy and get by means of violence— euphemistically called " direct action "—what they cannot get by the Constitutional means of persuading a majority of their fellows, it will be not only desirable but inevitable that those who are really democrats, and who hold that to yield to intimidation is the part of cowards and slaves, should turn their attention to organizing themselves. Organization must be met by organization. When some weeks ago there was talk about the early appearance of the red flag, we described a scheme under which good citizens would be asked to enrol themselves for the purpose of resisting Bolshevistic violence. The idea was that by simple enrolment householders would make it practically impossible for .families to be overcome piecemeal, or, as soldiers would sav, " in detail." They would make it impossible for the `-* Red " methods of Russia to be imitated here, methods whereby the allegiance of a great number of persons is forcibly transferred to the wrong side. There would be no question of armed preparation, or even of drill, but merely of undertaking to rally to a particular spot for further instructions, say at the end of a street. The chief advantage of the scheme would be that the very fact that it was known to exist would probably prevent its ever being required to come into operation.
That, of course, is only a negative kind of organization. But there might be positive or constructive kinds of organization for carrying on the indispensable services of the community during strikes aimed against the right of the community to exist. We have read with pleasure a wise letter from Lord Wrenbury in the Times of last Saturday in which he pleads for this kind of organization. " When," he writes, " the labourers in a trade organize themselves into a body and say : ' We will not work in our trade except upon -defined terms,' they are within their rights. When they add : ' And no one else shall either,' they are wrong." When miners, railwaymen, and suchlike refuse to work nobody of course can make them do so ; but (a) the State has a duty to see that those who want to work shall not be prevented, and (b) every citizen has a definite interest, if not a duty, in seeing that the lack of labour shall be supplied. With great force Lord Wrenbury points out that, from cowardice and want of appreciation of the consequences, the nation has allowed the creation of a tyranny. The worker, he says, has a heavy grievance against society " in this matter. It is perfectly true. The Trade Unions were by a piece of despicable opportunism placed above the law, and a sort of sanction has consequently been given to the activities of Unions, even when it is their policy to intimidate. Only a few days ago the present writer was talking to five workers in a particular trade, who told him that there was shortly to be a strike in that trade. All five men said that they did not want to strike, since they believed that uninterrupted trade would be much the best thing for them inthe long run, but that nevertheless they would certainly strike if a strike were declared. They said that they could not possibly do otherwise. They could not desert their mates. They could not hold out against the orders of the Union. They could not break away from an organization to which they had subscribed for many years, and which they recognized as the ruler of their lives. Of course the Executives of Unions reply that they must coerce (or " picket ") or they would fail. That is to say, they justify a tyranny because it is intended to achieve an end which they regard as good. But we want now to look at the matter not so much from the point of view of the intimidated worker as from the point of view of the intimidated public. As Lord Wrenbury says, the weapon of defence must be one which will enable the community to say to the paralysers of our daily life : " Withdraw your labour if you will, but you shall not impose upon us that we shall be deprived of the necessaries of life. We will supply your places. The necessary service shall go on." He recommends the voluntary enrolment of citizens in a body which he proposes should be called " The Freedom Force." The Force, he argues, must know nothing of politics or parties. " Patriots are wanted, not politicians."
We have described before the counter-strike of the middle classes in Certain German towns, and many of our readers may remember the voluntary organization of citizens in Stockholm which some years ago defeated a strike against the community. We have before us a short description of what was called the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand which was the chief instrument in thwarting the general strike at Winnipeg in May and June of this year. The Committee was an unofficial body, but it drew authority from the fact that it supported, and was therefore recognized by, the City Council as well as the Dominion and Provincial Governments. The Executive Committee sat almost continuously through the strike. The volunteers did not, as the pamphlet before us says, " take over and administer," but in every case "went in and assisted." The Central Strike Committee at Winnipeg were out to paralyse the city industrially. They called out simultaneously the staffs of the Fire Department, of the High Pressure Water Plant, of the Health Department, and of the Light and Power Departments. They allowed the police to remain on duty, but boasted that the police were under the instructions of the Strike Committee. They called out the telegraph operators, the postal operators, the bakers, the staff of the Winnipeg Electric Railway, the carters, and all workers engaged in distributing the necessaries of life. The work of the Committee of One Thousand was not so difficult as might be supposed, as each need of the community had to be met in order of its urgency as it presented itself. The first step was the formation of a Volunteer Fire Brigade. The Strike Committee had great fun for a time with the amateur firemen, as during the first few days they sent innumerable false alarms over the telephone-wires. This emergency naturally had to he met by a system of patrolling the alarm stations. Thus one movement led on to another in natural sequence.
One of the chief achievements of the Committee of One Thousand was to produce a newspaper, which afterward: appeared daily except on Sundays, within twenty-foul hours of the declaration of the printers' strike. A newspaper was found to be indispensable for communicating information, and the strikers had decreed that no newspaper should appear except their own organ. How the anti-strike newspaper was printed was something of a mystery, and perhaps still remains so. The strikers set up what was in effect a Soviet which issued its permits and passports. The pamphlet reproduces one of these permits stamped by the Winnipeg Trades Labour Council. " This entitles," so it reads, " T. J. Foster to place in cold storage canned eggs." As a result of the work of the Committee of One Thousand the Government were enabled to dispense altogether with the services of the postal strikers. Volunteers carried on postal work till a new staff had been recruited, though this process was helped out by a number of repentants who returned to work. The same thing happened in the Fire Department. The police, though they had not originally been called out by the Strike Committee, struck in obedience to the orders of their own Union and were bodily dismissed. In this case again the volunteer special constables filled the gap while an entirely new force was recruited.
These are only instances of the rapidly improvised services of a Citizens' Committee. The thing can be done, and done much more easily than people think: A community would have water for blood in its veins if it really yielded its right to exist.
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