[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] flut,—I have only just
seen your excellent article of May 14th on "A League of Good Citizens." All good citizens must necessarily sympathize with the principles you enunciate, but that, unfortunately, is a long way from allowing themselves to be enrolled in any organization whatever. In these days a man is a trade unionist first and a citizen afterwards, and he will have nothing to do with any organization which may conceivably require him to run counter to the dictates of his own particular tyrants—i.e., trade union officials. This is no mere theory or guess-work. I can, unfortunately, give you a concrete instance.
During last year the Home Office requested this city to form a Police Reserve, a purely civilian body which could be called upon by the mayor in the event of help being required by the regular police, and we old Volunteer officers were asked to take the thing in hand and be responsible for raising a certain number of men in each of our districts, and appointing a second-in-command, inspectors, serjeants, and so many rank and file. The idea naturally occurred to us, as it lies to you, that the first men to get hold of were our old comrades of the Volunteer service. Exactly as you suggest, we worked on the Volunteer roll-books, picked our men, and sent them a circular, reminding them of our service together, and express- ing our confidence that they who had rallied to their country's help in her time of need would now do the same by their city. Not a bit of it! My own result was one second-in-command (a professional man) and one other man (who was a corpora- tion official), and I do not think other commanders were much more successful. The trade unionists to a man declined, many of them with real regret at finding themselves in such a false position, but all giving the same reason, that their duty as reserve police might call upon them to act against the interests of their fellow trade unionists. We explained that they could Only be called out by the mayor in the event of serious disorder, that their job would be to cope with that disorder and not to " break strikes." and so on. It was all in vain, and our reserve police force does not exist; it was killed, as all such
efforts at true citizenship will be killed, by the power of trade unionism.
The coal strike has once more shown us that the true enemy of the British worker is his own trade union, a more terrible tyrant than any employer. There will be no real and lasting peace in this country till trade unionism, as at present used by its officials, is made illegal.—I am, Sir,
VOLUNTEER EX-OFFICER.
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