[To THE EDITOR Or THX "SPECTATOR."]
Si:IL—The ideals of trade unionism, Socialism, and probably of other " lime" may be very splendid as portrayed by their visionary enthusiasts, but from the practical experience The country has had of some of them they form very poor stuff indeed as agencies in dealing with the affairs of a great com- mercial and trading empire. Efficiency in administration is the first principle of national progress and prosperity. Where this is wanting all is chaos, confusion, and decadence. Free citizens should mean the vast majority of citizens of all classes who are free from the shackles imposed by certain economic and social factions that have hitherto claimed the astonishing privilege of not being amenable, as others, to the discipline of righteous and necessary law, and have stood, and still stand, in the way of national progress and development, to the detri- ment and danger of individual rights that are the heritage of all, and should be tampered with by none. The object of the League of Good Citizens should be to assist in protecting and preserving those rights in their integrity by relying upon the only power that can be successfully appealed to for so patriotic and so truly wise and constitutional a purpose—the free and unshackled judgment of free citizenship itself.
This is a summary of what I think should be its cardinal principles: (1) Observance and enforcement of industrial law; (2) repeal of the iniquitous Trades Disputes Act, 1906; (3) preservation of constitutional rights; (4) development of private enterprise; (5) industrial peace and social order; (6) no arbitrary restriction of output or limitation of appren- tices. It should also serve to link Capital and Labour in the bond of brotherhood for the best and wisest of purposes—the betterment of humanity on peaceful, practical, and practicable social and economic lines, in contradistinction to those of dreamy visionaries who evoke the splendid mirage in theory that ends in strewing the shores of life with wreckage and disaster.—I am, Sir, &c., Wimasn Comasoe The National Free Labour Association, 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C. 4. (General Secretary).
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