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IRE PASSING WEEK.

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IRE PASSING WEEK. "Lei there be thistles, there are grape*. If old things, there are new; Ten thousand broken lighte and shades Yet glimpeea of the true."—TBNNYSON. We are not going to have a devolution in this country. If this country had been inclined for nevo. lution, just let us imagine what would have happened the other week. The railways stopped suddenly. A general strike of railway workers was ordered hy the leaders and took place on the most complete scale ever seen in this or any other country. Had the country been inclined for Revolu- tion, what would have happened? The trans- port workers when asked to drive motor lorries to convey milk from the country to the popnlous centres would have said "Xo fear; ke are not going to to blackleg our railway pals." And the motor-lorries woud have be& as motionless as the locomotives! **• AVe should have been faced with a complete stoppage of transport In 24 hours, the coun- try would have been in an uproar. On Mon- day, the mothers in all the large towns would have been gathered in frenzied crowds de- manding milk for their children. On Tuesday half the bakers' shops would have been with- out bread. On Wednesday no bread would he procurable anywhere, On Thurday there would have been no food of any kind in the populous centres. On Friday mobs would have turned out to loot shops and .banks and to set fire to the houses of the wealthier people. rIhe soldiers would have been called out to fire on the crowd; some regiments would have re- fused and would have joined the "people. The rioters are alway called the people. Quiet law-abiding people are not "people" at all'. We should then have been plunged into civil war. Eventually as regiment after regi- ment went over to the people, tlie Govern- troops would have been defeated. The Hevoc. lutionists would have captured all the mem- bers of the Government and would have locked them up. The reins of Government would have been seized by some of the more ruffianly members of the Trades Unions. Par- liament, of course, would have been sup- pressed. The Revolutionist is always opposed to Democracy. He does not believe in popu- lar suffrage. Your true Revolutionist be- lieves in dicatting to the masses and in mow- ing them down with machine guns, if they raise any objection. # This is what would have happened if the country had been inclined for Revolution. But it did not happen, because the country does not want Revolution. But what really happened? The strikers were amazed to find themselves unpopular. The. masses did not take the railway strike as a lead. They resented it. Men were not only ready but anxious to lend a hand to, fight the attempt to starve out the country, bo far from being the hero he expected to find himself, the railwayman was astounded to find himself regarded as the "villain of the plor. And all this will quickly react on the leaders They hoped that in a day or two they would be idolised by the men for the victory they had won! Instead of that what do they find? The men have a distinct grievance against the leaders fdr placing them in a false position. *#« The most immediate effect of the strike will be to break the power of the leaders. \Vhen the strike had lasted four or five days, the men were getting out of hand. It is no secret that had the settlement not come when it did half the men would have gone back to work in defiance of their leaders. Had they done so, the others would have followed in 24 hours, and the whole organisation would have been shattered. The leaders by the end of the week were in a hurry to "settle" lest t.1e whole machinery should go to pieces. The most immediate lesson of the strike is that we must get rid of Prussia nism in this country. The men came out blindly when ordered without having any very clear concep- tion why they were coming out. And nine days afterwards they went back to work when ordered without having the least idea what the terms of the settlement were.. Twelve hours after they went back, they read the details of the settlement in the morning papers! There are people who raise objections to Trades Unionism. In the present case Wo a i n not dealing with Trades Unionism. If the members of a Union take a ballot and the majority is found to favour a strike, it is a perfectly intelligible policy that ali the mem- bers shall come out-even those who votwi. against the strike policy. Unionism or con- certed action of any kind would be impossible unless the minority were ruled by the majo- rity. The present tendency, however is quite the other way. Ballots are going out of fashion. The railwaymen were neve.r balloted on the question of a strike. They were never asked whether they were prepared to come out en strike. Mr J. H. Thomas and a couple pt leaders of the same kind ordered the men lo strike and they struck. **# This is sheer Prussian ism. On the 31st July, 1914, the German sodiers got their orders to "mobilise." The men stopped their da,ily toil and rushed to their district he id- quarters to join up. They did not ask "What are we wanted for? What is the war abou:?" Not. at all. Such an idea never entered the minds of the German soldiers. If somebody had asked a German soldier why he went to the depot immediately, he would have said "It is the orders ef the Superior Authority." J'What is the use of ilie waN" "I know not; it is the orders oi ,Superior Authority." "Are you anxious to fight Frenchmen or Russians or Britons?" • "No; I would much rather in my happy home t remain; but one must the orders of Supen jr Authority obey." This is exactly the attitude of mind which Mr J. H. Thomas and Co. aire trying to culti- vate on the part of the British workman. The majority of the railwaymen and the majority of the colliers may be against a strike; b"t they must obey the orders of General Vor. Smiliie and General Von Thomas. It was said during the strike that Mr Lloyd George was trying to smash Trades Unionism, He was not trying to do anything of the sort. He jvas trying to uphold Trades Unionism. The people who were trying to destroy Trades Unionism were the leaders who claim he right to order a, strike without consulting the I members of the Union. «* There are signs that the British working man is beginning to see through tlve prese it state of affairs. In 1914, the Kaiser said "I can call out ten millions of men who recog- nise me as their War-Lord." The Kaisers f Labour are getting into much the same frame of mind. Thev want to be able to threaten a Prime Minister and to say "We are the syndics of twenty million workers. Unless you make laws to suit us, we'll starve you out in a week." The Prussian War-Lord called out his: en Is ell millions of men and he led them to disaster. The result is that the Kaiser was deposed, and there 110 longer is a Prussian War Lord The Germans are quite determined that nc- hod in the future hall lead them over a pr('i- pice. It is just possible that the Prussians of British Trades Unionism will have a timi- lar fate unless they are very careful. The British working man has not much patience with leaders who lead him astray. There has been a good deal of talk lately about the "Nationalisation" of the coal mines. Nationalisation would be a very good move. What the promoters of the present movement aim at is not the "Nationalisation" of the oolleries, but the "Smillieisation" of them. The only argument which is advanced in favour of Nationalisation is that the Sankey Commission recommended it. It is quite a novel doctrine that Parliament is bound to pass an Act embodying a most drastic change in our industrial affairs merely because the change happens to have been recommended by a Royal Commission. In the veer 1893, a Royal Commission sat I (1,nd took evidence on the condition of agricul- ture in Wales and Monmouthshire. The Com- mission made some very drastic recommenda- tions. They recommended (amongst other things) that the rent of agricultural holdings should be fixed by a Land Court, and that the tenant should have a fixity of tenure. If the recommendations of the Welsh Land Commis- sion made in the year 1893 had been adopted by Parliament, the Welsh farmer would have been to-day quite secure in his holding so long as he paid the rent punctually and did not waste the land. Here is an instance within the memory of all grown-up people of an urgent reform being recommended by a Royal Commission. Evi- dence was given before the Commission in 1893 that farmers bought their holdings at exorbitant prices with borrowed money be- cause they were afraid of being turned out. It was pointed out to the Commission that the interest on the purchase money really meant double the former rent, but that far- mers undertook this burden so great was their fear of eviction. It was pointed out that farmers spent their whole lives improving land and had afterwards to buy their own im- provements when the holding was put up for sale! • All this was true in the year 1893. It is true to-day. The enormous prices which far- mers are giving for their holdings to-day are not entirely due ^o an increase in the value of land. Nobody believes tht the present boom in agriculture is going to last for fifty years— which is the only theory which would justify the price paid for land. The main cause is the l>reaiking up of estates due to the fear of taxation and confiscation. The landlords are atffeid that a Government which is hard up for money will grab their property. Th tenants are afraid that they will be turned out if a stranger buys the land—and hence they pay panic prices to guard themselves against eviction. The Government however quietly shelved the report of the Royal Commission of 1893. Many .other reports of Royal Commissions have been shelved—reports which have been directly pertinent to the terms of reference. Mr Smiliie and his set however are in a tre- mendous hurry to get Parliament to adopt the recommendation of the Sankey Commis- sion in regard to a side-issue—although the rcommenda tiun was only made this year. What does Nationalisation mean It means "becoming the property of the nation." This is a really beautiful idea. It would seem to be such a great thing for the coal-mines to belong to the nation. But that is not Avliat the Smillie set really mean. Who are the Nation We are all part of the Nation. The Nation means farnier-s and shoemakers and navvies and lawyers and grocers and jewellers and tailors and journal- ists and postmen and ministers and school- teachers and drapers and foundry-AVorkers, and scavengers and blacksmiths and painters and medical men, and brewers and basket- makers and cabinet-makers! If tiie mines were to become really Nation- alised, they would become the property of all these people. Is tins what Mr Smilile means ? Not by a long chalk! If the mines are "nationalised" in theory it will simply mean that they are to be handed over to the colliers who will allow no "interfering" by drapers and farmers and others. And the colliers themselves will in practice have little to say in the management. Mr Smillie and a few of his sort will "boss" the mines. We have lveard a good deal about the Duke of Hamilton and the Marquis of Bute and Lord Tredegar nd Lord Dynevor as colliery- owners. Does anybody seriously believe that the Nation at large would take the mines from the present owners and hand them over to Mr Smiliie and a few others like him ? And if such a change were made, does anybody be- lieve it would be better as for as the public afce concerned ?

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