Pioneer

Was it, Lloyd George alone? Or was it Asquith and Grey and Simon and Lansdowne ? These are the deeds by which they must he judged. They have not repudiated them. Thev have not regretted them. They are to-day as they always have been, the servants and instru- ments of Imperialism, and Capitalism; they are still the men who practised secret diplomacy abroad and vicious repression at home. BOLSHEVIK OR CADET? I And now we are being asked to join hands with them and to take them for our leaders. F-ir God j, s sake let us look what we are doing. We of the Socialist parties are Bolshevik or we are nothing. We are the left wing of the Labour Party. And the crowning irony of it I is .that it is. precisely we who are ooing asked to join hands with our British Cadets. The issue is as vital n. ono as ever faced us. On the result of this intrigue rhay hang the whole political future of Labour. If we of the left stampede to the rig-ht at, the first call of the Liberals, what can we expect of our own right and centre? That is precisely the Liberal calculation. If they can capture lS, they will have captured the whole Labour Party, horse, foot, and dragoons. They will have re-established themselves in the "primacy of the progressive movement." We shall have betrayed the Revolution. That is all! It's worth thiaking over.

BARROW ARBITRATION HEARD. Sitting as a Special Arbitration Tribunal at Westminster on Tuesday, the Committee on Pro- duction heard an application on behalf of mem- bers of. the Iron and Steel Trades Federation em- ployed by Messrs. Vickers, Ltd. of Barrow-in- Furness, for the 12J per cent. war bonus granted in the engineering and foundry trades. The employees concerned were crane-men, employed on datal rates, plus a small output bonus, con- ditional on good timekeeping. Judge Roberts announced that the decision of the oommittec, would be given \n a few days.

I I South Walians Raise The Burning Brand. A NOTABLE WORK FOR SOCIALISM AND I Ii TRADE UNIONISM. REFLECTIONS ON THE CAMPAIGN IN THE DEAN FOREST MINERS' AGENCY. (BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT). As one who was privileged to witness the re- '■jent campaign connected with the proposed elec- tion of a Miners' Agent in the Forest of Dean, I feel it worthy of record as a unique incident in the Labour and Socialist Movement. The •i-a-mpaign from beginning to end was one in which absolute unanimity prevailed in regard to the objective of the Dean Forest Miners. Out of a list of fifty-two applicants, the Miners' Advisory Committee originally selected a short list of nine candidates. This short list included three Forest men, four South Wales men, and one each from Notts and Northumberland re- spectively. A later decision of the three Forest irien to withdraw from the contest left a shorter list of six candidates, which list became the offi- cial selection of the Advisory Committee to sub- mit- to a ballot. On the testimonials of their supporters and friends and the qualifications put forward the six candidates were elected. The next problem ■(which everyone must agree would be difficult, had he knowledge of the local conditions) was to make such arrangements that would make an appearance of each candidate before the mem- bers of the Forest Miners' Association possible. After my observations of the campaign and the testimony expressed by Dean Forest citizens of various shades of opinion, I am entitled to judge the arrangements as excellent and as reflecting great credit to the Miners' Advisory Committee. Ii AN UNIQUE TREAT. I If To meet the convenience of the whole of the 1 members of the Association, meetings had been ) arranged a.t the centres most accessible to the i: men. All six candidates were conveyed to these •centres in the minimum of time, by which they were Nablie to put forward their views and re- ceive the judgment of their audiences. The halls -each time were packed, three times each day, with intent and eager listeners. Not a speech, sentence or word was missed, and judging from the applause and questionings which greeted the speeches and the speech-makers, my qualification of unique incidents is justified. It is a diffi- cult matter to select from the six candidates one that can be distinguished for the purpose of I special commendation. The opinion of a gentle- man in the Cinderford Town Hall, which was the climax of the whole campaign, was that never before, in the history of .the Dean Forest miners, had they received such a treat. The enthusiasm for Socialism, which must logically follow on the more perfect organization of Trade Unionism, the forcible expression of opinion of a more forcible cause, the love of brotherhood, to which the whole movement of Trade Unionism tends, were the factors of a great achievement. In these manifestations of Social desire, in the criticism and appreciation of the speeches made by the candidates, one can see what the Labour ( Movement requires for its gospel. Not one can- ..(Fda te was allowed to hear the speech of another. Neither was there any desire shown on the part of one condidate to score points, of opportunity. Concentration on the policy and the objective of 'Trade Unionism seems to have been the idea that prompted all the views and statements of the candidates. They fraternized every oppor- tune hour, pushed home their points with one < j: accord, and met any opposition in chance di;- 'cussions with a solid front. If I had not known of an election for a miners' agent I would have said this was a campaign for Socialism and "Trade Union propaganda. Indeed, I questioned the candidates as to their chances of success, separately, and the reply in each case was: 14 1 shall be gaktified if I have made some contribu- tion towarw furthering the principles of Trade Unionism and Socialism among the .Forest of j Dean minepR." There is something elevating and inspiring in thi? unity. It was the secret -of 'the approval and enthusiasm with which the speeches and the speakers were received. In- variably, during the campaign, one met the opinion that the Forest miners would not have been deft to an isolated desuetude had they been mentally fed on teaching of t,hat revolutionary character. Ii THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFICULTIES.. I i I have hinted at the geographical extern of the Forest of Dean District, and the scattered r: nature of the different portions of the organiza- tion; no one could belittle the difficulties arising from them. All the more is credit due to the members of the Advisory Board for the results of the campaign. To travel to Yorkly, then on to Bream, and from thence to Blakeney and Cinderford is an 'example of each day's occupation. Then, a.gain. the hall on three occasions, in three centres, on three successive days, were filled to their utmost capacity. A critic may judge the situation as being due to the excitement of the hour. I have no doubts or speculation as to the efficient j { -cause. I would say that. the situation was created by the real need being administered to by a unified knowledge and aim of Labour's re- (" quirements. [ THE QUERIES. I There existed abundant evidence as to the meed for a new life and a Dow objective. This was evinced in the nature of the questions which were put and oftiines repeated to the separate candidates, thus: "What are your views on re- construction, the comb-out, the future organisa- tion of Labour, the 4 Butty System,' and nu- merous other up-to-date queries? The fact. that a major portion of candidates hailed from South Wales evoked the highest interest in events of the last three-and-a-half years. Whatever differences of opinion may exist j among the members of the miners of Great Bri- tain in regard to these important questions they  are uppermost in the mind of the rank-and-BIe. ? The candidates who faced these neve? burked ? their issue. They neither accommodated them- selves nor evaded the points. Not knowing the mind of their audiences they fearlessly advo- cated their own viewpoint and the unity in I effort and result was splendid. Sycophants and office-seekers are retrogressive I | elements in any movement. Truth-seeking and truth-dealing are sure to succeed in the end. In r. this lies the hope for Labour's doctrines in that they are proved to be consistent with the facte of working-class development. Well may it be said of the publishers of truth when they enter i the citadel of their opponents: "Abandon all f hope all ye who enter here. "My class before everything" as an ideal of the workers patriot- ism must surely provoke bitterness in the oppo- ? sition or it arouses sympathy and enthusiasm f in our own ranks. This attitude on the part of t the candidates., as they appeared before their t fellow-workers for judgment, was persisted in j till the end. THE RED FLAG AS CLIMAX. Arrangements being fixed for the final day at Coleford, the six candidates continued with the same tone as when they began at Yorkley. On this, their last appearance in one of the most beautiful, old-fashioned industrial towns in Eng- land, they went even further with their philoso- phy, and in the true, traditional and triumphant method decided that the "Red Flag" should be sung as a herald of the business it was their in- tention to follow. Whether the people's flag" had been raised or sung in Coleford before they never stopped to enquire. Having a, musical soul in the company, in the person of Alderman C. J. Griffiths, of Merthyr fame (working-class), the dynamic of revolution was present. Comrade Griffiths was elected to his duties to the com- munal tribe, and one of the greatest campaigns in the history of the Forest of Dean, for work- ing-class solidarity, came to a close with the singing of the Red Flag." On their return to the Metropolis of the Dean, a fellow-worker, whose class-consciousness was hidden by the crust of Bourgeois politics, rebuked the rebels for such unusual conduct. This rebuke, clearly understood by the band, was left to Comrade Noah Tromans to deal with. Anyone who has been to a miners' delegate conference at Cardiff needs no information as to the policy or the effect of Comrade Tromans' reply. The effort was characteristic, the effect was good. In all the appeals, and in all the discussions, enemies to labour were reconciled, new friendships were made, newer visions were comprehended and other links in the chain of comradeship were made secure. As a native of the Forest, who has worked with the miners all his life, expressed it: "This has been a red-letter week in the his- tory of the Dean Forest miners, and every citi- zen in the district will have cause to. remember that during that week the Forest of Dean. Miners' Association received its greatest impetus and realized its possibilities." I

German Socialists' Moral Collap se HAASE'S COURAGEOUS STAND. I ALSACE-LORRAINE THROUGH GERMAN I EYES. One of the results of the German peace with Russia has been the collapse of the German Majority Social Democrats as a moral force (says the Manchester Guardian."). Though they form the largest democratic party in the Reich- stag they are sinking deeper and deeper into the opportunism to which they committed them- selves at the outbreak of the war, and indeed it would appear that-the party's only claim to im- portance will soon be the fact that it belongs to the Reichstag Majority (the Centre, the Progres- sives, and the Social Democrats) and .so exerts a certain influence on the Government. In his last speech to the Reichstag Scheidemann, the Majority Socialist leader, spoke of the Russian tragedy," and merely said that the peace with Russia, was not as they had imagined it. There was not a word of protest. The Majority Social- ists had not the courage to stand by their prin- ciples and fight for them. THE MINORITY PROTEST. I The only people to raise their voices in pro- test were the Minority Social Democrats, or the Independent Socialists, as they call themselves. Speaking in their name Herr Haase pointed out to the Reichstag that it was impossible to recon- cile the ultimatum to Russia with the Reichstag resolution which the Chancellor had accepted on taking office. He said: "We protest most energetically against this policy of violation. Count Hertling is only the signboard of the Government; in reality the all-powerful military party rules, governed by Ludendorff. The Ukraine Treaty has been concluded with a non-existent Government. The Ukraine will undoubtedly go over to Russia again. e can see no step towards peace in the trea ty with the Ukraine. The so-called ratifi- cation of frontiers in Poland-means nothing else than a new partition of Poland. From -Finland, too, come stories of atrocities. As a matter of fad, there is revolutionary order in Finland. Be- ware of extending the role of liberator to the independent and mature population of Finland, that has had universal suffrage for men and women ioi a long time now. ALSACE LORRAINE. I The way peace is being concluded in the east can only be to out disadvantage. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay for this polley with their blood. And how does this policy a-itect our opponents in the west? Does anybody oe leve that under the impression of the Russian ultimatum any other Government that is not completely beaten will enter into separate nego- tiations wlth Germany? The designs upon Briey and Longwy are not yet completely put aside bv authoritative quarters. We demanded complete autonomy for Alsace- Lorraine before the war. But it is incompre- hensible to all Socialists that hundreds of thou- sands should be sacrificed mainly for the sake of Alsace-Lorraine. The democratic parties are always insisting that the population will decide for Germany in, the event of a plebiscite. Then why do they oppose with all their might the idea of a referendum? 5'

Parliament in War Time SUBSERVIENCE NO SIGN OF DECADENCE BUT A WEAKNESS UNDER CERTAIN CON- DITIONS. In an interesting article entitled The House of Commons in War Time," which he has contri- buted to the March U.D.C.»Mr. Chas. Tre- velyan, M.P., says: It would not be true to attribute the inacti- vity and subservience of parliament to any lower- ing of the standard of ability of recent years. The very fierceness of the political divisions be- fore the war and the increasing importance of the social issues involved had brought into Par- liament the best available talent of both parties. The 1910 Parliament was far superior in person- nel to the first two Parliaments of the century. But in the years before the war broke out, owing to the deep cleavage of opinion, both parties had learnt the necessity for strict party discipline. Men even of the most independent spirit, knowing that the, defence of the House of Lords or the passage of the Home Rule Bill de- pended on strict co-operation, had become ac- customed to tolerate subordinate policies of which they disapproved. Then came the war. To these men, already trained to see the value of suoordi- nating everything to the higher cause, came the more powerful appeal still of national unity to save the State in time of war. It was a fine and honourable and true appeal in all its lesser signi- ficances. NO POLICY AT ALL. "The one remarkable accomplishment of this Parliament, showing what a latent fund of strength and statesmanship lay wasting within it, has been the passage of the Representation of the People Act by common agreement. But it became a danger and lot a security to the State when the unity of Parliament became an excuse for silence on the greater national and international issues of the war. For this war is making revolutions every day. And no set of men can without free discussion among them- selves guide and utilise new conditions and forces and facts., National unity under such con- ditions cannot be static. To be maintained it must alter from month to month and even week to week. The policy which is sufficient for 1914 is a back page in 1915, and with 1918 a new volume has been entered. So the Governments have found. They have altered their policies. But the House of Commons has pretended to be following the same policy, and we have this re- markable circumstance. In Germany, where the recognition of Parliamentary control of Gov- ernment is far less definite than here, the Reich- stag has formulated and proclaimed a policy of its own to meet the growing needs of Democracy. But the House of Commons in the last few months, when Governments I and Labour parties all over Europe have been proclaiming their war aims and peace policies has remained silent. So it has, in fact, abdicated to the Government its whole function of constructive statesman- ship. WHAT OF THE FUTURE. Those who believe, as I do, in the political instincts of the British people can be confident that, after the war, when the soldiers return, when the women vote, when the account is asked for from the Governments that have de- layed peace, in a new Parliament, the first in- stinct will be to curb the autocracy or the Cabinet. Wo are more likely to pass into a. phase where the Ministers hold office on a three- months tenure and report weekly to the House of Commons the course of their policy, as is done now in Russia, than advance towards a consular absolutism where the rulers of the Sta,te gra- dually shake themselves free from the control of the Senate."

IRISH PARTY LEADERSHIP. Mr. John Dillon, M.P., was unaniniously 1 elected on Tuesday to succeed the late Mr. Red- mond as leader of the Irish Nationalist Party. ( .¡ r- "o-r. r.N\o. f, 0' ,¡"

Liberalism Means Just The Same. BY W. N. EWER. I It is really annoying. Here am I, wanting to get back to my oligarchs, and other matters will come crowding in, insisting that I shall talk about them instead. And I did very much this month want to say something about the oli- garchy and the monarchy, what Ambassador Gerard calls this king business "—which I be- lieve to be much more important than most of us realise. But it's no use. There is more ur- gent business afoot; and first things first. The matter is this: tha.t the enemy is moving, and that we have got to wake up pretty sharply or we shall be caught napping. It isn't the Tories and the Georgeites that alarm me. True. they are getting actively to work. The Prime Minister's press is well on the move with a cam- paign of scurrility and slander; whole batteries of abuse are hurling a bombardment of mud at Bolshevism and the Industrial Unionism of Re- volutionary Socialism. And our friends of the Anti-Socialist Union are appealing for funds- not as a charitable donation, but rather as an insurance premium in order to prepare for a well-organised campaign at the conclusion of the war." But all this doesn't specially matter. It is open fighting—even though the weapons are not always of the cleanest. And in an open fight I'm not afraid of the issue—poison-gas or no poison-gas. THE LIBERAL LURE. It isn't the Tories, who come as enemies; it is the Liberals, who come as friends, that are dan- gerous. And the Liberals are beginning to hold out the hand of friendship to the Labour Party: are .beginning tentatively to suggest co-opera- tion, and a return to the working alliance of the days before the war. Very plausible they are. A joint attack on Lloyd George and his accomplices: Peace by Ne- gotiation, restoration of freedom at home, far- reaching social reforms. Why not co-operate? We, the Liberals, cannot, of course, go all the way that you Socialists wish: but why not go in company till our paths diverge. And, after all, is not Lloyd George the curse of our coun- try ? Lloyd George and Northcliffe! Come, let us band together and overthrow them. Let us have a new government-a Peace Coalition in place of this War Coalition. LETTING THE CAT OUT. I Well, it is an ofter-a proposal of partnership. And before we jump at it, it is just as well to look at the credentials of our would-be partners, and also to find out whether we really are in the same line of business. Who, then, are these Liberals who are begin- ning to coquet with Labour ? And what are they after? Mind you, it is not now a question of the In- dependent Radicals—men like Ponsonby and King and Outhwaite, who have been working with us for months and years past. It is now the Liberal Party itself—the Asquith-Simon bloc, that is beginning to play up to us. Osten- sibly it is the Radical" wing. The show is being run by a new organisation called "The Radical Committee." But that Committee is appealing for support to the regular Liberal caucus organisations-the Eighty Club and the like. And their appeal is in no v.*y to men dis- satisfied with the Liberal Party. It is quite frankly based on purely opportunist grounds and is aiming at the reinstatement of the Asquithites in power. The Committee—I have seen one of their letters—suggests that the Liberal Party must revise its programme to suit the changing conditions, and that their object must be in Mr. Asquith's words to retain for Liberalism its old primacy in the progressive movement." There is the cat well out of the bag. This precious Committee's war-aim is to nobble the Labour Party: to persuade it to play again se- cond fiddle to the Liberals, and to use it once more as a support of a Liberal regime. That is what they are out for. And surely it is clear as daylight that if we fall into the trap there is an end for another generation of revolutionary political action in this country. There will be another period of mild and utterly futile progressivism. The new Labour Party will be dammed before it is well born. And the revolutionary industrial movement will be left to fight single-handed without effective support from the political movement. WHY HAVE A LABOUR PARTY? I Of course, if you who read this are not a re- volutionary; or if you are a revolutionary only in theory and "principle "-a reformist by in- stinct and action—this argument will make no appeal to you. You, being hungry, will regard a mess of pottage, and will consider those of us who are foolish enough to have a. preference for birthrights as foolish, unpractical visionaries. Only, in that case, I cannot for the life of me see what you want to worry about a Labour Party at all for. I cannot see the slightest justi- fication for its existence except it exists for the purpose of waging the class-war. If there isn't such a thing; if the class-war is, as George Barnes would have us believe, a pure invention of theorists; then for Labour to organise itself for political and industrial action separately from the bourgeoisie is just silly. If we are not out for revolution, but only for the sort of re- forms the Liberals will give us, we may as well all turn Liberal at once and take service under the banner of Asquith and Grey and Simon and the rest of them. But if the class-war is a reality; if we are re- volutionaries and Socialists pledged before any- thing else to an unremitting war for the over- throw of the things that are; then to contem- plafte alliance with one of the powers arrayed against us is jnst suicide. THE LIBERAL RECORD. I And there is one other matter. I suggested that we ought to look to the credentials of our would-be partners. And I want to ask any of you who are tempted to tak-c, the proffered Liberal hand to consider very seriously whether you arc likely to get even the peace you desire., and the restoration of liberty in this country from these men. C They are prating to you now of Lloyd George and his evil deeds. They are foisting on to the George-Milnev-Curzon junta, responsibility for everything that we have been fighting in the past four years. But— Who was it led us into war ? Who made the secret understandings with France and Russia which compelled us to war ? Who. since the war; made the secret treaties which condemned thousands of our men to die for the aggressive ambitions of Russian and -French and Italian ImperialismP Who made the Paris agreements for econo- mic war after the warp Who passed the Defence of the Realm Act? Who passed1 the Military Service Act? Who passed the Munitions Act? (Oontimled at foot of previous column).