Pioneer

Products of Direct Action. I WHILST Mr. Bonar Law is weightily threaten- ing the utmost rigour of the Government if the. industriasl weapon is introduced into politics; we gratefully welowme the practical results of even the threat of direct action on the part of the big unions. Last week Mr. Churchill made a graceful surrender on the Russian question, to be followed later by the announcement that Con- scription was wiped for ever from the bland in- tentions of the Coalition, and this week we find the Home Secretary, Mr. Shortt, assuring Mr. Aeland in the House of Commons that no C.O. is in prison or under any kind of Goyernment control, and all C.O.'s on conditional release from gaol will not be recalled to complete their sentences. We thank the Triple Alliance, and the electors of Swansea and Bothwell for this. That it is not from any new-found sense of dig- nity or justice upon the part of our Capitalistic Executive, the malicious persecution of Mr. Morgan Jones, of Bargoed, that was instituted after his political activities during the election and the early part of this year, and finished only on Saturday in tmie to save the Home Secre- tary's face, convinces us. The story of the past and the present record of the Coalition is too sordid and dirty to attribute these surrenders to anything other than the compulsion of public opinion expressed through the Triple Alliance, and at the bye-elections in particular. And yet with palpable surrenders on their part to illus- trate the value of determined opposition outside of Parliament when inside of it a tame majority blocks the House to the entry of public opinion through its customary channels, they would have us tremble at the threat of the use of State re- sources to prevent tuat expression. If they fear that public opinion expressing itself through the only medium of organisation left to the people, let them adthe proper policy to fight it. Let them sulu^M^heir works to the criticism of a General Ei^^n: tind if they sincerely desire that the will of the people shall prevail through the constitutional machinery of the State, let that General Election be conducted not after the fashion of a touring circus, or a passionate re- vival period—but sanely and calmly. Let the rival constructive programmes of Labour and Capital be submitted to the dispassionate judg- ment of the peoples and let them choose. But never will the Government of this country suc- ceed, after the lessons of the past few weeks, in eliminating from the minds of the workers the effects, of the policy of direct action when merely threatened. Always the potent weapon of in- dustrial inaction will be appealed to when every other way of obtaining that the will of the peo- ple shall prevail has been vainly tried. The task of the Government is so to govern with justice, equity and democratic intention that the new weapon shall not need to be appealed to do. The Government created the political situation that the threat uf direct action was called forth to meet. læt t look to itself be- fore fulminating against the awakening of the Democracy that its own deliberate forsaking of all that Democracy contains has brought about.

A Man In Doubt. I IF all the witnesses to be called by the Select 100mmittee of the House of Commons to enquire into high prices and profiteering, give their evi- dence with the same epigramatic lucidity as erstwhile Labour member, Mr. G. H. Roberts, M.P., now Food Controller, then our grandsons' grandchildren may possibly benefit. Mr. Ro- bert's principle seems to be that of a reluctant witness, and his answers are generally as nebu- lous as clouds, and as contradiotory as such answers usually succeed in being.. Mr. Roberts nurtured upon Labour principles; exponent in the past of the facts of exploitation, to-day is unable to define profiteering," though Con- trol has to some degree eliminated profiteering." How Mr. Roberts discovered how the office of which he is head came to eliminate in any de- cree what be cannot define, sounds like a conun- drum. It is not. It is evasion. And to the Socialist ho who evades in matters of such im- portance to everybody concerned, and to the great masses of the common people in particular, is more than lost-he is an active opponent, and an opponent to be closely watched by the very reason of hi., evasiveness. L1 the days when Mr. Roberts toured the country as a trade-union official and a Labour propagandist we fancy that he could have defined profiteering as clearly as anyone could desire, and to his own complete satisfaction, and we imagine that if he tried he would find he had not lost the knack even yet. Mr. Roberts' trouble is that he is not willing to try, and so he fills his mouth with plausible talk about economic and human factors as though a politician's job was ever anything but a prob- lem of "economic and human factors" and as though a Food Controller's job in particular con- sists of weaving an airy curtain of ideas from he idealist philosophy of absolutes that have no relationship to practical problems of econo- mic, human relationships. If Mr. Roberts is so badly fogged by his job as to have failed even to come to an understanding with himself as to what proteerfiing really is, does he think that his capabilities fit him for his post. We fancy that there were days when Mr. Roberts could have waxed satirical about an admission from a Minister of the State such as he is now making. Meanwhile, the great masses of the people who feel the exactions of the profiteer in everything they eat or wear, find no difficulty in defining what a profiteer is, or suggesting how he should be dealt with, and they will know how to reply to a minister who does not find some practical way of giving expression to their views. Just I whether Mr Roberts would in these days regard the industrial unrest, from which he may have noticed we suffer to some degree, as a human and economic factor in this problem of profiteer- ing, of which he is not even mildly condemna- tory, is doubtful; but of the faet that the two are insolubly linked no one else wall entertain "a doubt. Even for the sake of his new political friends, Mr. Roberts would be well advised to discover a formula?, and apply it quickly and drastically.

Worker—Or What ? I WHAT is a policeman ? According to the poli- ticians he is not a worker. And since he is just as clearly not a capitalist non-worker he must he non-existent if the general truth of the divi- sion of the world economically into workers and non-workers is t<- he accepted. But whether the policeman's la,sk he called plain work, or high- faluting duty matters not a straw. He is paid his salary for doing something, that he would not do if lie could get his salary without doing it. And there he differs not one whit from the acknowledged worker, who sells so much of his time to he spent at his particular task because he cannot secure a livelihood by any other pro- cess than that of self-sale to an employer. Whether the man spends eight-hours a day in dirty, wet clothing picking coal from the bowels of the earth, or spends eight uncomfortable hours patrolling the streets in burning, heat, driving snow storms, drenching rain, or nipping frost, he does it for precisely the same reason-- because failing to do it would deprive him and his of the food he eats, the clothes he wears, the shelter that roofs his head and the incon- siderable amenities that go to the making of kis to t l i?e mi k ng of kis st-in( l ai-( t of 1,1 f e.. Atid ,o standard of life. And like the collier or the motorman, whose jives are grounded in the same principle, the policeman has the same right to choose the machinery by which lie will express "his collective voice, in bargaining, or in voicing his grievances. If it is wrong that the police- man should have an union of his own, theit is equally wrong that the miner or postman should have one. The nature of the job, or the kind of employer does not invalidate that prin- ciple. That is bow the railwavmen of Nine Elms and the City and South London motormen, to- gether with masses of trades unionists in Liver- pool and elsewhere see the position, and some- thing better than talk about the difference in the pojsition of the policeman from the rest of the workers will have to be produced to make them see otherwise. Either a policeman >s a worker or he is not, and if he is not, what is he paid a wage for? If lie is a worker then he has a worker's right to organise himself on the basis of his work. A right never denied last year when the police struck, a right never called in question some short weeks ago, has suddenly been found to be a not-right—why ? Because of political expediency and fear. Though fear of what it is difficult to imagine. A worker may be more docile without a. trade union, but he is certainly no better a worker, nor has he a bet- ter sense of the dignity and responsibility of his work. More than one employer has declared his reluctant conviction otherwise. What, then, is there to fear in allowing the men freedom to organise? Perhaps, we shall be told that the first step to education is to become a trades unionist, linked with other trades unionists on the common basis of work. Is it t-hat that is undesirable in a. policeman p

"Systematic Profiteering." I STIPENDIARY'S CONDEMNATION OF I DOWLAIS SALESWOMAN. What the Merthyr stipendiary (Mr. R. A. Griffith) described as a very bad case of profiteer- ing came before him on Friday, when Elizabeth Jane Jones, of Union-street, Dowlais, was sum- moned for overcharging on sales of meat. Mr. J. A. W ilson (chief-(Oil stable), prosecuting, stated that Mrs. Jones sold to a customer (Mrs. Jane Williams, of Penywern) 41b. 1 toz. of "iump of beef for 8s. 6d., which was an overcharge of Is. 2d. upon the scheduled price. Accom- panying Mrs. Williams was a niece (Mrs. Annie Smith), who was charged 4s. 8d. for 21b. 9oz. of beef (" leg of mutton cut "), the "controlled price of which was 4s. Mr. E. Roberts, Dowlais (solicitor for defen- dant), pointed out that small retailers often suf- fered considerable monetary loss in cutting up pieces of meat, and added that Mrs. Jones plead- ed that the overcharges were mado in error. Stipendiary No man in his senses would be- lieve these were mistakes. How many registered customers has she ? Mr. Robertas: Six hundred and eighty. Stipendiary It can't be a very small business. Imposing fines amounting to tIO, Mr. Griffith remarked: "The fact that the defendant over- charged two customers at the same time (one, Mrs. Williams, a. customer of sixteen years' standing) showed that she has been carrying on this profiteering game in a most systematic man- ner. If she had not been a widow with three children they would have imposed a very heavy fine. She was fortunate to get off so lightly."

Denekin's. Therefore they quote with approval the "Manchester Guardian" report in which Mr. Joshua Rosett, of the American War Trade Board and American Red Cross, is quoted as saying: The present Government of Russia has brought great misery upon the people, but they prefer it to any which reactionaries like Koltchak and Deniken are likely to set up," and they then say: And so it is also in the outlying provinces to which M. Sazonoff kindly promises the broadest local Government.' Of a Free Federal Russia they might be willing to become members, but of a Russia of the Koltchaks and Denikins, never. MURDER OF A PRESIDENT. I Just why the passionate declaration of the I last sentence is passionate, this cutting from the I same issue might help us to unders.tand:- Kuban Cossacks Against Denikin and Koltchak, etc. President Murdered. I "A Moscow wireless message' transmitted by the Wireless Press, states that the Kuban Cos- sack Rada has declared against the recognition of Admiral Koltchak. The President of the Rada, M. Riabovoi, stated that this question could only be decided by the Regional Rada. In the course of his remarks he attacked the Volunteer Army of General Denikin. Owing to the decision, the message states, relations be- tween the volunteer army and the Kuban bour- geois are strained. "Followiøg upon this incident, M. Riabovoi has been murdered in Rostoff. The murder was carried out in the Palace Hotel, where M. Ria- bovoi was living. No trhce of the murderers has been found. "General Denekin's Government intends to leave Ekateriuodar." It is significant that although throughout the Rolheviki is regarded as enemy-it is as an honest enemy. Only for the pets of the Allies is this propaganda of enlightenment reserved.

lOur Friends Kollctiaki and OenikeR I I SOME FACTS FROM THE UKRAINE. j I ANTI-BOLSHEVIK, BUT BOLSHEVtS? j PREFERABLE TO REACDON. ;l Among the news-sheets that the Rus-? Among the news-sheets th;Ü the Rl1'ial! situation has called forth The Ukraine "—tW official weekly bulletin of the Ukraine Pre; Bureau in London stands high. Its purpose to forward the demand for the establishment an Ukrainian Republic, entirely severed frO': the Russian Empire autonomieally, but pre, serving a friendly relationship with its old co" nections. Independence is its one plea, all( eloquence is drawn from every conceivable ecoli^j mic, commercial, ethical and ethnological t94 likely to appeal to the polyglot interests it is; sought to enlist. The principal difficulty th# j confronts the public-its of the Home Rulers seeJl!'I' to be the uneasy stories of Pogroms within theíf provinces of which the Manchester Gnlif dian on June 30th declared that in compa.i,isOO with the pogroms in Poland "even worse I the outrages taking place in the Ukraine." (d! course, the Republicans—who claim to have beef the first to grant national autonomy as well civil rights to the Jew—tell us that this str1 of affairs—if it exists—is not surprising injjl country attacked from within and without $ the same time by Imperialists and Bolsheviks- A REPLY TO BRICCS. J The Ukrainians are certainly anti-Bolshevik*] but for all that they are too wise to be?? that Denikin and K'olkhak are a pleasant, f desirable alternative to the Bolsheviki. It is i? teresting and instructive therefore to get inf? mation about the two upholders of the Allied € terests from a source that is only less Bolshe^ than Imperialist. What say the Ukraini:J.¡1 about our politicians' pet gamblers—De? ken and Koltdlak First of all they address? a Iftter to each of our M.P.s who was called\ a meeting with General Bniggs, the BritJ? General attached to Deniken's forces. That 1? ter was signed by the representatives in Lo* don of the States of Esthonia, Latvia, LithuaflH'i and the Ukraine and was sent to each M.P, and the following two passages make interesti* reading:— "Sir,—Within the last few days a documi signed by General Denikin and addressed General Briggs has been published, informl. o the latter of the jiims which the armed forces Southern Russia have in view, and which in p* ticular amount to the Reconstruction of powerful, united, indivisible Russia and (f, centralisation by means of wide regional ant nomy and liberal self-government. ? N o local autonomy, or so-called liberal s? government, will be acceptable to our people notwithstanding'their desire to live in neig hourly, friendly relations with the Russian Ii tion. They assert to Ceneral Denikin beforehaW4 and to the other Cenerals, that democratic Pl.( grammes are not being carried out In the 0 tricts occupied by them." (Emphasis ours.) WOLVES IN FLEECE. I That is a rather naskv one for General Brig? friend Denikin, K.C.B., to fac, but it is noth?. to what comes two pages further on in an artJ? headed Wolves in Sheep's Clothing." cording to this article tl)e declaration of .??' which General Briggs has bought from Denik^ 8b sied amongst others by Gneral A. D? ominoff, the special envoy of Denikin to Fran^ who rec?ntty expressed views radically differ^ from those set down in the declaration. insta.nce? he strongly pressed, the ne<?e,s&ity ;t. military dictatorship in Russia, and thou^ j that there is no need for some long time of J 3 Constituent Assembly he was of opinl that Rua-iu should be strictly centralised ;lIj| nedther the Uktaine nor Finland can dream | separation from Russia.' J A FriW FACTS. J Naturally the Ukrainian home rulers, have notice how very divergent are the j statements of Cetera! Dragomivoff, are sl1^ [ picious; further: W e believe our suspicion Ie: i ju'<tJned by the fa('t which have recently be<?? known to the British public concerning the ?<, ministration of the territories governed by b?? Denikin and Kol?hak. Deniken's Vo!unt?'? have made themselves unpopular every wh? they have stayed. Last year they were expe?? v bye the Fkminia,ns, now they are compelled move their headquarters from Ekaterinodar, (-a t?il of Hie Cossacks of Kuban. The Cot-?? who are the chief supporters of Denekin, bit-t ':omphun of the reactionary policy of Den? ? and refuse to recognise Koltchak as sup!'?" ? ruler. As a result of their opposition, led the President of their Rada, he was myateri?' ly murdered.. With regard to Koltchak, the methods^ his administration are described bv Dr. R? in New Republic (July 9th). He thus c?' aetenst?s Koitchak :— Koltchak, who I have seen break up a  mocratic Government in Siberia with a ruthl^jt^. ness of a Tartar conqueror who has suppre''?. ? free speech and free Press: who has eit bell' jai!ed or exiled oc murdered every meR] her Of the Russian Constituent Assembly upon ??- ? he could lay his handK; and who caused the ?j t pononts of his rule of the fist to be tortured J killed.' jj Here are some line example of 'law *'??? ere a.re some fine examp eo' 3.W ..¡ order established by Koltchak in Jús R?l,'? We have a description of the murde' J a railwayman by Cossacks for giving rntJ .e' free expression to his opposition to the ne? 'ji gime next comes the kidnapping of five  ing citizens and the discovery of the dead t,,Ae in the brushwood. It was the commandaT? the town who told the story he knew whot et murderers were but dare not. touch them, '?,. the murdered men Bolsheviki?' asked jj, Rosctt. 'Whoever is murdered nowadays 15 | Bolshevik, was the answer. ,J The description of election for the Zen1}11  at Vladivostock is also very instructive. uJ list of candidates had to be submitted for tjj approval of Koltchak's Commissioner. ? struck off a number of names. The P?%( protested by boycotting the poll. On;v  votes were cast, as against 35,000 in the P'.eA vious year. Meanwhile, at Omsk, every kn £ J or suspected malcontent was branded as a Pfy shevik and arrested accordingly, including t members of the Constituent Assembly.' flit "Dear, Holy Russia of the old regime J methods so familiar to those who have tfit elections for the Duma! And now they wai^^ to believe that with Koltchak and Deniken mocracy is safe." I I i-OLTCHAK'S TURN.. i There seems to have been a competition J tween Koltchak and Derekin in constitute .?' framing, for on the very next page we read t??J M. Sazono?f the late Foreign Secretary of ™ ex-Tsar, and a notorious reactionary in his d has published for Koltchak a praiseworthy P? gramme of decentraUsation and Home Rule ?. the outlying provinces. But the Ukraini^ have as little faith in his constitution as