the the then are completely disfranchised. the moon, and are angry that They cannot send to West- it does not descend to light minster one single representa- them on their way home. They tive, save only those who are see in the world nothing but chosen by the universities, who "class." The working class, hold their seats by an unsafe their own, can do no wrong. tenure, and may be expelled That is their motto. They at any moment that it suits the believe in the right of the "people" to expel them. It sovereign "people" to go its might be thought that the own road, and to push out of working-classes, having elected its path anybody who is rash those who seem good to them, enough to impede its progress would be satisfied with their towards anarchy. If it suit achievement. Not a bit of it. the people's" whim to hold They at once busy themselves country up country up to ransom, -at least the extremists among he is the enemy of manthem do-in attempting to curb kind who dares to defend the power which they have himself and his class against delegated. They talk loudly its cruel and wanton attacks. of enrolling an army of defence. The soldier and the sailor, it Of defence against what? pretends, owe no allegiance to Against the policy which their their King and their country: own representatives initiate. their one duty is to protect They cannot bear the burden the "people" when it pleases it of law, even though they im- to break the law. Wherefore pose it themselves. It is a it does its best to corrupt the strange paradox, which throws soldier and the sailor, hoping a flood of light upon their imprudently to find in their lack of intelligence. No one treachery an easy support for shall govern us, they cry, its own wickedness. whom we have not ourselves elected. And when the poor instrument of their will is chosen, he is our enemy, they cry again, because he dares to discharge the office of a governor. With such men as the extremists it is useless to reason. They don't know what their purpose is. They don't want anything. They only want to want it. If we may put faith in their noisy utterances, we may assume that they despise justice, they despise law, they despise order. They cry for Lacking intelligence, the extremists among the workingclasses do not know how to accommodate the means which they employ to the end which they keep in view. They delight to use a sledge-hammer to crack a nut. If they think they want an extra bob a day, they would willingly drag down the whole fabric of civilisation to gratify their whim. Ignorant of economics and history, they still believe that there is somewhere or other an immense hoard of gold, which is being kept infamously from them; they are unable to profit by the experience of others even the lessons taught by the Russian Revolution are beyond their acquisition. But their ignorance makes them dangerous. They have the same power of harm which a savage, armed with a crowbar, possesses; they can shatter at a blow a work of art which it has taken many a year of sleepless toil to fashion. Ever since a vast subsidy was given to the miners under the threat of a general strike a threat which those stalwart patriots, Messrs Thomas and Clynes, hastened to echo,-the extremists have been talking very loudly and very often. They have threatened not only to enrol an army of their own, but to corrupt the forces of the Crown. They have shown themselves guilty of treason on many platforms. And the Government has done nothing to check their pestilent activity. Now, our present Government came into power with an immense majority, because the paradoxical working-classes wanted, for the moment, peace and tranquillity. The very excuse for the last General Election was the withdrawal of the prosecution of a certain Mr Campbell, who was guilty of the same corruption of the military forces which Mr Baldwin's Government has condoned in others. Again, Mr Baldwin's majority was a proof that England's only effective voters were determined just then to shake off the influence of Bol shevism. And what has the Government done since its accession to power to stop the activities of the Russian Bolsheviks, who are preaching sedition up and down the manufacturing districts? If ever a mandate from the electors were neglected, it was the mandate given at the last General Election to restore order to a distracted kingdom, and our present Ministers are likely to pay a heavy price for their inaction. Meanwhile, they know, or ought to know, what will confront them when the months of truce are over. The situation will repeat itself; we shall listen once more to threats of a general strike; the moderates, such as Messrs Thomas and Clynes, will be ready once more to sacrifice the country to the "sympathy" which they feel for the irreconcilable miners; and if the Government has not arranged such measures as will enable us to feed ourselves and to carry on our proper business, it will be sent into the wilderness, from which it will never dare to return. For the moment there are signs that a wiser policy may be adopted. The signs may easily prove delusive, and they should not be permitted to lull us to a dangerous confidence. The great Mr Cook, who not long since envisaged himself as the master not only of England, but of Europe, has suffered a series of rebuffs. Cleon has been worsted not by a sausageseller, but by those who have some respect for law and order. He carried his noisy tongue and blatant thoughts to Germany, which very soon sent him home again, chastened, let us hope, and depressed. For the Germans, being still inspired by a love of their country, still hoping by industry and self-denial to restore prosperity to a beaten land, hooted at the arrogant demagogue, who boasted that he was one of "the big five," and told him frankly that they never wanted to see him again on German soil. And Mr Cook came home, no doubt despising the Germans, who cherished so vile a virtue as patriotism, to encounter at at the Trade Union Congress a defeat yet more desperate than that which he faced in Germany. At Scarborough Mr Cook and his friends suffered a severe rebuff. They thought that they would turn into a habit the wicked policy adopted by Messrs Clynes and Thomas on what Mr Cook is pleased to call Red Friday. Nothing less, indeed, was proposed at the Congress than that "this Trade Union Congress is of opinion that the time is now ripe for definite powers to be given to the General Council as follows: (1) to have power to levy all affiliated members; (2) to call for a stoppage of work by an affiliated organisation or part thereof to assist a union defending a vital trade union principle; and (3) that this Congress calls on all organisations to make such alterations as will regularise the above position." The Congress was not of this opinion, which would have ensured a perpetual state of war between the Trade Unions and the rest of the community. Nor was the monstrous resolution tamely rejected by the delegates. It was discussed with warmth and acuteness, and there is no doubt upon which side lay the dialectic victory. Mr Cook, wholly disingenuous, told the Congress that he did not want a conflict. At home among the miners he has been screaming aloud that a conflict is precisely what he wants. We have heard not a little lately of smashing the industry, of proving the failure of capitalism by making it impossible that capitalism should do its work. At Scarborough there was a more modest appeal to the comfort of "the women and children," though it is not clear how "the women and children " would be fed and comforted by a succession of general strikes. Mr Timberlake put this objection in a sentence. "He maintained that unions should safeguard themselves and not be led away by the stunt' cry Fall in one big union and down tools,' and stop the production of everything, including their own food and drink." Messrs Thomas and Clynes for the moment got down upon the right side. Mr Clynes pointed out that much that Mr Cook had said had nothing to do with the present case. "He was not," said Mr Clynes, "in fear of the capitalist class: of the only class that he feared Mr Thomas. was his own.' Long may he continue in this creditable fear! But it was Mr Thomas, whose adaptability enables him always to let his audience make his speech, that carried off the honours of the debate. "No sentiment or claptrap," said he, "will get over the fact that if we want to strengthen the hands of the Council, the Council must know that when it acts, it acts in the name of those who can give it authority. Notwithstanding what Cook says, that the miners have considered this, I say the miners have not." He agreed with what Mr Cook had said about power. Power is essential," said Mr Thomas; "but common-sense also is sometimes necessary." And then in a peroration he treated Mr Cook as that gentleman, with a vastly swollen head, deserves to be treated. "Do not misuse your power," said 66 that Do not try to build a foundation which is not solid at the bottom." And then in a few parting words he admonished the fire-eater: "If we can help each other we will do it, but don't make the mistake of assuming that you are the best judge of all that the world requires." It is to be noted that Mr Thomas spoke throughout with the voice of the sectarian. He betrayed no zeal for the welfare of the community. Nor was the vexed question of solidarity answered once and for always. It was sent back for further discussion. It must not therefore be thought that we are out of danger. The Trade Unions may still think it useful to "stop the production of everything, including their own food and drink." And then it will be for the Government to show itself prepared, and to insist, with courage and wisdom, that the fight shall not be all on one side. Printed in Great Britain by OFF a narrow alleyway that straggles southward from Fleet Street there is an unkempt courtyard formed by the junction of three flat-faced buildings whose only attraction is their age. It is a backwater of the commercial torrent that rushes past a few yards distant, and its corners, a-clutter with wisps of straw, scraps of paper, and other playthings of the city winds, serve as a crêche for the mewling offsprings of sundry lean and mangy cats. One of these feline drabs, intent upon the toilet of a numerous family, abandoned the niceties of tongue and paw to glare up fiercely as Paul Sleive Emmet turned the corner and approached a doorway under a sign which read in gilt letters: "Joseph Herman, Publisher, Shipping Dept." With a mo VOL. CCXVIII.-NO. MCCCXXI. I. mentary pause to reassure the nursery, he entered the comparative dusk of a huge interior, which, if purely utilitarian in structure and use, attained to a certain dignity of atmosphere. In the premises where he worked this portion alone, to Emmet's mind, possessed definite character. A curious smell of printed matter, paste, cordage, and stale tobacco, compounded by time into a not unpleasant snuff-like odour, filled his nostrils, and in his ears rang the syncopated tap of hammers and the sullen squeal of straining wood. Conscious that these things soothed rather than jarred upon his nerves, he stared about him at the great beams of the ceiling ebonised through age, at the recesses where long shadows 2 A |