521 



the only way of successfully asserting the claims of the operatives to a larger share of 

 the profits of industry. The fact that wages, under existing agreements, practically 

 remained stationary, while the cost of living, owing to higher prices, was going up, gave 

 a solid basis for discontent. The result was seen, not only in numerous local conflicts 

 between Capital and Labour, of which it is unnecessary to give a detailed account, 

 but in three more extended " general " strikes, which aimed at holding up whole indus- 

 tries throughout the country and compelling parliamentary intervention. These were 

 the Railway Men's Strike of 1911, and the Coal-miners' and Transport Workers' Strikes 

 of 1912. A narrative of each of these is given below, in which allusion is made to the 

 political incidents concerned with them. One outcome of the Railway Strike, and 

 of the general unrest of which it was a symptom, was an addition made by the Govern- 

 ment to the official machinery applicable at the Board of Trade to the working of the 

 Conciliation Act of 1906. In October 1911 an Industrial Council, representative of 

 employers and workmen, was instituted, as a permanent body for considering and 

 inquiring into matters referred to them concerning trade disputes, and for taking 

 suitable action (but without any compulsory powers) on the same lines as the Con- 

 ciliation Boards already adopted in particular industries. As Chairman of this Indus- 

 trial Council, and " Chief Industrial Commissioner," the Government chose Sir George 

 Askwith (b. 1861), head of the Labour department of the Board of Trade, who had just 

 been knighted in recognition of the valuable work he had done in effecting peace in 

 recent industrial conflicts. But during 1912 at all events the deliberations of the new 

 Industrial Council were not specially productive. 



From a public point of view the worst feature of the industrial conflicts during 



1911 and 1912 was the spirit of lawlessness so repeatedly shown in acts of violence 

 and intimidation, and the apparent inadequacy of the law (partly owing to the Trade 

 Disputes Act) to vindicate the " right to work " on the part of willing labourers outside 

 the ranks of the unions. With a view to supplementing the protection available in the 

 shape of the police and the military limited as this might be by the unwillingness of 

 the executive government to do more than appeared absolutely necessary in taking 

 a side against strikers who were also voters, and even actually political supporters 

 various arrangements were made in 1911 for enrolling volunteers in private organisations 

 for the purpose: but so far this movement has not had any important practical result. 

 In spite of constant criticism on points of temporary difficulty both from employers and 

 in Parliament and in the Unionist Press, the measures taken by the Government in 

 calling out troops and supporting the local authorities were substantially effective. The 

 complete failure of the Transport Workers' strike of May- August 1912, following on the 

 disappointing results of both the railway strike and coal strike, showed that when society 

 as a whole was threatened, it could and would protect itself, and that the security of 

 existing social order was the first consideration for the executive Government, however 

 much it wished to be neutral in disputes between employers and employed. The necessity 

 of using troops, however, as well as police, in such circumstances, has led to great 

 bitterness on the part of the strikers and their sympathisers in Parliament; and in certain 

 socialist quarters attempts have been made to put pressure upon soldiers themselves 

 not to assist Capital against Labour and thus fight against their own class. In March 



1912 the Government prosecuted a journalist named Bowman, together with the two 

 printers of a paper called The Syndicalist, for the publication of an article inciting soldiers 

 to mutiny by telling them not to shoot at strikers if ordered to do so; they were found 

 guilty at the Old Bailey, and sentences of nine and six months' hard labour was passed 

 (March 22nd). On March igth too, for making a speech to the same effect, Mr. Tom 

 Mann, the well-known Labour agitator, was arrested on a warrant issued by the Salford 

 magistrates, and he was found guilty at the Manchester assizes on May 9th and sentenced 

 to six months' imprisonment (reduced to two months by the Home Secretary.) 



The year 1912 also saw the fruition of an enterprise long discussed at Trade Union 

 Congresses, namely, the starting in England of a daily paper directly representing 

 Labour. On October 8th the first number of the Daily Citizen was published, under the 



