Thu Abuse of Trade Unionism. 



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Hi !"liftstfr Ciizi ' 



Une Danse Macabre. 



meet the closed slio|i movement by a counter organi- 

 sation which would bring the country very near to a 

 ( ivil war. He maintains that the State should 

 intervene : — 



If a cominercial nation in peaceful times cannot protect the 

 rijjhls of its working class to secure employment from those 

 who wish to employ them, it has lamentably failed. 



The history of civilised government alTords no parallel 

 wherehy law permits a combination of men to enter into a 

 >cheme so calcul.Uccl to imperil and destroy property and 

 pe&inal rights. 



Nothing could !■■• l.iircr than to place upon the statute books 

 in all the States ^i l.nv which forbids any combination on the 

 part of any cla.ss of [icoplc, whether employers or employees, to 

 discriminate against :\ man on the ground that he is or is not .i 

 member of a labour imi n. 



THF, BRITISH I..\U' AND IRADKS UNIONS. 



Mr. Waller V. Osborne, of the >sbornc Judginetit 

 fame, writing in the Weilminskr Rniai.' for Jatiuary, 

 maintains that it is absolutely necessary that the Trades 

 Unions .Act of 1 906 should be amended. Mr. Osborne 

 traces the condiiiun of the present unfortunate position 

 of aflairs to thi- Taff Vale decision, which deprived 

 the Trades Unions of the immunity which they had 

 previously enjo) id of being al>le to conduct a strike 

 without being liable for damages. Mr. Osborne 

 says : — 



Little real harm li.nl l>ecn suffered by the country during all 

 those yt.if- of suppfrstd immunity, and this argument w.as the 

 ureal inducement for the passing of the Act of 1906. No 

 -ooncr was this Act p.asscd (ban it became an instrument of 

 tyranny in the ll.^nd^ of extreme but narrow-minded, ami often 

 ignorant men. Traili- I iiionists hail long fought for the right 

 to combine without loircion or disability, but they now sought 

 I > deprive others ■■f the liberty of choice they lhemselvi~ 

 demanded, and denied the riglit for any man to remain 

 outside the, L-'nion. They seek with impunity to obtain tile 

 dismisii::! of nonunii'ii men, and to so take away their 

 means of livelihtxjd. If the (.'nion men strike all others 

 mnsl come out, to u«e their own words, "by fair means or 

 foul." Contracts and agreements arc disregarded, whilst 

 Molcnce is indulgeil in by the mob. If the leaders, inmiune 

 liy the Act o( ii)<)<'>. deliberately defy the civil law, 



there is little wonder that iheir more ignorant adherents defy 

 the criminal law. The 1906 .'Vcl is a real inducement to crime 

 of every description, by giving a false impression that criminal as 

 well as civil wrongs done in connection with a strike are 

 imn-.une. By encouraging mobs to assemble outside private 

 houses and places of employment at times when passions run 

 strong, the .Xct becomes a real danger. If contracts and agree- 

 ments are to remain the corner-stones of our commercial and 

 industrial life, if the individual is to retain any shred of liberty, 

 and if violence and brutality is to be put down, in fact if we arc 

 to be .'aved from anarchy and civil war, it is necessaiy that the 

 Act of 1906 should be immediately amended. 



HOW TO FACE INDUSTRIAL UNREST. 



Lv the Edinburgh RcT'ieiv for January the writer of 

 an article on " Changes of Current in Political 

 Thought" takes a cheerful view of the situation. 

 The reviewer declares he looks forward to a great 

 future for the British people. He admits that there 

 are changes that are inevitable, but which need not 

 necessarily be either wicked or degenerate. He looks 

 forward to a great campaign against disease as the 

 outlet for energy which at the present moment is 

 expressing itself in strikes and riots. 



So inveterate an optimist is the reviewer that he 

 contemplates Syndicalism with equanimity. He 

 deplores the adoption of any strong measures by the 

 Government against Syndicalism. Syndicalism springs 

 from discontent, and it is better that it should come 

 to the surface. There are two practical ways of 

 meeting the discontent. The first is to remedy, by 

 granting the popular demands. This, the writer says, 

 is very often impossible. The second way is to 

 provide channels by which the overflow ing discontent 

 may from time to time relieve itself in a comparatively 

 harmless manner. .Minor strikes are to discontent 

 what vaccination is to smallpox. Strikes may con- 

 stitute a natural safety-valve for blowing off the 

 passions of industrial discontent ; and it would be in 

 the last degree unwise if the Government were to 

 block up these safety valves. Reprcs-ion will never 

 cure that discontent e.xcept amotig a decadent people. 

 " I'assion " is always best relieved by conversion into 

 "action." Anger is quickly spent by abuse or blows, 

 without which it woukl have been long harboured. 

 The article is an interesting one as a survey of the 

 shifting currents of political thought at the beginning 

 of the century. 



Dividends v. Missions. 

 "Thk dividends which How frotii the wealth of South 

 America into the pockets of British investors in one 

 month exceed in amount the total expenditure on 

 evangelical missions in that continent in a hundred 

 years." So says Allan Green, writitig in the SiinJ,n 

 at Home on " The Continent of Opportunity," South 

 America, and its evangelisation. .\s Great Britain 

 alre.idy has close upon six hutidrcd millions invested 

 in the cotitinent, and this ituniense capital yields 

 nearly thirty millions a year as dividend, the statement 

 seems to be credible. 



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