340 



The Review of Reviews. 



Mr. Stephen Walsh. 



neither protracted nor irrelevant. The speeches even 

 of the most e.xtreme men were moderate and sensible 

 as befitted the representatives of a nation in the throes 

 of a crisis. The speeches of Mr. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd 

 George, Mr. Thomas Lough, Mr. Brace, and Mr. 

 Stephen Walsh were memorable. Only one unworthy 

 speech was delivered by any leading man, and that 

 was not spoken at Westminster. 



One, and one only, national reputa- 

 tion was made during this crisis 

 on the miners' side. The speech 

 was delivered in Committee by 

 Mr. Stephen Walsh, M.P. for Ince, when the Mini- 

 mum Wage Bill was in Committee. Citizenship, he said, 

 was higher than trade unionism, and when the national 

 interests were in danger he would stand by the State. 

 He therefore declared himself in favour of making the 

 most of the Act. Defending himself afterwards before 

 miners' meetings in Lancashire, Mr. Walsh said :— 



There had been extremists, mainly from South Wales, who 

 .-idvised the conference to defy the Government .nnd to bring 

 out the transport workers and so strangle the lite of the nation. 

 That would have meant starvation, children crying for bread 

 and women heartbroken, and desperate men with policemen's 

 batons and soldiers' bayonets in their bodies. It would have 

 meant civil war. If he had remained silent and allowed their 

 people to be batoned and sabred as they would have been, he 

 would have been unworthy of the miners' confidence and would 

 have felt a coward and a skulk all the days of his life. . . . 

 People were talking about his treachery to his fellow-men. 

 He flung the lie back in the teeth of those who brought such a 

 charge. The principle of the minimum wage having been 

 conceded after a fight extending over fifty years, it was the 

 duty of the men to accept the Act and to do their utmost to 

 eliminate all that was bad in it. 



Many other leaders of the miners took the same line. 

 But to Mr. Walsh belongs the honour of having clearly 

 formulated the fundamental truth that " Citizenship 

 is higher than Trade Unionism." Lowell wrote : — 



The nation claims our fealty. We grant it so, but then 

 liefore man made us citizens great Nature made us men. 



But if Humanity takes precedence of the State, 

 Citizenship goes before any class interest, even 

 when that class is as numerous as the trade unions. 

 The Opposition failed to rise to the 

 occasion. It was throughout nega- 

 tive, reminding us of Disraeli's 

 famous aphorism, "Conservativism 

 is the mule of politics that engenders nothing." Mr. 

 Bonar Law did well in deprecating debate. He did 

 well also in giving place to Mr. Balfour, whose return 

 to the leadership — actual though not formal— was 

 hailed with general enthusiasm. But, otherwise, none 

 of the Unionist leaders distinguished themselves. 

 'I'hey suggested as possible solutions methods which 

 were manifestly impossible, and they shrank afraid 



The Opposition. 



from the heroic counsels of Mr. Garvin, who for once 

 has utterly failed to ride the whirlwind and direct 

 the storm. Once bit. twice shy is apparently the 

 motto of the Unionist Party. The worst thing ttbout 

 the Op'position was that its note was throughout one 

 of bitter, almost rancorous dislike and distrust of 

 Labour. It was said in the Lobby that the one thing 

 the younger Tories were wishing for was such a pro- 

 longation of the strike as would bring the soldiers into 

 the field ; for a few dead colliers would be a welcome 

 addition to the assets of the Tory Party. Of course 

 this will be repudiated as a calumny. I merely 

 chronicle it as a story current in the Lobby, and firmly 

 believed by many Liberals. 



Among the mine-owners the only 



», „ „. personalitv which emerges dis- 



The Mme-owners. \ • . '^ 



tinctly towering above the throng 

 is that of Mr. D. A. Thomas, of 

 the Cambrian Combine, whose attitude of irrecon- 

 cilable opposition to the miners' demands in council 

 did not prevent him making very moderate proposals 

 for the settlement of the controversy. His letter to 

 the Times was a masterpiece of clear statement, and 

 his relations with the miners were of unbroken friendli- 

 ness and of mutual esteem. Sir A. Markham was the 

 only other mine-owner conspicuous above the crowd, 

 but he was more in the camp of the miners than of 

 those of his own class. His mines are rich enough for 

 him to concede any minimum without being ruined. 



Ministers did not resort to legis- 



The lation until all other means had 



Minimum Bill. fj^jj^,^ jj „.,^, ^^ly ^^.j^^^ ^j^^y 



found that all the miners and 



65 per cent, of the mine-owners were agreed that there 



should be a minimum wage that they most reluctantly 



resorted to legislation for the purpose of coercing the 



recalcitrant minority to stand in line with the majority. 



The Act is loosely drawn, and as it provides no penalties 



for the violation of its provisions it may be regarded 



from one point of view as a mere pious declaration : 



from another point of view it is a revolutionary new 



departure. The vital clause is the first, which begins 



thus : — 



I. — (i) It shall be an implied term of every contract for the 

 employment of a workman underground in a coal mine f\\hich 

 includes ironstone mines] that the employer shall pay to that 

 workman wages at not less than the minimum rate settled 

 under this .^ct and applicable to that workman. 



Then, after .setting forth exceptions and conditions, 

 Clause 2 declares : — 



Minimum rates of wages and district rules for the purposes of 

 this Act shall be settled separately for each of the districts 

 named in the schedule to this Act by a body of persons recog- 



