522 



The Review of Reviews. 



DON'T STRIKE! VOTE! 



Mr. J. Keir IIardie makes some very sober com- 

 ments on " The Lessons of the Strike " in the Socialist 

 Review. He is not unduly impressed by the dramatic 

 possibihties of the general strike, although he pro- 

 phesies that the " next big strike will be^ not only 

 national, but international." He recognises that " it 

 is become increasingly true that the strike for improve- 

 ment in industrial conditions is not going to solve the 

 social problem " : — 



The experience of the strike, however, of late has shown 

 conclusively the imperative need for the workers to control 

 rarliament, which is a very different matter from wailing upon 

 it. The action of the strike can at most be only ameliorative ; 

 it never can be revolutionary. That belongs to the sphere of 

 politics. A strike can secure the .adoption of the principle of a 

 minimum wage, but only rarliament can nationalise the mines, 

 or the railways, or other industrial undertakings. And .so 

 political action is revolutionary, whereas direct action is but 

 palliative. The strike can be used to supplement, but not to 

 -..upplant political action. Before the working-class can be free 

 they must control the State, and the strike, apart from its 

 educational value, does nothing to secure control of the State. 

 With forces of " law and order," civil and military, under their 

 control, the master class boss the show. They have the press, 

 the policeman, the soldier, the judicial bench, and the Senate 

 as their servants. And all this because, despite a popular 

 franchise, they are still the ruling class. Parliament is therefore 

 the citadel upon which the forces of democracy must concen- 

 trate their attack. A general strike against Liberalism and 

 Toryism is the need of the hour. F-very general rise in wages 

 leads to a rise in rent. The political strike is the only form 

 of strike which is all gain and no loss. The strike, especially 

 on a national scale, is a double-edged weapon, to be used only 

 occasionally, and then with care, whereas the vote can be used 

 all the time, and is guaranteed to injure only the enemy. 



BISHOP GORE ON THE LABOUR MOVEMENT: 



And Colour Questions. 

 In the International Review of Missions for April 

 Bishop Gore writes on foreign missions and social 

 questions. He says : — 



The labour movement makes throughout Europe a great 

 claim for justice. And in spite of the faults and exaggera- 

 tions which attend upon the movement, it ought in its broad 

 lines to enlist the symjtathy and co-operation of all who call 

 themselves Christians. The Hible shows an extraordinary care 

 for the worker. The believer in the Bible will hold that the 

 first charge upon any industry is the proper payment of the 

 labourer. The inspired prophets of God denounce the divine 

 judgments upon all those who "grind the faces of the poor,'' 

 that is to say, who use sweated or inadequately remunerated 

 labour to accomplish their own enrichment. It ought to cause 

 the Christian Churches the gravest anxiety to find that Ihey 

 have been, on the whole, so indifferent to the claims of labour : 

 on the whole so much more anxious to defend the rights of pro- 

 perty than to protect the poor : so much more ready, at the best, 

 to comfort the fallen and bind up the wounded in the industrial 

 struggle than to assert their rightful claims against the tyranny 

 or injustice of the strong. It is indeed somcliincs said that our 

 Lord had His eyes fixed upon the s)iirilual inlcrcsls of the 

 Kingdom of (lod and paid no attention to social or political 

 conditions. But it has to be ren.embcrcd that lie had behind 

 Him the Old TeslamenI, and Ihat He idinlificd Iliuisclf with 

 its message. 



OtTR TERRIBLE Ri;cf)K[). 



The Bishop then proceeds to speak of the coloured 

 races, and declares that our record is a terrible one :— 



The enslavement of the Africans, Ihc opium traffic with 

 China, the tr.ide in spirits with barbarous peoples, the treat- 



ment of the inhabitants of the Congo, the slaughter of abori- 

 gines — these are only chapters in a terrible indictment of 

 Christian nations. Now the cry has arisen, world;wide in ils 

 extent, "Japan for the Japanese," "India for the Indians," 

 " Africa for the Africans," " China for the Chinese," "Egypt 

 for the Egyptians," — " We will not be any longer exploited for 

 the interests of others." 



Thus fundamentally the nationalist iTjOvcments in Asia and 

 Africa can claim the sympathy of Christians. 



The Bishop emphatically states that the propagation 

 of Christianity in the British Empire would not make 

 for Imperial unity. He says : — 



The conversion of India or Africa to Chiistianily would 

 probably give the Indians, or even the Africans, such sclidarily 

 and capacity for progress as would make their independence a 

 certainty. 



BOTH MOVEMENTS " ORD.MNED OF GOD " ! 



The Bishop waxes still bolder when he declares : — 

 It is something much more than sympathy which this move- 

 ment, or pair of movements, can claim of Christians. If "the 

 powers that be," the actual forces which sway mankind, "are 

 ordained of God," then as surely as the Roman Empire and the 

 British Empire, so surely the democratic movement and the 

 nationalist movement are ordained of God. It is our co- 

 operation as Christians that they should claim, and our great 

 contribution as Christians should ulliuialely be the demonstra- 

 tion that it is only through the faith in Christ that either move- 

 ment can realise itself. 



Fitly he closes with a demand for a great act of 

 reasoned repentance. 



WHEN ARBITRATION IS OF SERVICE. 



Commenting in the Grande Revue of April to on the 

 Miners' Strike in England, M. Victor Augagneur, a 

 former Minister, refers to the advantages of Arbitra- 

 tion, which, he says, must be adopted before the strike 

 Ls begun to be of any value. 



He believes an arbitral judgment returned against 

 the emplovers would always have some effect, but 

 given against the men, it could only be enforced by the 

 consent of the men. Arbitration is of service if, as in 

 the Canadian law, it is simply an opinion expressed 

 by a respected authority on the complaints voiced by 

 the opposing parties. Given in the course of the period 

 of tension before the strike, it may end the conflict, 

 because public opinion and that of the belligerents 

 depends on other things than the mere assertions of 

 the interested parties. Employers would never resist 

 claims made by workmen which arbitrators declare 

 to be just, nor would a general strike ever be decided 

 on bv workmen if the \iews of the arbitrators were 

 against them. 



A lockout or a strike is doomed to failure if public 

 opinion is against it. The miners' strike had the 

 support of public opinion, and it almost succeeded : 

 whereas the railway strike in France had public opinion 

 against it, and that was the cause of its lamentable 

 failure much more than the measures adopted by the 

 Government. 'Ihe miners' strike has shown that ;i 

 CJovcrnmcnt may sometimes by measures taken at :i 

 desired time prc\ int great social conflicts. Had th( 

 ]5ritish ("abinct ^ instituted sooner the principle of a 

 iTiinimum wage,Hhe strike in England and its graM- 

 consequences to Europe would probably have been 

 avoided. 



