MUSINGS THE STRIKE-WHO WITHOUT METHOD. IS RESPONSIBLE?-THE ILLICIT LEADERS- our boasted solidarity could not stand the stress of high prices, or resist, in a moment of public crisis, the temptation of private greed. AT the outbreak of the war that in August last, the enemies of England were astonished at our perfect solidarity. All classes combined cheerfully and resolutely to carry on a struggle, whose justice was universally acknowledged. The army, which we were forced to improvise hastily, was a visible source of pride to us all. That it should have been already prepared was obvious. The nation was content to think that it was doing its best to atone for the interested carelessness of our politicians. If the response to Lord Kitchener's appeal was generous, the men who did not join the colours showed an eager patriotism. They threw themselves into the work of providing boots, uniforms, and munitions of war with a zeal which seemed to have upon it no taint of selfishness. At last, and for the first time in many years, Great Britain seemed at one with herself. We had but one hope, one desire to break the German tyranny, which had hung too long over our heads, and which had levied war against us even in an hour of pretended peace. And then came the strike to break our pride, and to prove our single-minded allies to Thus the ancient struggle between labour and capital was renewed, when every hour's work was of vital importance to us. Men whose sons and brothers were fighting at the front threw down their tools, though they should have known that their idleness meant death and wounds to their countrymen fighting in the trenches. Deceived by vain leaders, they declared in effect that the triumph of the British Empire was as nothing when weighed in the balance against another twopence an hour for themselves. They knew that upon their exertions depended the safety of their country; yet either they declined to work at all, or thought they satisfied their sense of duty by three days' labour in a week. The more callous of them suggested that they should take up their tools again, and then "ca' canny," or refrain from exerting their full strength. The British Army might wait for ammunition, until their whims were satisfied. It mattered not to them that France and Russia were giving to the common cause all that they had of energy and zeal. Whether in the field or in the workshop their citizens, at any rate, held themselves like participants in a holy war. The Britons, alone, haggled and chaffered while their kith and kin were risking their lives in defence of their homes. "Let them wait for ammunition," they said, "and dig themselves deeper in, until we can extract the uttermost farthing from their sufferings." out What is the reason why the British and the British alone have thus fallen below their opportunity? It is a lack of imagination, says this one. They have not seen their country invaded nor their wives and daughters raged, and consequently they are unable to reconstruct for themselves the horrors of war. They are kept without knowledge, says another. The Press combines with the Press Bureau to publish the successes of the British arms, and to conceal from the public such disasters as may occur. These palliations are not complimentary to the working-man. If his fancy moves somewhat sluggishly, that, to be sure, is not his fault. And if the Press Bureau does not take the whole country into its confidence, as well it might, since no nation is less prone to panic than our own, then the Press Bureau incurs the heaviest blame. Nevertheless, the working-man has as many chances of discovering the truth for himself as any other member of the community. He is compelled to read by Act of Parliament. He will find scantlings of the truth set forth in all the newspapers with an illuminating commentary. And even if he be not sufficiently interested in the war to read a newspaper, he cannot help taking in information through the pores of his skin. The gossip of his fellows must have told him that the Germans have trampled Belgium and France under foot, that they have violated and mutilated women, that they have destroyed churches and libraries and houses. The raids upon Scarborough and King's Lynn must perforce have been explained to every striker in the country, and there is none who can justly plead ignorance as an excuse for his criminal folly. There is, in fact, no corner of the world where the truth of the struggle has not been revealed. Not many months since an English ship of war put into a Chilian harbour to take on coal. It had all too brief a time for the enterprise, and it might have been compelled to leave port with its bunkers half-full, had not the Chilian stevedores worked with might and main, not for an increase of pay, but because they wished in their hearts to serve Great Britain. The stevedores of Chili are not of our blood. They have no sources of information denied to our working men. But their zeal to help was not for a moment in doubt, and it should shame all those who have thrown down their tools, when England clamoured for the munitions of war, that the Chilians proved themselves better and wiser men than they. If we would understand what has set a slur upon our country we must look deeper below the surface of things than than the accidents of the Press and the Press Bureau. In the first place, the working-men have been duped by their leaders. They have listened too readily to the flatterer and the timeserver. Tired of the sound counsels of their official leaders, they turn a willing ear to anybody who has the gift of a facile rhetoric. The illicit leaders, whom they appoint themselves, are bad enough. Still worse are those who thrust their advice in from outside. Here, for instance, is Mr Hyndman, who has lately made a great show of patriotism, doing his best (fortunately it is not much) to undermine the spirit of the country. "The working classes," said he, "are always either food for powder or food for plunder. At the present moment they are food for powder abroad, in what I believe to be a righteous cause, but they are food for plunder at home. Unless this state of things be remedied without delay, it will be the duty of the Labour Party to stop recruiting and to use their forces at home." The Labour Party, fortunately, knows its duty too well to listen to Mr Hyndman's treasonable utterances. But his suggestion may carry some weight with the working classes, and its infamy cannot be too often exposed. If the working classes are food for powder abroad, they do not complain, and they are not singular in the sacrifice they make. All classes are cheerfully and proudly giving themselves in the service of their country on the battlefield, and Mr Hyndman proves how hollow was his pretence of patriotism when he insists upon class distinctions, which in the trenches do not exist. And how a man who believes that we are fighting in a righteous cause can urge the Labour Party to stop recruiting for any reason or in any circumstances is past finding out. Does Mr Hyndman think that the workingman would escape powder and plunder if his advice were followed and the victory of the Germans secured? Doubtless he is cynical enough to gauge the wickedness of his own speech, but the mere fact that he is listened to even by a few with a patience which would be granted to none of his kind in France or Russia helps us to understand the strikers' lack of public spirit. The members of our present Government are far more grievously to blame than Mr Hyndman and the Socialists. For ten years they have exercised a despotic sway, and not one of them in a single speech has given the voters a hint of better things than votes and pensions. Where it was their business to lead, they have followed abjectly. You will search their speeches in vain for one word of patriotism. They have held out bribes to the electors; they have prated of his privileges; never once have they mentioned the duty which he owes to his country. Most often they have tickled the electors' ears with imbecilities about pheasants and mangelwurzels, firm in the belief that a horse-laugh- the crackling of thorns under a pot-is worth more votes to them than a close, coherent thought. With a passionate desire to say the smooth thing and so increase their popularity, they have told their dupes that war with Germany was an impossibility, was, in brief, no better than a figment of the Tories to cover the nakedness of Tariff Reform. Leaders and rank and file have been at one in assuring the country that peace could not be broken, and that there was nothing to think of but Free Trade and increasing pensions. Not long since Lord Loreburn, for instance, contributed a preface to a publication of the Cobden Club, a Club, as we all know, supported and patronised by Germans, and in his preface he wrote these words: "Time will show that Germans have no aggressive designs against us, nor we against them; and then foolish people will cease to talk of a future war between us which will never take place." Thus was the people lulled to sleep. War could never touch them. All they had to do was to avoid the very suspicion of Chauvinism. Let them never permit the Union Jack to float over their schools, and peace would follow them through their State-provided lives to their State-provided graves. And while our politicians promised the people peace and pensions, they did their best to stir up a profitable class-hatred in its mind. In the Radical creed envy has always been the first and the last of the virtues. Vote straight, and hate every man cleverer or more fortunate than yourself - this was the constant injunction of our demagogues. And the injunction, repeated indefinitely, had its due effect. The people began to believe that it was badly treated, that it was defrauded of its rights, that it should be immune from work and toil, for the mere reason that it was numerous. As for the Germans, it did not believe that they would ever come; and if they came, what did it matter? Did not its leaders assure it that it would be just as well off under the Germans as under its present masters? Indeed it saw no reason why it should defend its homes; its homes were not worth defending. Thus was the strike insidiously prepared, and the patriotic speeches now delivered by the Ministers will not absolve them of a grave responsibility. They have misused the authority which democracy gives them to what might have proved the undoing of the country. They have set the stone of sedition rolling down the hill, and believed fatuously that they could stop it when they would. Worse than all, one of their number, the hero of Lamlash, solemnly raised the cry in the House of Commons of the Army against the People. The guilt of this gentleman may be duly measured, if we remember that at the very time at which he delivered his monstrous speech he knew all about the intentions and preparations of Germany. Let us be careful then to put the saddle on the right horse. The strikers deserve no indulgence at our hands. Indeed, if they persisted in their fatal policy, we should be forced to institute compulsory service, and, calling them to the colours, compel them as soldiers to do what work is necessary for the State. But we cannot forget that for ten years they have been taught the lessons of disloyalty and disaffection by those who should have led them to wiser ends, and that the heavier part of the blame must be laid on the back of their leaders and governors. At any rate it is clear that Radical members of Parliament, lately the idols of the people, cannot with any show of sincerity admonish or exhort the shirkers. They must make the best of the monster created by their own greed and ambition. One Minister-and one Minister alone-Lord Kitchener -may hope to reason with them successfully. He possesses an authority, which he shares with no other of His Majesty's subjects. If he spares no other in the great work of defence, he spares not himself. He has toiled for his country early and late. We all recognise that he has achieved what before him seemed impossible. He has made a vast army, trained, equipped, eager, where six months ago no army was. He has atoned in this brief space VOL. CXCVII.-NO. MCXCIV. for the sloth and sluggishness of the misgoverned years. We know him for a man who finds it easier to do than to say, and his infrequent speeches carry the greater weight, because they are uttered not for the sake of rhetorical display, but because they are the clear and simple expression of a national want. He discussed the strike with a sternness, yet with a moderation, which will shame the working men of England into activity. He pointed out that we could not supply and equip our new armies unless we could obtain all necessary war material, that our demands upon all the industries connected with the manufacture of the munitions of war, naturally very great, had compelled a vast number of men to work at very high pressure. Though many, happily, have risen loyally to the occasion, the example of patriotism set by them has not been universally followed. As Lord Kitchener says, "notwithstanding these efforts to meet our requirements, we have unfortunately found that the output is not only not equal to our necessities, but does not fulfil our expectations, for a very large number of our orders has not been completed by the dates on which they were promised." And the delay is the more deeply to be deplored, because we have undertaken to supply our allies as well as our own armies with certain munitions of war. Admitting that the workmen generally have done loyally and well, Lord Kitchener points gravely to "instances 2 R |