The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-27 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER

spontaneous life which was the essence of all true
freedom and natural development. The argument
applied more to political centrarzation than to such
as could exist in a movement like that; but even
there the evil of over-centralization was great.
't. he co-operative movement, while resting on cer-
tain large and fertile principles, should be free
to develope itself in every direction, to try all I- bads
of experiments, to have the benefit of varied ex-
perience, and thus eradnaliy assume, as time went on,
in its varieus branches the fortes most suited to the
circumstaeces of our ceent, y and our times. The de-
se.tic instinct was strong in all men, and in none often
stronger than in those who were firmly convinced that
they had got possession of a useful idea or an admir-
able scheme. There was no iikebhood of the co-
oeerative system superseding either joint-stock asso-
ciations or the employment of workpeople by a capi-
talist.
There was another form of combination called the
industrial partnership, in which a share of the profits
was allotted to labour, and it had been objected to
because it was said the element of benevolence entered
into it: but with every desire to see workpeople in
the position of making free and &trial contracts with
their employers, he did not wish to banish mutual
benevolence from their relations or to make the trade
contract between them their sole bond of union. If
he might say it without offence, there was a great deal
of cant in this denunciation of benevolence. The thing
needful was, not to put an end to mutual goodwill,
regard, and affection between those engaged in a com-
mon industrial undertaking, but to encourage, develope,
and strengthen those feelings, and it was because he
believed co-operation tended to do that that he took
part in the present meeting. He should, therefore,
desire the extension of industrial partnerships, but
he feared that, on the whole, experience had not been
as favourable to their practical possibility as he once
ventured to hope. He did not doubt that there were
many difficulties in the way of their establishment, or
that they were altogether inapplicable to some kinds
of undertakings; but he believed them to be an im-
portant development of the co-operative principle.
Joint-stock companies were in some cases indispen-
sable, as that of railways and he rejoiced to see
the working classes taking shares in associa-
tions of limited liability. They resembled co-opera-
tive associations in the combination of numerous
small capitals, but they made no attempt to bring
capital and labour into those closer ties which are the
distinctive feature of co-operatile institutions.
Looked at from the point of view of the general
public interest, what an advantage it must be that the
working classes should have brought within their
reach the industrial education which must result from
taking an active part in the management of and pos-
sessing a direct share in associations, whether for
distribution or production ! How much more truly
would they understand and appreciate the necessary
conditions of industrial success, the teachings of
economic science, and the real possibilities of trade !
Lord Ripon said he would not enter on such an
occasion into the fiercely contested question of the
good or harm of trade unions, and he hoped that no
remark of his would be supposed to have an applica-
tion to the labour disputes in Lancashire, the rights
and wrongs of which he had no means of judging.
But it would not be denied that trade unions are
essentially organizations for combat. Strikes and
lockouts, he said, are acts of industrial warfare, and
those who engage in them, employers or employed,
incur a very grave responsibility, just as a Govern-
ment incurs a very grave responsibility which engages
in war.
He (Lord Ripon) was not one of those who thought
that a Government ought never to go to war. On the
contrary, occasions might arise from time to time
when it was their clear duty boldly to take this great
responsibility. But it seemed to him, and the thought
was brought home now with terrible reality when
peace and war might betrembling in the balance, that
theburden of proof always lay, and ought to lie, on
those who involved their country in war. They might
remember that when a Queen's ship is lost, under any
circumstances whatever, the captain is always put on
his trial that he may show that it was not his fault
that the vessel was lost; and that was the principle that
he desired to see applied to a Government that involved
their country in war, for an unjust or unnecessary war
—a war to which no duty calls Us, or which is not
demanded by the clear vital interests of the country
—is the greatest of political crimes. So it was, he
said, in its degree, with industrial conflicts. He did
not think that strikes were never justifiable, but that
the burden of proving their necessity pressed heavily
on those who engaged in them. As to arbitrations in
labour disputes, he was not in the least inclined to
join in their disparagement., It could not be denied
that these arbitrations contemplate capital and labour
as two opposing, if no longer hostile, forces, and
they did little to unite them on the basis of common
interest. But, on the other hand, the underlying
tendency of the co-operative movement, that which
formed the essence of its life and constitution and the
secret of its progress, was its tendency to unite the
opposing artnies. So it was not so much whet was
past, as what it was capable of in the future, that
formed its claim to support. Co-operation was no
• panacea ; he believed in none, and co-operation
would not make men moral, though it gave oppor-
tunities of motel training, but he did say that co-
operation tended to bind men together and give them
common instead of conflicting interests.
The noble lord was much cheered on concluding
his address, and received a vote of thanks on the
motion of Mr. T. Hughes, supported by Mr.
Holyoake and others.

blowing from the crowd, and the flames followed the
people closely in waves as the breakers beat upon the
sea shore, the thick black smoke rolling on b-fore,
blinding everyone and adding to the terrible confusion.
A few persons flung theintelves into the Lehigh River
and were soon out of danger. It was but an instant
until the flames receded and joined the blazing tanks.
When the smoke rolled bath, here and there were men
flying like madmen with their clothes aflame. On the
ground lay the more seriously buried, writhing in
agony. William Shoemaker, an old man of 77 years,
was not strong enough to get away, and he was roasted
to de Ali where he stood. Arthur Williams was caught
in the main street with his clothing burned off. Irvin
Clark and several others ran in as many different
, directions with their clothing on fire, and were with
difficulty checked by the spectators. On all sides
were men and women charred and burned, crying for
help. Mrs. Queen, who had dropped her baby in the
wild flight of the crowd, screamed with terror and pain
until a brave young man, who had stopped in his
flight and caught up the child, returned it to her un-
injured.

the distinction between right and wrong. This con-
clusion, however, is not justified by the facts. The
case was in many respects a peculiar one. In the first
place, there was a strong feeling of indignation at the
way in which the prisoners had been treated, and
especially at the way in which General Trepeff
had acted towards. 13ogoltiboff. In no country
of tho world, perhaps, is there such a strong feel-.
ing against corporal punishment of all hinds as
in Russia.. In the country where thirty years ago
the knout and the rod played a very prominent
part in the judicial and administrative institutions, .
a schoolboy would now consider himself disgraced for
life if he were subjected to a little pattiarchal castiga-
tion with the birch. There are instances on record of
boys having committed Enticiie because their human
dignity had received an indelible stain in that way.
To those of us who have a vivid personal recollection
of the rod as an instrument of school discipline, and
who do riot consider that life-long disgrace was thereby
inflicted, the prevalent Russian ideas on this subject
may seem a little exaggerated ; but the Russians are
a peculiar people who never do things by halves, and
this exaggeration, if such it be, is at least in the right
direction. When the counsel for the defence de-
scribed the groans of Bog,oluboff as "the groans of
humiliated, insulted human dignity," his words called
forth from the audience a burst of applause. In the
second place, the appearance and bearing of the pri-
soner and some of the biographical details which
transpired won for her the sympathy of the audience.
Modest and unpretentious in manner and attire, and
without any straining after theatrical effect, she
replied frankly and respectfully to all the questions
which were put to her. Without ever having been
condemned by a Court of Law, she had spent the
best years of her life in prison or under police
supervision, and had resolved to sacrifice the re-
mainder of it to an idea, for she had never seen the
man whom she determined to avenge. In vain the
Public Prosecutor pointed out to the jury that these
considerations should have little or no weight with
them; that they were not called upon to judge General
Trepoff or the prison authorities; that the prisoner
had been herself guilty of the arbitrary, illegal con-
duct which she condemned in others. Exhortations
of this kind had very little influence on the jury or
the public. For both the question at issue was
whether glaring administrative abuses should be ex-
cused or condemned, and the verdict was universally
regarded as a public repriinand to a high-placed
official who had arbitrarily overstepped the limits of
his authority. Juridically speaking, the whole thing
was, of course, a gross miscarriage of justice; but all
Russians with whom I have spoken on the subject
maintain stoutly that the thing cannot and ought not
to be regarded merely from the juridical point of
view.
Whether the affair will influence the fate of jury
trials in Russia remains to be seen. Certainly it will
be used as a strong argument by those who are hostile
to the institution.