Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1906-11-24
Labor In Politics.

Labor's remarkable display of
strength in the last general parlia-
mcntary elections in England makes
pertinent the questions raised in the
Nineteenth Century and After by w.
II. Mallock. Mr.. Mallock treats his
subject, THE Political Powers of La
bor,' rs one Of vital social Importance,
at the same time asserting that labor
Is itself mistaken las to the nature OF
its own Importance" To quote:
The only general criticisms of an adj
verse kind that can be called for by the
Labor party rs at present constituted
are that its members are too apt to at
tribute to labor as such greater powers
ana Importance than Ii Possesses in a
complex civilization such as our own.
and, further that its members, In pro-
portion to the exceptional character of
their abilities, fail to represent average
labor directly and represent It only in
that indirect way in which It might be
represented by any statesmen of equal
ability, no matter what their class.
Mr.. Mallock is a thinker who delves
deep, and in this instance he looks
back Of the men who send the labor
leaders to parliament to the political
ideals which these leaders hold and
their intellectual source lie finds that
the labor members in the present house
of commons have been fed upon classic
literature in the MAN, with some
slight attention to social and political
science, but out of the 100 books, in
Guiding the Bible, Shakespeare. Scott,
Bunyan, Carlyle, Dickens, John Stuart
Mill and Henry George. mo single one
has any bearing on the processes of
production" None of the writers who
have Influenced the thought Of the la
Dor members touch upon the main OBJ
ject of the Labor members namely,
how to secure for the manual laborer
an increase of the products of the ma
tional industry. That labor has a
cause Mr.. Mallock believes and closes
with these words
The fact, however remains that the
claims of the laboring class do require,
in a complex society such as ours, not
merely as n matter of sentiment, but as
matter of dispassiOnate craftsmanship
n constant and expert attention directed
specially to themselves, and that the best
way of insuring the nation against de-
mands on the part of labor that are I'M
reasonable is to satisfy and If possible
to anticipate those that are just and rc0-
sonable. To satisfy or anticipate these
may well tax the powers of the most
gifted politicians and administrators. The
interests Of labor, as distinct from the
interests Of other classes, deserve on all
grounds the services of such men "a
these. but labor as understood and rep
resented by our present Labor members
must learn that it represents only one
force out of many on which the welfare
Of the poorest no less than that of the
richest is dependent, and that If its
claims exceed that which the underlying
facts of society warrant it will in the
long run be worsted by forces which are
greater than its own.
The relations of labor to politics in
this country appear to be drawing
nearer and nearer to a similarity with
those in England. Organized labor
here is demanding special representa-
ton in legislative bodies. It ought TO
be possible for it to secure able repre-
sentative among members of its own
ranks or at least among those in fun
sympathy with it.