United labor bulletin., 1912-06-06


in the house of commons and several
thousands on the local administrative
bodies OF the country. Its influence
upon legislation has been very marked,
and upon administration scarcely less So
Unlike the Socialist parties in the conti-
mental countries of Europe, its represent
atives in parliament are drawn, SO far,
exclusively from the working class, and
are, in the main, either officials OF prom
inent members OF their trade union.
This is not due to any exclusive rule but
merely to the fortunes of war. Several
members of the biddle class, nominated
by either the l. L. P. or the Fabian soci-
ETY., have been on the list of official can
didates, but hitherto none of these has
succeeded In winning seat In the act
ual rank and file membership of the
party, the trade unions count for 1,501,-
793 and the Socialist societies affiliated
for 31,464. These figures, however, give
no real index to the relative strength of
the two sections, since Socialism has
now permeated the trade union move
ment to such an extent that it is becom-
ing rare thing to find trade union Of
hcial who is not also a Socialist
l have said that one outcome of the
strike will probably be to give Syndical-
ism hitch forward. The timid way in
which the government handled the situ-
alton, and refused to insert the minimum
rates in their act, will provide fresh mat
ter for Syndicalist speakers. A much
more certain prediction, however. is that
the Labor party will gain enormously
from the dispute. Again and again while
the Minimum Wage bill was before par
Lament, Liberals and Tories voted to-
gether to defeat amendments put for
ward by the Labor party on behalf of
the miners. An object lesson of this
kind must have carried conviction to the
minds OF thousands of workmen who
have hitherto managed to retain their
faith in the old parties, and the result
will be seen. especially in mining and
railway centers. next general election.
Strikes Ineffective.
Now that We can look back upon the
strike, there are certain lessons to be
drawn from it which must not be over
looked. While it was being arranged
the assumption everywhere was that it
could not possibly last ten days. 1t
seemed incredible that the nation could
go beyond that with its total coal supply
entirely cut OF. ventured at the be-
| ginning to warn the miners to be ready
for six weeks stoppage, though l con-
| fess l shared the feeling that it would
be over long before that. Six weeks,
| however, is just the period the stoppage
lasted. Before 1t actually occurred no
| one had realized the extent to which the
| capitalist class had been preparing for it.
Since the great strike of 1893 railway
and steamship companies, municipal cor
porations and the big manufacturers and
ship building interests had been accum
| ulating stocks of coal to meet emergen-
cies. The strike on this occasion had
| been threatened for six months before 1t
| actually broke out and these stocks had
in consequence been heavily increased.
1t is true that a number of works had
to be closed down and the railway SER
vice was a good deal restricted, but,
apart from this, things went on pretty
much as usual. The works which were
closed were mainly those of the smaller
industries, while the curtailment of the
railway service was due more to de-
termination to economic on the passen-
ger traffic to make good the loss on the
cessation of the coal traffic than to an
actual shortage of coal. The advanced
leaders are declaring that in future they
will not give such long notice, but
whether the notice be long or short the
stocks which win be gradually accumu-
lating will be there just the same.
| Further, it is a well-known fact that
| the strike. far from inhicting injury
upon the mine owners, actually put mon
ey in their pockets They have been
able to dispose of old stocks of coal at
famine prices; in one case $4,000 tons
of banked coal, the market value of
which was 7-G per ton, was sold to a
great shipping company which had al
lowed itself to be caught mapping, for
81 shillings per ton. Unless, therefore,
the miners are prepared for at least
three months stoppage. it will not be
worth while coming out in future.
in ka ilpa rxrrs<,<
during the past five years there has been
general but very brief stoppage on the
railways, and threats are being heard of
another great national stoppage this
coming summer. Should this take place,
results of the most disastrous kind to the
men will inevitably follow. The govern
ment has now a specially trained rail-
way corps in almost every regiment, and
the day on which a railway strike Is de-
clared these will step in and keep a SER
vice of some kind running. The rest of
the army will guard the lines. Special
bulletproof engines and guards vans
have been and are being built on which
machine guns can be mounted. The sad
and sorrowful experience of Italy and
France in connection with railway
strikes must not be forgotten.
The lockers by a general stoppage
could paralyZe trade more effectively
than almost any other class of workers.
though for just how long that may re-
main true / would not like to prophesy
1t may be, and | think 1t is likely to be.
that these facts will have to be driven
home by actual experience before being
accepted by the workers of England, and
| mention them now merely by way of
warning.
The theory of substituting the strike
for political action is based upon the as
sumption that society and the state have
no resources with which to meet the
strike. No greater fallacy was ever pro-
pounded in connection with the working
class movement know the value of
the strike, what 1t has accomplished and
what it still can achieve. So long, how
ever, as the state is In the hands Of. and
under the control of the capitalist class.
4i<.r.