Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-11-15
LABOR LEADER GIVES
 HIS VIEWS ON WAR

J. A. SeddOn is one Of the most tn- fluential of British labor leaders. He has been a member of parliament and president of one of the big un- ion. Until the present war he was an outspoken opponent of militarism in any lorna thorough going paci- fist; he fought the increase of arma- ments, he did his best to promote the growth of international friend ship. This is what he says today:
 To-day British wholeheartedly sup ports the war against Germany. My same colleagues who before August 1914, were teaching peace are now working to the uptmost of their pow CT to help in the great fight. In order to help on the war and to bring victory, our trades unions have sacrificed. for the time, many jeal- ously guarded rights, which we and our fathers have won only after long struggles.
 "Men who led the campaign for short hours of work are now them selves working long hours on war tasks. The trades unions have permit ted the dilution of labor, the intro duction of women and semi-skilled men in what were solely skilled mems tasks. Many trades union reg ulations have been wiped out for the time by the trades unions them selves. The unions have passed self denying ordinances agains. strikes. Disputes that once would have made fifty thousand men down tools in an hour are now endured until oppor- tunity comes to get them put right.
 "We have learned that Prussian militarism must be destroyed, root and branch, and the only way to de stroy 1t is to fight it.. We have real ized that this war is a death grapple between systems which cannot co-ex- ist If freedom Is to be Something more than name.
 "The Englislman loves scrap. That is part of his racial inheritance. He is never against joining in a rough-and tumble. But it was not love of scrap that led him to join up now. A situation had arisen un- dreamed of in his philosophy. His dream castle of peace had tumbled about his ears. His sense of nation ality, his sense of justice, his ha- tired of wrong united to aIounse his slumbering passion.
 This is what seddon says about the strikes in England which were made so much of by our own paci. fists and opponents of MT. Gompers' opponents towards the war:
 "I may be told that British labor is not unanimous. What of the strikes on the Clyde, and ac Barrow, and of the labor struggle in South Wales?' I may be asked. These troub. les we're comparatively small, and were the work of a few wcll-known mischief-makers. Some of us would deal with these mischief-makers in much more drastic fashion than the authorities do. I would send them to the trenches, under escort, to learn what war Is.
 "The trades unions did not recog- nize the strikes, and did their best to, end them. Some of the men in them did not understand what they were doing. It Is not always easy for a man working slosely over the forga or in a mine to realize the ac- tualities of war conditions. went to some of the men on strike. You have sent your sons to fight I said. Are you going to leave taem in the trenches without cartridges or shells, to be shot down by the enemy? For that is what your striking means. Are you going to let them be put up to be potted without having a shot to send back? 'Ah.' said one man, I didn't think of it that way!'
 "Tne trouble-makers haven't had much success. The strikes have not lasted long. And surely the fact that there have been few strikes, and for so short time. is the best evidence
 of how British labor as a whole has worked for the. war.
 Seddon believes that the war will be a melting pot for the classes. Be- fore August, 1914. the antagonism be- tween the employers and the men of the labor unions was more intense than anything we had known this side of the Atlantic. But Armageddon has not been altogether evfl in it's results. Englishmen Of all degrees