New-York tribune., 1918-07-27
Pacinst Labor

We read that British labor is in an
other one of its tantrums. We read also
that the Ministry of Munitions, which
has jurisdiction in the case, is resolved
this time to stand firm and see what at
the worst will happen. None Of which is
new. It has been going on for four
years.
By British labor is meant not all in
Great Britain who work with their hands
for the war and to sustain existence
through the struggle of what Mr.. Bal
four calls the forces of heaven against
the forces of hell What is meant is
that radical minority element of Eng
lands industrial population which thinks,
and has been encouraged to believe, that
it deeply obliges its country by working
for it. There is this element in the in
dustrial population of every country. 1t
has been more considered I'M England
than elsewhere. The British government
began with the idea that although you
may command citizen to give his life
for his country, you can only persuade
him to work. That creates false values
to start with. We remember that in the
first year of the war Arnold Bennett,
among others, wrote that if the workers
threatened to "down tools" there was
nothing for it but to yield to their de-
mands, because, of course, you couldn't
shoot them.
From that counsel of helpless expedi-
ency it came at length to be argued that
labor had the right to improve its situ-
alton by exploiting the country's depend
ence upon it for the means to war-or
that if it had not that absolute right it
would nevertheless assert it, and nothing
could be done about it. And the rise In
the political power of the element that
has asserted the right has been very
rapid.
The case is intrinsically absurd. In
the first year of the war two million
British citizens volunteered to give their
lives. In four years England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland have raised for mil
itary service five-and-a-half millions Of
men. Out of all the males in England
Of every age and condition from the
cradle 70 the grave one in four has been
fighting Germans on land or sea. Yet.
because the Ministry of Munitions, to
equalize the distribution of skilled labor,
forbids it's going to and fro, from one
district to another and back again, as
wages rise more in one place than an
other, 100000 workers threaten to stop
work and let the war take care of itself.
That is not all They hold meetings to
denounce the war and talk of stopping
the supply of munitions so that the gov
ernment will be obliged to make peace
with the enemy.
The illumination is at that point. This
recalcitrant element of British labor is
at heart against the war, or, rather, like
the Russian Bolsheviki, it is much more
anti-capital than anti-German, and much
more interested in its selfish prosperity
than in victory. 1t has kept an open
asylum for pacifists, slackers and Boil
shevists. Underlying its present sense
Of outrage at what is called the govern
ment's embargo" on skilled labor is the
fear that If the distribution Of labor is
more economically controlled many who
have been hitherto immune will be taken
in the draft and made to fight.
What the British government has to
deal with, therefore, is not a serious dis
affection Of labor, as such, but the will
full opposition Of very radical pacifist
element that has become intrenched in
essential industries as indispensable la
Dor.
In England, as elsewhere, labor is
overwhelmingly loyal and patriotic. If
this were not so England would have
failed in the war long ago. If it were
not so France could not have saved the
world for democracy. If it were not SO
in this country we should not be now
in the thick Of the work at Armageddon.
England's rebellious labor minority is
nore articulate and political and trouble
some than the corresponding element in
this country. That is owing partly to
circumstances, partly to the fact that
volunteering in the beginning diluted the
spirit, and largely, besides, to the fact