The sun., 1919-09-14

rOpe. II has the same CAUSES. IL
takes the same forms. 1t will have
the same results. For once in a way
the continent of death has a lesson
for the continent of life The Dead
can sometimes teach the living.
Masses Act Blind1y.
What lies behind the British strikes?
The war? No. The wish to get some
thing for nothing? No. Bolshev.sut
Wrong again.
The explosives were banking up for
the ten years previous to the war; The
war was only the spark in the powier
magazine. If the 1914 hell for leather
hadn't come, the strike epidemic devil
might perhaps, have held his hand for
a few years-perhaps not. The i'm
mediate cause is a belly cause, for
labor still thinks as it feels-through
its belly. Rising prices and hungry
bellies are the cause. Not ethics. Not
conscious realization.
A passionate minority, a conscious
ethical minority if you will, thinking
through the brain, has used the un'
DuI CAdiuOlOdo lhAAAAAy ca ANe
medium. The great mass of the Brit
ish labor movement is unconscious =
clamorous only through it's belly-ot-
livious to ends. Demos uses his
weapon, the Strike. as that othcI
blinded giant in the cave of the Cy-
clops. For there, too, the eyeless giant
had his Ulysses. Primitive man AL
ways falls back on direct action-thc
fist; civilized man, upon indirect-tht
brain. Demos is still in the direct ac-
ton stage.
Why does the worker use direct
action more and more in Britain
Because he claims that Parliamentary
action has been a failure. Why has i
been failure? Because-and here IL
the crux of all the present labor chaos
Demos so far has been unable to con
vince the majority that he is right
what is more, he has been unable t
convince himself. He votes Liberal ol
Tory rather than Labor, sending bacl
only some 60 Labor members to {
house of 707 members. He does ex
actly what the American workman
does who votes Republican or Demo
crat-for he also has been uncon.
vinced by his own propaganda, having
no party Of his own. The British
labor leaders are faced with the ter
rlhc fact that, despite tthe labol
agitation Of century, despite 4,50c,
VOO Of trade unionists, and despite {
propaganda unparalleled in intensity
and even enthusiasm, they are com
PEELED to resort to the strike instead
Of the ballot.
SO here you have these nebulous
millions Of labor, organized and un
organized, their bellies clamorous
niaodened by the sight of the moderI
prlVateering which we call "profiteer
ing swayed hither and thither, rush
ing ike crack Drained steers under
,hohg OF profiteer and tongue lash o
leader, into a direct action which ma,
end in revolution.
froiiteers." Had the Government
lahen the profiteer by the throat i'm
mealately after the war direct actor
would not have had a chance. Tht
government has now seen the rec
Hght. 1t is establishing local tri
Ouhals where the public will be boti
prosecutor and Judge. Personally,
u'ihk it too late and an attempt Il
sweep back the Atlantic of unrest will
the brooms of the official Mrs. Par.
uhgtons Control of prices shoult
nave been taken in hand by the Gov
o'hment direct from the beginning.
Direet Action Merely Postponed
iour enemy is never so dangerous a
"hen he seems to be "holding hi,
nand' The recent decision Of Labor
triple Alliance against immediate di
Iee' action is being hailed as Il 'climb
uown' by the capitalist press. 1t 4
nothing OF the kind. 1t is only direc
action postponed.
zach day shows the cleavage O
,aDor in its own house. The cleavag
Detween the direct actionists and tn
parliamentarians. The sixty odd mem
perj OF the Parliamentary Labor Part,
are most of them as conservative a
"eir friends on the opposite benche