The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-10
TRADE
UNION LEADER
APES AT. OF |.
for Strike;
Asks Collaboration
tspeeIaI 70 The oaIIy WORKED

Especial to The Daily WOrker)
LONDON, Sept. 8. - Arthur Puah,
president OF the British Trade Union
Congress, at it's opening session again
exemplified the character Of the GEN
eral Council that betrayed the general
strike Of last May, when in his lead
ing address, he upheld the point Of
View that the general strike was "ln-
dustrlal and not POLITICAL" renounclng
thereby the struggle for power by the
workers.
Collaboration The Result.
Logically extending this refusal to
recognize the final end of the class
struggle, Pugh made d bid for class
collaboration in harmony with the So
called new wage policy Of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, in the form
or a request of scientific wage
policy for generally acceptable prin-
ciples of division Of the products Of
industry among those who have a
claim upon it"
1t was apparent that Pughs speech
to the 700 delegates was far more
apologize toward the capitalist class
for calling the general strike than
toward labor for betraying It when
it was on the point of success. He
only limited that the principle of a
general strike had not been renowned.
In part, his speech was as follows:
Apology To Capitalism.
1T will be fatal to the future well
fare of the country and destructive of
all hopes of peaceable progress If that
great and spontaneous demonstration
Of working class solidarity, so gen
erous in its readiness to run risks and
make sacrifices, is regarded as the
outcome OF sort Of evil conspiracy
Of a few agitators at Eccleston Square
(the London labor headquarters dur
ing the great strike). 1t has been SO
interpreted and nothing can be more
dangerous than to proceed upon an
assumption so false and perverse.
"Given the set of circumstances as
they existed on May /, stoppage OF
national character was inevitable. The
choice lay between action by con-
trolled and disciplined body or indus
trial chaos and disorder. vr
"Purely Industrial"
"The supreme lesson of the national
strike is the clear evidence it adj
luced that the trade union movement
retains its belief in the essential right
ness of democratic methods. 1t was
not the unions but the government
which endeavOred to convert the in
dustrial struggle into political con-
aict. When the unions combined their
forces last May they were not in
voking any new principle Of indus
trial action but simply asserting more
effectively on a larger scale the tradi-
tional trade union refusal to accept
dictated terms of employment, whe-
Their from employers or the govern
ment"
Bid For Glass Collaboration.
Referring to the future policy of the
trade union movement Mr.. Pugh con-
tinued:
"A scientific wage policy for the
unions requires to be brought out in
relation to some generally acceptable
principles for determining division of
the product of industry among those
who have a claim upon it. This is
especially necessary in regard to ma
tionalized industries. Has not the time
arrived for us to consider how we can
apply the principle Of living wage
or basic wage correlated to the index
of national production and aiming at
an equitable distribution of spending
power in relation to family needs and
the cost of living?
IAN inquiry along these lines seem
to me to be an Indispensable prelimin-
airy to any claim we may make for
the establishment OF legal minimum
of wages adjusted to human needs"
The natural result Of recognizing
that the capitalist has claim" Is to
CONTINUED on page 81