Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-26
TRADES UNION STRUGGLE
INTERESTS ALL ENGLAND
Tories Command Commons Majority,
While Labor and Capital Continue
Battle on Old Lines.

put it into complete operation. the
proposed legislation will pretty COM
letely destroy organized labor both
as political and industrial force.
That the legislation can he passed
goes without saying. for the House
of Commons has huge Tory ma
jority. But what is significant is
that the sentiment of the British
community as a whole is steadily
hardening against the measure and
the spirit of the present cabinet. At
bottom there is a proverbial mod
Grafton about John Bull which is
deeply reused by extremes. Every
one recognizes that the defeat OF the
general strike a year ago was COM
plete, so complete that the method
itself lost all possible appeal.
Even when the general strike was
precipitated the leaders of the Labor
party were opposed to it. They
never gave it more than lip service
and they abandoned it at the first
possible moment. Labor is as little
likely to undertake new general
strike as the South to reopen the idea
of secession as a method to enforce
sectional views. The issue was
fought out.
But like the North after the Civil
War, the Tories are seeking TO eX-
press their victory in terms which
recall all the circumstance of the re-
construction period. They are try
ing To harness the passions and en-
thusiasms of the struggle to establish
a system which will at one time vest
political power in their hands and
economic domination in the hands OF
the capitalists, who are naturally
Tories also.
Opinion Is Divided.
Inevitably the consequences of this
effort have been to divide British
! opinion, revitalize the Labor party,
unite the Left and Right, bestow
upon Labor not alone a vast deal of
sympathy all over the nation. but
even to make a new combination of
the Liberals and Labor, such as made
possible the brief Macdonald cabinet
of 1924.
Far more serious, however, has
been the firing of the fighting spirit
of the workingmen. Beaten and de-
jected by the defeats Of last year,
with the union treasures empty. Brit.
ish labor seemed utterly crushed last
Winter. But today there is a new
spirit and a fresh determination.
Politically labor has a sense of the
change in the sentiment in the COM
munity, practically the workingmen
are aware of the attack which is now
directed upon them. They face
struggle made unavoidable by the
tactics of their enemies and they face
it with a marked appreciation of the
fact that popular and national senti-
ment is beginning to turn in their
favor.
But II the class struggle In Britain
is being resumed and expanded, 1t is
plain that national disaster is again
threatened. The war partially de-
| stroyed the bases not merely of Brit
| ish prosperity but of British existence.
The dislocations of the postwar years
have accentuated the process. The
development of American competition,
the restoration of German, even the
appearance of French. have had con-
sequences which are steadily disclosed
in all British economic reports. Even
the recovery from the recent coal
strike has in no sense fulfilled British
hopes.
If Great Britain IS to regain its
economic or political position of the
pre-war years it is self-evident that
the achievement is possible only as
order in the world outside restores
markets and purchasing power and
as conditions within the British Isles
make possible British production at
costs which will enable 1t to meet
worldwide competition of a far more
intense sort than in the pre-war
years.
Capital alone cannot do this. It cam
not do it because even with govern
ment support it cannot compel eff
cient production. In the last analysis
the workingman is always able to
To- Il ~
he has. In postwar years. reduced
his output. In the coal mines it Is
possible to lengthen the hours of Ia
Dor, but in the end no more coal is
produced. And If the workingman
is discharged. then he goes on the
dole and becomes a national charge
and the cost goes back in the form
of taxes upon the shoulders of cap
ital.
1t is easy to find reasons for SYM
pathizing either with capital or Ia
Dor, it is even simpler to find reason
for denouncing both. But the situ-
alton is actually one in which both
craftsmanship and criticism are equal
ly idle. 1t is an open question
whether, given high efficiency and
genuine cooperation of capital and
labor, British industry can recover
even measurably the pre-war POSI-
ton. World conditions have changed
so completely that the new handicaps
are unmistakable.
But in any event 1t is patent that
British recovery is alone possible
through the attainment of new effi.
cheney and through, the arrival OF
class cooperation. And at this mo-
ment, indeed in all the postwar years.
capital and labor have been engaged
fvr 81 wi fnLn hos diGnf.orn
national production, encouraged for.
eign competition and increased the,
burdens of taxation. While Germany
has recovered continental markets
and the United States captured South
American and Asiatic and even in
vaded European, the British owner
and worker have done battle at home
over idle factories and obsolete ma
chinery.
Dominates Everything Else.
Increasingly. too, this battle domi-
mates all else in British life and tho
bitterness grows on both sides. The
extremists alike in the Tory and La
Dor parties have seized party power at
the critical moments. They have
shouldered the feeble. although we'll:
intended. prime minister out Of the
way in the present government, just
az the same elements pushed Mac
Donald aside a year ago at the mo-
ment OF the general strike.
And all the costs of this class strug.
gle are borne by a nation which so
far has found no redress and no
means of escape. Since the moment
of victory in November, 1918, British
influence, political, economic and
financial. the world over, has gone
-