The Cotton Factory Times. — 1917-02-16 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

BLOCK VOTING AND MAJORITY RULE.  The letter from Mr. Clynes, M.P., on block voting, which was quoted in our last issue„ and other references to the same subject by contributors, indicate the interest and deep feeling that exists on the question It is worth while to examine the point. without the slightest reference to any congress or specific question, and try to find out where the balance of justice and fairness lies. The point has some relation to that of majority rule. We admit at once that in carrying on societies and organisations pnwress would be impossible unless tiat,. deciding factor of the majority decision were allowed to operate. I There must be !ronclesions, rhere'l comes a time .When the opposition or minority must acquiesce and work arnicI ably with the majority. The point is, in I our judgment, whether that majority law should be regarded as a fetish, and whether on all questions and on every occasion its, authority should be bowed down to. We are putting aside for the moment human frailty, as exhibited in people who believe in majority rile or block voting when it suits them, but who are diametrically opposed to such " tyranny" when it clashes with their views. We have met that class of people, and we believe Mr. Clyneui will be the first to admit that they are not all confined to one particular camp. We are all human, and, being so, are also liable to err. We desire to put. the cluestion far above such personal shortcomings, and eet to the root of the principle which we believe underlies the whole question. There are niatrii in regard to which a man is indispueobly entitled to exercise his convictions. In spite of any majority. They may sometimes be difficult to define, but as to certain things coming within that category there can he no two opinions. Vie belief or unbelief in a future date is untouched by the legislature: there are 1 medical questions, ouch as vaccination, on which the law allows exempticns ; religious ! and political beliefs are unaffected by the majority or block view ; and when on such a matter an the right of an individual trade unionist to decline to pay a halfpenny per month to a political fund, though the matter may have been fully debated and democratically dealt with, resulting in a million to one against the objector, the State distinctly declares for the right of the minority man to have his way at the finish. We need not point out the inconsistency and incongruity of the same Government conscripting a man's life, and declaring at the same time, with the same broagaithat it is "tvrionny" to compel a man to pay a halfpenny per month to a political fund when everybody else concerned, though they be thousands, have decided on such a course in their industrial and economic interacts. That by the way. On certain aspects of the war and peace, and touching other most vital questions, the block vote or majority lever should be utilised with a consideration and forbearance that applies to no other subjects. They are questions on which individual responsibility cannot be stifled by the plea of falling in with the majority. A man cannot escape responsibility for a judicial murder, say, by pleading that, "he was in a minority." Internal arangements of a society or trade union must be dealt with on the principle of majority or block rule, but big and vII-' principles, dear to a man as his very life, cannot be dealt with in that manner. Mr. Clynes' letter enlightens and encourages us on one point. He shows that cm big questions of principle they allow the minority always to express their view—in the Executive, the larger Council room, and the public conference---on the understanding 11,1 t the vote is given in aceordance with the majority epirien. We know coma +rade that might ecpv the+, procedure with advantage. There are systems by which the minority opinion is strangled from the outset. The subject may be left. at that for the present. We desire that it should be examined dispassionatele and with tolerance. We are ' not for anarchistic or chaotic rule by any means, hut we are equalv anxious not, to 1 fall down absolutely prone before the ' maj.Jeity g,rd.