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has drifted into an absolute democracy, or unlimited government by the many for the many at the expense of the few. Secondly, whereas the traditional Constitution was based on the rights of property and contract, the nation has become too lenient to the use of might, in the hysterical extravagances of suffragettes, and in the violent strikes of trade unionists. Thirdly, from utter abhorrence the nation has passed into a certain approbation of revolution, without reflecting that revolution is an infectious disease which may cross the Channel to these islands.

These three changes may easily, through the tyranny of the majority, the habit of using might against right, and the infection of revolution, become causes of an actual revolution; not, I mean, a political construction of 'republican societies' but a fundamental reconstruction of society itself, as adumbrated in the unanimous resolutions which were passed at the Conference of the Labour Party at Manchester from January 23 to 26, and which may be summarized as follows:

The Conference demanded that the plenipotentiaries to negotiate a peace should include Parliamentary representatives of organized labour, and that the resettlement of seven or eight million wageearners-soldiers, sailors, munition workers, women -should be managed through trade unions and by labour exchanges, each under a committee of employers and trade unionists, but so that any attempt at a reduction of wages by employers should be prevented by the Government. The Conference demanded that all the rules, conditions, and customs adopted in workshops before the war should be restored after the war by the Government, without any quibbling evasion' by employers, without compulsory arbitration, and without any restrictions on the right to strike. The Conference demanded a

statutory minimum wage for all trades of not less than 30s. a week, and the opening of trade unions of men to women at trade union rates of wages. The Conference demanded, first, the nationalization of railways, canals, and mines, with the participation of the employees in the management; secondly, the State control of all agricultural land, and its full cultivation by the establishment of large Government farms, small holdings, municipal enterprises, and allotments for labourers; and, thirdly, an equitable conscription' of accumulated wealth, a graduated increase of taxation on ' unearned incomes' up to not less than 15s. in the pound, a land taxation so revised that the land of the nation shall belong to the nation for the nation, and an effort to nationalize the banking system.

The future of the nation depends on its attitude to these unanimous resolutions. In all they constitute the revolutionary programme of a reconstruction or, rather, an inversion of existing society. On the one hand, the trade unionists, increased in numbers and strengthened by statutory guarantees, would be elevated into a novel kind of partnership with the State, from which they would gain in wealth, social status, and political power. On the other hand, the present lawful owners and masters would lose in capital, in income, and in the management of property; and in consequence, as servants rose masters would sink in wealth, social status, and political power, until ownership and mastership would become little more than names. This social and political revolution would enlarge the tyranny of the many over the few and enrich manual labourers. But would it be for the permanent good of the nation?

A revolutionary programme is not a revolution. But in this case it is sure to issue in revolution, because the State has made so many and great promises to the trade unionists in the war, that

after the war it will feel obliged to carry out those parts of the revolutionary programme which demand the realization of those promises; and the trade unionists have the power of extorting the rest. History teaches us to expect that once more, as in previous revolutions, more moderate will be succeeded by more extreme men and measures. But there is something peculiar to this revolution. Former revolutions were disorganized at their outset; this revolution is organized beforehand. For trade unionism is a vast and ramifying organization, sanctioned by the State, and armed with the strike weapon', as it was called at the Conference. Whatever, then, the partnership between the State and the trade unions will not be able to do by pacific means the trade unionists can do for themselves by organized force; and it is impossible to foretell how far the revolution will be managed by legislation, how far by force; or how far its strikes will be local, how far national, how far international. Nor is it possible to predict the end of this industrial war; for revolution soon becomes incalculable.

This nation is in danger of drifting into revolution unprepared, like France in 1789; but it will be a revolution far more dangerous, because it has been organized beforehand by persons accustomed to the use of might against right, and ready at any moment for the overthrow of the existing fabric of society by the combined agency of the State and trade unionism. If therefore this nation waits to finish the war and then begins to think of its future, it will be too late. It must think now. It must think profoundly. It must first ask itself whether it is wise to leave a democracy without any limits, or to condone the use of might against the rights of property and contract, or to incline to approve of revolution. It must then deduce its conclusions from true political principles. The first principle of politics was formu

lated by Aristotle: it is that a good government is one which is in the hands of those who have the ability and the purpose to rule and be ruled for the universal good of all; while any government which aims at the particular good of one, or of the few, or of the many, is defective. The Greeks convinced the Romans, and through them the modern nations of Western Europe, that the end of a good government is the common or public good. But in the nineteenth century this national end was narrowed down, mainly by Bentham, to the greatest happiness to the greatest number, or the particular good of the majority; still more recently, and under the influence of Bentham's hypothesis, the British Constitution has drifted into a democracy directed to that particular good, and more and more guided by the opinions, the will, the passions, and even the force, of the majority; and it is this government which is now entering into partnership with trade unionism. Which is right, the politics of two thousand years or the politics of this generation? Is it not theoretically evident to any serious thinker that the general good of all is to be preferred to the particular good of one, or of the few, or of the many, or of the trade unionists? Is it not practically obvious to any student of the frailty of human nature that any majority, wielding unlimited powers of both taxing and forcing a minority, cannot be trusted to withstand the overpowering temptation of despoiling its victims down to the last shilling? If things are so, and men are such, a democratic trade unionist revolution for the sake of a particular class of society against the common weal ought to be prevented by the nation itself, in order to save itself from imminent misery, and give itself a chance of future happiness.

Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Y

162

THE REAL POLITICAL ISSUE

PRIVATE OR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

The Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph West Ridgeway was a former Under-Secretary for Ireland, in the Liberal Government, 1887-93.

A by-election at Spen Valley took place on January 3; Mr. Tom Myers (Labour) was returned by a majority of 1,718 over Sir John Simon (Independent Liberal) and 3,828 over Colonel Fairfax (Coalition Liberal).

On February 25 Mr. Asquith (later Earl of Oxford and Asquith) was returned as an Independent Liberal in a by-election at Paisley, polling 14,746 votes against 11,902 cast for the Labour candidate, and 3,795 for the Coalition-Unionist candidate. Mr. Asquith's Paisley Campaign had gone on for a month, watched with interest, and indeed excitement, by the whole country. Case, who had known Mr. Asquith in College days, although they had long been separated on political grounds, sent him a warm letter of congratulation on his success, and received a cordial reply.

FROM The Times, JANUARY 29, 1920.

In the important letter from Sir West Ridgeway, which you published on the 22nd inst., he asked a number of pertinent questions on the extreme views of the Labour Party, especially with regard to the taxation of capitalists and their capital, and the desirability of a reunion of the Liberal Party. I venture, however, to think that the views of the Labour Party are still more extreme than he says, and so extravagant that a still greater reunion of the other parties is necessary, in order to fight the real political issue, which is between the rights of all persons in the community and the demands of the Labour Party.

Soon after Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister, the Labour Party in January 1917 held its annual conference at Manchester, when 742 delegates, representing 2,398,000 votes, trades councils, local Labour parties, Socialist societies, and the Women's Labour League, passed a number of resolutions, of which the most drastic demanded that the State should after the war put into force (1) minimum high wages and the prevention of unem

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