The Dominion. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1909. BRITISH LABOUR POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 521, 31 May 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1909. BRITISH LABOUR POLITICS.

One of the most interesting of.recent developments in British politics was the reaching of a serious crisis in the affairs of the Independent Labour party. • For some time past a comparatively small section of the party—a section composed of such extreme and reckless Socialists- as Mr. ViCTon Grayson, M.P., whose name has becn.mado familiar by cable messages recording his violent'methods—has been endeavouring to drive the party into dissociating itself entirely from the Liberal party now in power. The hot-headed minority fiercely resont tho readiness of the Labour party in the House to work as much in harmony with the Government as possible. They object, for.oxample, to the appearance of Independent Labour party members of Parliament at meetings arranged by. the Free-trade League, the United Kingdom. Alliancc, and other bodies, "which arc practically Liberal organisations"; and they think that Labour members should not trouble themsolvcs "to agitate for purely Liberal measures like the lato. Licensing Bill, or purely Liberal principles like so-callcd Freetrade." The crisis came to a head, however, over quite. another, matter.-■ In its report to the annual conference of tho party last month, the-National Administration Council bad ft paragraph refer-

ring to Mr, Grayson, who had boon openly at loggerheads with members of tho Council, in terms of something like censure. Mn. Grayson, who on the preceding day had made a vigorous defence of his rofusal to submit to party discipline and a violent attack upon the Parliamentary methods of tho party, induced tho conference to refer tho paragraph back to the Council.'On tho following day Me. Ramsay Macdonau> announced that tho decision of tho conference had been accepted as a vote of censure upon the leadors of the Council, and that he, with Messes. Keir Haedib, Philip Snowden, and BstrcE Glasiee, had decided to resign their seats. In tho utmost consternation tho conference decided to rescind the resolution that had brought, about this, unexpected result, but tho four leaders persisted in their resignations. Theyi declined, to quote Me. Macdonald, to associate themselves with "the spirit of that irresponsible movement, with its modes of expression and its methods of bringing about Socialism," of which Mn. Grayson is the chief exponent. The issue, said i Mr. Keir Haedie, was "whether the Independent Labour party is to continue to stand for tho consolidation of the entire working-class movement, or depart from the line of sanity, and follow some vague chimera called Socialism or Socialist unity, spoken of by men who don't understand Socialism and are alien to the spirit of ,unity." To hear Mr; Keir Hardie speaking of "some vague chimera called Socialism" is a novel experience. The explanation of this oddity lies in the • fact that Mr. Haedie knows that the Independent Labour party relies for its existence on the confidence of the trades unions, which are by no means unanimously inclined towards even the principle of Socialism. Ho is wise enough to perceive that his clients flisapprova of the violence and force that the Grayson faction imagine to 1 be the best weapons to advance the Socialistic cause. The dissensions in the party are only disagreements as ,to tactics. Tho .extreme Socialists wish to treat as "the enemy," not only those opposed to their views, but Parliament itself. They seek to represent Parliament as a' mass of fraud, utterly heartless, and nothing but a monstrous engine for keeping the proletariat down in tho dust. Mr. Grayson's violent resistance to the orders of Parliament is the positive expression' of that view. By defying Parliament, he is defying order and the rights of the majority —two thipgs which even a Socialistic State could not do without. . Mr. Ramsay Macdonald realises the' danger of these violent • tactics to the Socialist cause. Socialism, he sees, must come through Parliament if it is to come, at all. For example : "the question of how to deal with the unemployed can never be treated' by any Parliament except by one which has rules of procedure. Every facility given to\a minority to impose its will upon the majority is a facility which any minority can use, and not merely a Labour or a Socialist minority. To protect the conditions of the existence of democratic government is just as essential to the building up of tho Socialist Stato as is the solution of the problem of unemployment. Tho latter-is our aim; tho former is the only condition under which our aim can be secured." It is easy to understand the anxiety of the Socialists to avoid alarming the workers, who in the bulk are not Socialists! No doubt the workers will be reassured by such concern as even Mr. , Keir Hardie . shows for the integrity of tho institutions of democratic government. To the observor outside the ranks of the Labour party the most interesting feature of the trouble is the evidence -which it furnishesiof the elements which the Socialists must eliminate from human nature before they can realise their ideal. When Socialism is firmly established as the policy of the world, we understand, ;-all will be love and amity: overybody will bo consumed with a desire to spend himself in overybody else's service. Surely tho Socialists could have no better testimony to .the impossibility of their dream when .they find even themselves ivery hunian indeed in their-quarrelling.