COURTING COMPULSION.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2762, 4 May 1916, Page 6

COURTING COMPULSION.

Sir,—The case' against compulsion is summed up in these throe sentences:— (1) It is aa interference with the will and moral judgment of the individual; (2) It is a menace to industrial freedom among workers. (3) It is a bid to create militarism, and to establish among a freo people tho' evils of Prussianism. Compulsion and democracy, it is said, will not harmonise. The voluntary system produces inequalities. My son goes to the war and my neighbour's stays at home. Yet in a free country it is every man's business to dccido for himself. The number of those willing to fight for their country-7-the highest privilego of citizenship—will be found to be_ sufficient without compulsion—conscription. If it is not, then, there is much lack of patriotism., That many aro hanging back—many thousands—who are eligible is evidence that the voluntary system of enlistment is not attracting the men required. It has been canvassed, too, by posters, touts, sandwich-men, and busy bodies, who all in that way gain some kudos or notoriety. All their efforts but prove their ineffectiveness, for daily we read*. "More men wanted"/ — "Reinforcements Hundreds Short." Tho call of duty is stronger in some men than'in others. One man, ahusband and a N father of threo or .four children, is prompted by duty to enlist: Another man, single and unencumbered, has little sense of duty, and does not hear the call of Enipire—he remains behind. "Under a sound system of national service such an anomaly would not arise.

The' first objection to compulsion, or i national service, is met by saying: Interference with individual will and one's moral judgment must be subordinated to .tho life and death needs of the nation to which the individual belongs. '• Tho individual, will. and . moral judgment of the individual "is paramount in personal matters—such as eating, drinking, and wearing clothes, so long as public dccency is not outraged by the individual —but this _ war is a national affair, and such a national affair, as requires national service until the object is attained—the overthrow of .Germany and-tho destroying Hun. . Tho second objection is that national service, or compulsion, is opposed to the industrial freedom of workers. If the Government,has the power to make every working man in a given industry a State; employee—or a soldier engaged in this industry—that is only a larger conception of trades unionism. Now tho trades union leader can order a "stop-work", or a "go-on," why should not a Minister of Industries? _ Workers havo industrial freedom within union rules, and workors under a system of national service would have freedom .within State regulations. National service is an enlargement of trade unionism. No • trades unionist - should oppose it, and Socialists should' delight in tli'e early prospect of instituting in working arrangement the first plank of their platform—the nationalisation of the means of production —for tho workers, they : say, aro means of production. If there is industrial freedom under trades' "unionism or Socialism (which there is not), national servico for the period of the war would not affect the principle of trades unionism nor the worker when tho war is over. , I am afraid industrial difficulties and troubles will'-not bo solved by the methods of 'either trades unionists or Socialists after tile war-

The tiiii'd objection to compulsion, or national service, is the ,fear of militar-. ism. .There is conscription in Switzerland—thei 'purest democracy extant. There'; is conscription *in Frasce, anil the democracy of France saved the liberties of the Republic by-compulsory service. The United States-of Atucrica won tlie war lor the abolition of,-slav-ery by compulsory service. Great Britain herself has won, or saved her- liberties, "by compulsory service. And sho will have to adopt compulsory scrvico to .win this war and re-establish civilisation and peace in Europe. Temporary compulsion to meet urgent needs is. not out of harmony with democratic movements, and compulsory service is at this timo essential to their salvation. Germany made this war to destroy democracy. . She is employing conscription to do it, and we must temporarily employ the same weapon if we would preserve our free democracy, our free religions, and our laws. . "Wo aro only trifling with tlio question when wo crcatc a national register, and fail to call the men by luuno to tlio nation's service. It is not the duty of the Government to push its duty on to the shoulders of voluntary canvassers to buttonhole men for enlistment. If the National Register wants such tricks performed to chcck. its correctness, the National Register is a farce,' and its compilation a waste of money. The recruiting agents have to insult ami sometimes assault numbers of men by their self-imposed tasks; whereas if the Government did its duty, and called, i.e., ordered, men to report themselves, the energy of canvassers or recruiting agents could bo better employed. What would help the Government and tlio war more than asking public bodies to form themselves into recruiting committees would be asking them and all employers of labour to dispense with the services of all men who aro single and . lit for military service. lint even this is invidious and undesirable. The, real solution is national service. The Government has a National Register. It is tlio Government's duty to use it, and call up the men from such register as it requires them. That is how, to use Mr. Lloyd George's phrase, to "get on with the war," as far as this Dominion is concerned. —I am. etc.. J. D. SIEVWRIGHT.