THE WORKERS' PEACE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 94, 14 January 1918, Page 5

THE WORKERS' PEACE

STATEMENT BY BRITISH LABOUR LEADER

THE WAR TO END WAR

"British labour wants pence, but it wants a settled peaco, a peaco that will ensure the world against being once moro plunged into war at the will of a group of autocratic and ambitious statesmen, eager for world power," writes Mr. Harry Gosling, president of the British Transport Workers' Federation. Mr. Gosling was chairman of the Strike Committee in the great London Dock Strike of 1911- He was foremost among tlio organisers of the Transport Workers' Federation, and was chosen as its president. Labour bestowed upon him the greatest honour in its power when it elected him president of tlio Trades Union Congress ,in 1916. "There is no need to tell us of tlio horrors of war). Wo know them. We Itnow something of them before this war began. The past threo years havo brought home still moro to all of us what war really means. There is not a parish in England without grieving'mothers and mourning wives, left alono through the deaths of their sons or husbands on the field. Labour in particular has felt the rigours of war. Some of our institutions, which we imagined to be proof against all change, have been thrown into tlio melting-pot of national necessity and emergency. The personal loss, the class upheaval, and the national waste that this war' has brought us need no telling. "But lust because we are appalled by the tremendous losses and sufferings of war, and of the waste of life and our picked young manhood, wo are Hie more resolved to go on until wo havo ended the menace to the world that made war such as this possible. Millions of our countrymen voluntarily took up arms. They went to war to end war, and they mean to do. it. . They went to war. for justice and publicrightj which they are resolved to maJ l"6f the exact torms and conditions on which peace may eventually be coneluded Ido not speak. But the wording men of England know that if m\ our sacrifice is not to be in vain, there ca,n onlv be one end, and that is the complete overthrow of Gfrman tvrannv. For that we are willing to go on 'fighting just as long as necessary. ' It is the essential condition to future world safety.

Complete Defeat of Kalserlsm, "We hope for the complete defeat of Kaiserism for the sake of the German people as well as for the sake of the world at large. The victory or Kaiserism would mesn for labour tho dwitb of liberty. Regimented, drilled, and exploited, trade unionism under lis control of a triumphant German military party would have very little power. Labour would be organised—not for freedom and for the betterment of its lot—but for its more thorough exploitation. .Kaiscrism and democracy do not mix. _ lhe labour* movement as we know it is whollv democratic lam convinced that one of the great causes influencing the Kaiser and his advisers when they resolved to plunge the world into war'wm the fear of the rising democratic movement among their own people. They saw that Labour was realising its strength and making that strength felt. They sawigreafcgrowth of unrest which' might well, if allowed to go on, threaten the Imperial throne itself. Thev diverted the energies of the people 'from examining their own conditions of life to war. "To-day Germany lies under a veil. The real spokesmen of German Labour have been silenced. The men ard women who have dared to say what thev thought have been sent to the trenches or to prison. It is no c;isy thing in a land like Germany for f>ny man who opposes the national policy to make himself heard. But the forces of progress, stilled and silenced now, will make themselves ''felt and heard at the first opportunity. In .the days before the war I visited Germany and knew some of the organisers of German Labour. I was last in Germany, at Cologne,-at a gathering of the Union of Transport Workers, almost immediately before war broke out. From my knowledge of these people I am convinced that once the veil can be removed we shall find in Germany itself strong'forces that are wholly opposed to the policy and method? of the ruling powers in Berlin. The peace which we have in view will give German.democracy a chance to assert itself against German Imperialist militarism.

No Half-Victory. "A half-victory, an inconclusive 1 peace, a settlement which settled nothing, a patehsd-up truce, under which tho nations had breathing time to reequip themselves for fresh conflict en a still more terrible scale—that wou d be the crowning disaster. Our people would ask- if all their sacrifices bad been in vain. The barrier of suspicion and mistrust between the nations wou d remain greater than ever. Strife would not end; it would go on. "The trade union of winch 1 am secretary, ,the Amalgamated Society of Watermen, Lightermen, and Bargemen of the River Thames, is, as its name shows, a union of rivermen. Our members work hard, and lead a rough life. They are out at all hours, they must be ready to face any conditions of weather. They are strong men; Miey must be strong men. Long ago they learned that, if you have a quarrel the best thiug is to fight it out and end it, once and for all. When our rivermen fall out they go down into tho hold of a barge, where, with the narrow sides of the hold forming the ring, they fight to a finish. Neither man can get away; neither man wants to'., "hen tho fi«ht is done the first business ol the victor is to see to the man Tie has beaten, to help him up and to help him along. Then the thing is ended., "That is the British way. It is Wit our natural habit to hear perpetual illwill When we have beaten Germany— as we arc going to-present enmities will not endure. Our people will say to the German people: 'It lias been a long fight and a hard fight. It is over. The foundation on which future peace must bo built is tho defeat of Prussianism. Having laid that foundation we can start to raise the pillars of our new world. Wo must plan out, so that wo can to some extent avoid a repetition of what this generation- has sut"Tho coming of peace will bring with it immediate and urgent problems. lhe immense flow of Government orders, the largest tho world has ever known will suddenly cease. Millions ol soldiers will be disbanded at approximately tho same time as two or threo million munition workers are discharged. Unless plans are made' we 1 in advance thero may he hundreds er thousands of men unemployed We shall lie confronted, too, with the problem of women's employment, and of tho status of the unapprenticed workers who hare come into tho skilled industries. But these problems, urgent as thoy aro, will he temporary.

After-War Problems.' "Tliero "is another deeper question How can we so alter our organisation of society as to make tho events of the past few years yield their greatest good? War is a terrible thing, yet e.von terrible things may have ( their better side. What changes for the better will follow this war? The foundations of betterment are, I believe, two:

"First, the woric of Government in all its .brandies must bo shared by the peopjo as a whole. "Second, the peoplo must be qualified and equipped by better education to take their share in the work of government.. "The war has helped To teach us one thing. v Tlio safety of the world depends largely on the peoplo as a whole doing their part in the work of -government. In formor generations government was the work of a small class specially trained for it. Tho mass of tlio peoplo wero unqualified, because they were insufficiently educated. In recent years conditions have somewhat changed, but the change must go much further. Does anyono think that had war depended upon tho decision of the German people, the masses of Germany would in those early days have voted for it? I am aware that wfren passion was kindled, the German nation became for a time- enthusiastic for war. But had tho original decision for war or peaco rested with the mass of the people, there would have been no war. The war was planned and deliberately brought about by a comparatively small body of German statesmen. "People of all classes must share more and moro in the public work of tlm'r commun'ties and of tho nation. This means two things—education to qualify them for such work, and systematic efjorts to mako them realise the imponanco of doing their duty by taking tHeir part in. public affairs. "On the broadening and improvement of the education of the people I base the real hope for progress after the war. But wo have to recogniso that even with that, it would be folly to expect that strife will cease eternally. Tho generation of to-day is learning its lesson, but a new generation will spring up that will demand experiences for itself. 'We have learned from your mistakes,' its young men will say to the seniors. 'We can accomplish what you were not able to do.' And they will have to learn their lesson for themselves. We see this in tho. world of labour. After a long, costly, exhausting strike the seniors say, 'No more strikes" for us.' But the young men coming on! The old men warn them; they will not listen. 'We know what you did,' they say, 'but we can do better.' But we have to recognise that this very venturesomeness of youth, this willingness to take risks, this eagerness to try new experiments, is in itself far from a. bad thing-. Youth may go too far. It may have a fall and have to start again. Yet a world in which caution always ruled, where youth was always suppressed, where fresh thought, fresh ideas, and apparently reckless enterprises were impossible, would be' ;u world of stagnation. If youth spells strife, youth spells also progress. That the world will settle down to one placid calm for ever after this war is ended, I do not expect. But this war may yet show us the way to settle strife by other means than armed conflicts between nations. Suchother means can be devised, and it is for the world to see that they are devised. Hero we look for a Council of Nations, with power to enforce its decrees.'