"DIRECT ACTION" IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 3, 29 September 1919, Page 4

"DIRECT ACTION" IN BRITAIN

Britain has been cast, suddenly into the throes of a transport strike which promises to test decisively the policy of "direct action." In viow of the extreme hardships the struggle, if it continues,/'is bound to impose on the whole, population, it may seem extraordinary that any note of relief should ne sounded. Yet it is possible to understand and appreciate the grounds on which a, straight-out contest is preferred to uneasy expectancy in the presence of a standing menace. On the information supplied at time of writing, it is impossible to weieh fully the detail merits of the' dispute . between the __railwaymen and the Government. At is stated, however, that the Government offered a minimum wage-of 40s. _ per week as against the pre-war minimum of 18s., while the railwaymcn demanded that the war bonus of Xls. per week should be made permanent. So far as wattes on the lowest scale are concerned, the amount in dispute is lis. per week. The permanent rate offered by the Government represents an increase of 120 per cent, on the pre-wjir rate,: as against an increase in the cost of living which is set down at 115 per cent. Mention of a new.scale aiming generally at giving an advance of 100 per cent, in all grades implies that the average increase contemplated in the higher grades is less than that offered to workers in the lowest grade. In the final stage of the negotiations, the Government offered to prolong the' war bonus until the cost of living, which is now 115 »er cent, -above the pre-war rate, fell to 110 per cent, and remained at that level for three months. Apparently the idea wan that on these conditions being satisfied- the offer of the <lfis, minimum should apply. Although it narrowed the issue in dispute, the railwaniien seem to have, regarded this offer as an attempt to pin them down to unacceptable terms. At the narrowest view, it is evident that the railwaymcn have, fnkeri a course cfllenJuted to send the cost of livine higher than ever and keep it high. Vastlv jri-caW issues are, of course, involved. In an attempt to gain.their ends the railwflvmen arc deliberately, attempting to paralyse the transport nf the country t 0 the injury of all classes. The issue now .raised is •umnh' whether ?, section of the community is to prevail by force ovc the whole comm un'ty. The nut-look' at the moment is dark. Ireland is not involved, but in England and Scotland all trains aro at. a, standstill. Already about a million men arc involved, end this number will he multiplied if, as is anticipated, the railwaymen arc join' l '' )>y other units in tl\e Triple Alliance—the. miners and general tivnsnor.t workers. Such a contest will not continue more than a f»ay or two without occasioning wholesale industrial .paralysis and unemployment, and •"idewnd suffering and hardship. '-> which, of >'t*urso, the strikers and I heir families will share. Mil.

Lloyd George attributes the strike to "a small body of men who arc seeking to exploit labour for subversive ends." It is possible to nope that the outcome of tho tremendous struggla now in progress may be salutary, though it cannot but bo costly. * It is one of the ironies of the. situation that no one has more trenchantly exposed and condemned the ruinous folly of "direct action" than Mn. J. H. 'Thomas, general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, and a prominent figure in the strike.