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Show BRITISH COM STRIKE IN EFFECT REVOLUTION HOVE LABOR IS SEEKING POLITICAL CONTROL Or COUNTRY. A Revolution In Progress With Outer Semblance of Order But Amount ing Almost to Actual War Is End of Empire In Sight? Government Control Is Slipping. NI.W YOIIK, Oct. 31. Tho circumstance) circum-stance) which surround the British coal atriku mid nil the similnr labor disturbances in Grcnt Dntnin in recent re-cent months arc iw ob-curo to mi Aia-orean Aia-orean audience that tho deeper xliti-eal xliti-eal mooning of the contomjiornry revolt re-volt is obviously missed. Tho truth the larger truth must bo sooner or Inter recognized on this si do of the water, however. Hritish Inlior, the organized mid owcrfiil unions which nro bnck of the present test, nro seeking seek-ing something moro than nn increnso in wages, something moro than n re-Adjustment re-Adjustment of ttia condilioiis ill well as tho rewnrds of work. Thov nro, in fact, out to establish n olitical control con-trol of Great Untnin, which extends far outsido the limits of industry. Tho boat example of this purpono was disclosed dis-closed only tho other day nt tho crisis of tho HiiMO-Polish campaign, when Grcnt Untnin, through its purlinmon-lory purlinmon-lory government, was facing tho question ques-tion of tho duty, under existing treaties, trea-ties, of 8uport!ng the Polish nlly. On tho whole, tho derision was plainly ngnlnst giving such support, but, before be-fore tho decision was rendered, lalwr intervened and served notico upon tho government, ukii pnrlintncnt, upon tht) nation, that any nctiou designed to help tho Poles would bo met by n gciarnl strike. This meant nothing mora nor less than tho bnitnl declaration by organ Ircd labor that the regular Ami constitutional consti-tutional machinery of government, tnt its it affected domostio questions, but as it concerned foreign nffiiirs, must subject its decision to tho .ipproval of Inhor; that labor must countersign decision to net in support of n foreign nlly or in defense ngninst n common enemy. In n word, whnt was threatened threat-ened was no less thnn n domestic revo-1 revo-1 hit ion, provided tho British rnbiuct, 1 rcstonsil)lo to pnrlintncnt nnd sup- (airlcd by n huge majority, undertook , to perform Us ronstitutionnl dutiini in ronlrnventinn to tho will of organlzid 1 litbor. Tho nctual test on this issue ' was not hnd. Llod George, was not , nnxtous to aid tho Poles, both becnuso ho hns nt nil time manifested extra- 1 ordinary hostility to Poland nnd be- ' cnuso ho wns nt odds -villi tho Trench , over ninny questions nnd French ol icy called for n vigorous suport of Polnnd. Before tho sltuntion became so noute that Britain would hnvo bu i forced to aid Poland or repudiate her , tdodge, France, through We,vgnnd, had saved Warsaw nnd Poland and tho whole dispute man thus eliminated Labor's Assertod Right. Yet students of foreign affairs could not then, and cannot now, fail to recognize the meaning for the fu- turo uf tho insertion by Ilrilili labor of tho right to control a lVritish tabi-net, tabi-net, ox tin legally, b the moiiaao of it nationwide strike, not n the uw of tho regular constitutional ni'ioliinor , Hither this pretension will prevail and British foreign and mijxr'i I xln ' Mill be made, not by the prime minuter min-uter and the cabinet in the ii'ino of . the king, and subject to arliaiuiitHr.v approval, but by labor, or the p ret in sum of labor to rights of powri wbii Ii havo no sanction in law will have to be abolished. Tho con! strike is a le I tail in the whole eauiaigii of IlnlUh 1 labor for control. In tho ooal strike the effort of Inlior is to eliminate those who own the mineral dtMHtsits of the Hritish islands. Iabor mt-ceive mt-ceive clearly that to InoreHse its own rowards and at tho name, time to pro-dui'o pro-dui'o n proportionate increase of the cost of (oiil to tho consumer is a losing los-ing gamo. Whnt it alms at la to keep tho price of coal undisturbed, while it iiicrousoa its own pay, which amounts to squeezing tho owner of tho coal de-iiosita de-iiosita out of nil share in the returns Tho plan frankly goon bevond this indirect in-direct miHins of eliminating thu capitalist. capi-talist. It does not blink nt a direct taking over of the mine themselves by the government nnd their operation opera-tion by labor itsolf. Wo havo here nn tindortnUng wholly nnnlngous to that vvhioh has been revealed in the seizure by tho Italian vvorkingmon of some of tho great industrial plants of the country. Tho single difterence is that British labor has not jot accepted 'direct action" in tho snmo wholehearted whole-hearted way as Italian. Emplro Is Threatened, But if British labor is to control British foreign as well as domestic policios what of tho cmpiroT Labor meets tho question squnrcl). Ono of tho most prominent of joung British labor loaders said to an American friend, of mlno who wns studying British probloms on tho spot: "'ibis menus tho end pf tho empire, as it hns oxistcd." Suppose, at tho critical hur in August, 1011, British labor had asserted, with at least as sound toason ns it did assert in August of tho current jenr, that it would not permit tho British gov eminent to sup port ono nuropenn nation ngnlnst nn-m other, France and Belgium against 1 Gcrmanyf The result would have I been incvitablv the retention of the I British cxpeditionnr, army in the I British isles It could not have moved I if the raiUav workers bad struck. I Then Gorninnv would have come to Paris, would havo won tho war nnd been free to deal with the British later, as it had expected to do. Yet British labor was not wholeheartedly in Biipport of the Asquith ministry in 1014. Wit new the resignation from the cabinet of John Burns. It hnd not arrived nt the jxnnt to enforcing its will. That wns all. In the ease of Poland llntih obligation were wt-ent. wt-ent. No one can rad the covenant of tho league of nations and I toll eve otherwise In tins case Llojd George declined to meet the contract, assigning assign-ing as lun explanation the question-nblo question-nblo nssertion that Poland had provoked pro-voked the war This explanation is not accepted generally in the world, least of nil l those most familiar with the Itiisao-Poland question. But British iiit reals did not apji-wr vital-y vital-y comppimi-eil and, as the event I proved, Tit ris n'dc to tv.' Po- P land singl- 'i i 'ei' P Tr-sch Policy Arx.lcd f Yet in this inslanrc and in . my others British labor openlv asiwiled tho jioliev of Prance as wll ih that of its own government. Tht nrf.iults of British Inhor tqion the Anglo-French Anglo-French entente have been largely responsible res-ponsible for the growing break between be-tween the two countries most concerned concern-ed now with preventing a new German Ger-man aggression. It is lalnir which has driven Uo.vd George not infrequentl to opKc in conference the npplica lion of a treaty signed by himself and . accented by his country, quite as much as bv the French prune minister nnd parliament. We are then in the presence of n struggle in Grcnt Bn ' tain to take the control uf tho country coun-try out of the bands of wirliamcnt anil put it under the will of British i labor. The workingiuaii, strong! united, has gone into politics "on his own." He has chnllcngcd the or.v system of government. He hns openly menaced the whole nation with industrial indus-trial paralvsis if n foreign nlly were supiwrlcd in conformity with n national na-tional treat undertaking. Tho cost stnko is only ono circumstance circum-stance of the larger conflict. It happens hap-pens to be a purely domostio issue, but it has a bearing Uh)ii the larger question which American? innat roc-ognirc roc-ognirc Tim fact is that it is n new incident in what must be identified as n British revolution, actually in progress, although there has Itccii as ct no rraort to violence and no attempt at-tempt to upset existing government by armed resistance. To be sure, the coal strike is in itself n form of violence. viol-ence. The threat of tho railway serv-nnto serv-nnto join in would expand the ills-turDniico ills-turDniico to nn extent hnrdly inferior to Hint of actual war, hut the outward out-ward semblance of order is still prt-scrved. prt-scrved. Dcspito this fact, Americans are bound to recoguixe that within the British islands revolution is actually in progress mid tho latest effort to chnngc tho form of governmental control con-trol has by no means failed, has showed show-ed no wonknetts nnd on the face of the existing situation seems destined to win it partinl victory nt the ver.v lt. |