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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 6

A Power behind the State

page 65

A Power behind the State.

Under the heading of « A Corner in Labor, » we wrote two years ago on the exclusive policy of the leaders of unionism, showing that the strife was not so much between labor and capital as between organized and unorganized labor. Since then, the base of operations has changed; the strike is being practically abandoned as an obsolete and ineffectual weapon; the idea of state socialism has taken a firm hold of the labor dictators; and the present ideal is an almighty state, regulating every act of private life; holding all land, capital, and property in whatever shape; apportioning the same at its pleasure, and absolutely controlled by the central bodies of the labor unions. It is idle to speculate as to what the unenviable condition of society would be under such a regime; for the innate folly of mankind is not great enough, nor, if it were, is it sufficiently concentrated at one point, to make such a state of things possible. But amid all the changes which the warfare assumes, one feature remains unchanged—the implacable hostility shown by the dominant and domineering party in unionism to those who, whether from conscientious motives or mere considerations of expediency, assert their own manhood, and refuse to submit to the dictation of an organized body, though it be enforced by every form of terrorism. We need not look so far as Homestead in Philadelphia for proof—Queensland, the centre of unionism in these colonies, affords sufficient evidence. Two years ago an official manifesto of colonial unionism set forth emphatically that « unionism is based on the right of free contract. » Even then, facts belied the statement. To-day free contract is avowedly the central object of unionist attack.

While the strike as a weapon has gone out of favor, the old arguments of physical force are still in use, and where strife is embittered are carried to the extreme point. Unions always deprecate violence; but as was said at the last meeting of the Typothetie of America, they never find any fault with the perpetrators, and it always happens somehow that the man maimed, vitriolized, or dynamited is a free laborer. But the physical force weapon is everywhere becoming subordinated to the political one; and nothing less than the absolute subversion of the constitution is intended. The various estates are to be tolerated in their present outward form, with the exception of the revising chamber, which is either to be abolished or swamped with trades union nominees; but the final authority is to be the Trades Hall. When the great strike in Queensland collapsed, the leaders vowed that they would elect a Parliament that would refuse all legal protection, civil or criminal, to non-unionists, and would in effect constitute the murder of a free laborer justifiable homicide. No such object can ever be attained in civilized society; but already the first steps have been taken in several of the Australian colonies; and not only in the United States, but in the home country, a movement is being made in the same direction. The labor unions in the United States now claim (1) that labor is not an individual but a corporate commodity, to be sold, used, and employed by the union; (2) that as labor is not an individual commodity, the accumulations of labor belong to the general body. As has been pointed out, these are exactly the principles on which the institution of human slavery have been based from the earliest times.

In the « labor bills, » drawn by the unions, and brought before our own Parliament during the past two sessions, there has in each case been one or more clauses making the irresponsible union the final authority of appeal. No such provision has yet, so far as we know, become law. The clause in the Industrial « Conciliation » bill excepting non-unionists from its benefits is the first step towards the outlawry of free labor, which is logically involved in the principle. ؟What would be thought of an Irish Tenant Right bill which should exclude from its benefits all who refused to contribute to the « Plan of Campaign »? The two eases are on all-fours. In the New Zealand bill there was further the attempt to bring the Supreme Court judges under the power of the unions. The judges, from the Chief Justice downwards, declined to accept the duties cast upon them, on the ground that such functions were utterly incompatible with their judicial independence. In this colony a Government, in a minority in the House and country, holds office at the will of the Trades Hall, and submits its measures, and even the names of proposed public officers and legislative councillors, to that august body. It was a singular spectacle lately, to find the representative of the British Crown defending the constitutional rights of the public against the assumptions of a private and irresponsible league. But the appeal which should have been made to the people of the colony was made to Downing-street; and the new home government, being, like our own, under the dictation of trades unions, the constitution of the colony has been practically suspended.

The theory of Bellamy and socialists generally, that man is naturally a wingless angel, full of love and innocence, reluctantly impelled into all manner of evil by a vicious state of society, is very pretty. So was the ideal picture of the institution of negro slavery in the United States. The truth is, that society is always as good as its individual members will permit it to be. Social conditions grow as naturally from human character as the shell of the snail from its owner's body, and they fit as well. The lust of dominion and the greed of gain are twin vices, and it is not easy to say which is the deeper-rooted or the more pernicious. Society throws off one form of despotism only to find itself threatened by another. Ecclesiastical domination in the state has been overthrown; imperial and regal tyranny has become a figment of the past; and now civilized society is threatened with a coercive force tenfold more virulent than either —the terrorism of private leagues, devoid, in their corporate capacity, of principle, conscience, or remorse, who would seize at once on the keys of commerce, legislation, and justice, and abolish the last trace of human liberty. It is a « big contract, » and there are no men living who can carry it out; but it behoves all who regard the first principles of individual freedom to watch the signs of the times, and beware into whose hands they commit the trust of legislating for the future.