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Monthly Circular.
No. 9.	January.	1916.
TO THE MEMBERS.

Gentlemen,

Workers' Educational Association.

A short while ago, our Executive Committee were privileged to hear a short but extremely interesting address from Mr. A. Mansbridge, the General Secretary of the above Association, in which he outlined in a clear and concise manner the purpose for which this Society was formed.

After carefully considering the question of its relationship to the working classes, I have not the least hesitation in recommending this institution as being worthy of all the moral and material support we can give it.

Its aim and object is of a character that cannot or, at all events, should not fail to readily enlist the wholehearted sympathy and help of all who desire that the status of the working classes should be so raised as to enable them to play a prominent and useful part in the affairs of the Nation.

Free education has gone a long way in the direction of removing many of the disabilities with which our forefathers had to contend, and has provided the younger generation with many opportunities that were not available in the earlier days; but, after all, it only provides a ground work from which a larger and broader mental development may be the more readily built up; and this Society sets out with the object of supplying, in as effective form as possible, the material and opportunity for this fuller development.

Many of the most earnest and sincere students connected with the movement for the emancipation of the worker are seriously crippled in their search for knowledge of the most reliable type by sheer inability to meet the monetary demands such research entails.

Admitting the many improvements in the lot of the toiler, compared with what it used to be, it still remains true that the average workman, and particularly if he has a family to maintain, finds the margin between his income and necessary domestic outlay, coupled with the wise precaution of making provision for the inevitable "rainy day," is so meagre, if it exists at all, as to practically preclude his purchasing the works of the highest authorities on economic and historical subjects, etc.

One of the purposes of the Workers' Educational Association is to remove, as far as lies in their power, this barrier to working class education ; and it is to this end they are proposing to form classes at centres, where arrangements can be made.

One stipulation is that the teaching must be free from all sectarian leanings or prejudices, is non-party political, and is imbued with the essence of democracy.

Every care is exercised to obtain lecturers or teachers with a view to a strict avoidance of that type of teaching prone to class leaning, or, in other words, what the Society aims at is to teach economic and historical truth of an unvarnished character, with every confidence that once the working man is placed in possession of the true facts, he is mentally quite capable of forming his own conclusions as to the best course to pursue in not only working out his own material and social salvation, but for the elevation and betterment of mankind generally.

One democratic feature of the classes is that they are of a discursive character, that is to say, if a class consisted of thirty students and one teacher, it would, in effect, be a class of thirty one, inasmuch as the students would not only be entitled, but are encouraged to put questions, and are allowed every opportunity that time may afford of putting forward their opinion on any point that may he raised by the lecturer, with the result that any element of doubt or misconception which may be filtering through the minds of any of the students may probably be dispelled with mutual benefit.

The classes are a source through which the greatest and most unbiased authorities can be reached for the purpose of study ; and so long as they are conducted on the lines I have endeavoured to briefly indicate, I have not the slightest hesitation in not only recommending the Lodges to encourage their formation in convenient centres, but to also render all the material support towards their maintenance that they can give, as, by doing so, they are enabling our members to take an active and intelligent part in every community of life where their interests are involved.

If any Lodge is desirous of more detailed information in regard to this Association, I feel certain that the Secretary of the North-Eastern District, viz., Mr. John G. Trevena, who, by the way, is one of our men, will be most happy to supply further particulars. His address is — 84, Westmorland Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Labour Party Conference.

I was not present at the Annual Conference of the Labour Party just recently held in Bristol ; but if the Press accounts of it can be thoroughly relied on, then I have no hesitation in saying that it marked an epoch in the history of the Labour movement.

I cannot help thinking that those who have the true welfare of the workers at heart will fervently pray that the proceedings, if it were possible, might be expunged from the records, so that future generations might be unable to read of the hopeless tangle that it was possible for Labour leaders of the twentieth century to get into.

It would tax the wisdom of a Solomon to discover exactly where and for what they stood at the end of the Conference, after the many gyrations they indulged in during the week.

First, we have the Conference carrying, by an overwhelming majority, a resolution which, in effect, meant that the Labour Party should support the Coalition Government by every means in their power, so that the War might be waged to a successful issue. Then they subsequently vote against a measure of compulsion founded on military necessity, and the moral right of being faithful to a pledge; and to make confusion more confounded, they, later on, decided that the three members of the Labour Party who became members of the Coalition Government, by the consent of the Labour Party, shall continue to be members of the Government, which surely by implication means approval of the Military Service Bill.

It must not be overlooked that this was all done at an ostensibly representative and not a deliberative assembly. I make no apology for using the term "ostensibly," as I do not for a moment imagine that many of the delegates, if any, gulled themselves with the delusion that they were actually representing the opinions or wishes of the thousands who were paying the piper, if not calling the tune.

If ever the occasion existed for a clear and definite pronouncement being obtained from the rank and file, it was surely in this instance, when their lives and liberties were at stake. Yet, what do we find? That the very section who, in years gone by, have so strenuously advocated the doctrine of appeal to their members on questions of supreme importance are now chary about trusting them ; their reason being that Democracy is swayed, in affairs like the present, more by sentiment than reason.

To the looker-on, who was not directly concerned in the meeting itself; it would be patent that the many incongruities to which the Conference committed itself during its deliberations were not so much due to fundamental differences of Labour policy, but were founded on the deep-rooted antipathy of one section of the Labour movement to the War itself. A direct, uncompromising opposition would, in the present state of feeling, be devoid of tact, and might not inconceivably result in political and social extinction; and it, therefore, became necessary to so cloak their opposition as to make a direct indictment difficult to prove; and the introduction of the Military Service Bill provided an excellent opportunity for harnessing the more moderate section of the Party to the chariot of shibboleths which were the product of normal times; and, no matter how applicable they might be then, were absolutely out of place in the present unparalleled state of affairs.

Is to be wondered that Ramsay Macdonald so eloquently pleaded for a " wider vision ;" and to no one more than the Party to which he belongs is the plea so necessary. Their very opposition to the War is the direct outcome of a circumscribed outlook, that has made it impossible for them to differentiate between the present and wars of the past.

It probably is true that the majority of wars gone by were engineered by and in the interest of Capitalism; and mainly because this is so, they have acquired so narrow and bigoted a conception of warfare as to assume that there can be no exception to the rule. They are either unable, or in their smug assumption of infallible judgement, refuse to realise that, whatever may have been the cause and ultimate effect of wars in the past, on this occasion, at all events, Great Britain is not out for territorial acquisition, but is engaged in a contest involving her National existence; and in face of this possibility, together with the fact that thousands of the bravest and best of our countrymen are daily making the greatest sacrifice that man can make, viz., laying down their lives in defence of the sacred heritage of liberty, and the right of even the weakest of nations to be free from the hideous chains of national slavery, they yet stoop to vent their spleen upon the bulk of the Labour Party, by charging them with being false to political methods and policies, which were designed under normal conditions, as remote from the present situation as it is possible to conceive. Well might Ramsay Macdonald preach the doctrine of a "wider vision"; and to no body of men can I so heartily commend it as to his own particular party.

I have more than once commented upon the consistency and honesty of Mr. Macdonald's attitude to the present War; and I have experienced some little difficulty in reconciling certain of the views that he and another leading light of the Independent Labour Party gave utterance to at this Conference, with those they have so frequently expressed in the past.

It caused one to wonder if they were not almost imperceptibly becoming converts to the doctrine of a "wider vision;" and, indeed, it seemed to partake so much of heresy that one of their most stalwart henchmen, Mr. R. Wallhead, of Manchester, felt constrained to get up and repudiate the views they were expressing, making it clear that any idea of National obligations did not forum part of the policy of their Party.

In justice to this section of the Labour Party, it is only fair to admit that this War has destroyed one of their pet theories, viz., the doctrine of the International Brotherhood of Democracies, with the result that their disappointment is so intense as to create a distorted out-look. The dream was no doubt a beautiful one but directly we forget that we are living in a practical world, full of human nature with all its inherent and, to a large extent, ineradicable weaknesses, and indulge in these idealistic dreams, there is bound to come a rude awakening.

It is almost as feasible to imagine that you can eradicate the ties which are indissolubly bound up with our own kindred, as to expect that any International agreement or understanding as to working policy could survive between two nations which had become embroiled with each other in a struggle for National existence.

The idea was almost as Utopian as that the lion and lamb should dwell together in peace and concord.

To summarise the situation as it appears to me: everything points to the conclusion that Trades Unionists will be eventually compelled to work out their own political salvation, It will be generally admitted that the future welfare and continued development of Trades Unionism is inseparably linked up with political action and the sooner we recognise the fact that the funds of Trades Unionism are being extensively used for the purpose of maintaining certain elements in the Labour Party, whose policy and methods are in direct antagonism to the wishes of Trades Unionists generally, the sooner will we attain that power so essential to the procuring of brighter and better conditions for the toiling masses.

In the early stages of the Independent Labour Party Movement, our attention was frequently drawn to the success which had attended the efforts of the Irish Party, by acting on purely independent lines; and we were advised to emulate so conspicuous an example of the power and virtue of their particular methods but it must not escape our observation that the very solidity that we could not help but admire, and which proved so powerful a lever in the direction of seeking redress for their wrongs, was founded on that very National sentiment which the Independent Labour Party so readily repudiate.

The time has arrived for Trade Unionists to set their house in order. There is ample scope within its fold for every working man ; and, instead of using the sinews of war which they possess for the breeding of dissension in the Labour Movement, they want to see to it that they are used for their own development, both from an industrial and political standpoint.

---

Mr. House reports the decisions of the Compensation Committee, held on January 10th, 1916, as follows :—

Fatal Cases.

Fatal Cases

Lodge	Name	Age	Occupation
Esh	Anthony, Maddison	66	Shifter
Harton	Matthew Dodsworth, Wright	15	Driver

Non-fatal Cases.

Non-fatal Cases

Lodge	Name	Age	Occupation
Brandon	James, Bell	36	Shifter
Lambton	William, Bilton	41	Hewer
Houghton	Hiram, Brooks	15	Driver
Edmondsley	John Robert, Bushby	21	Driver
Washington Glebe	J. T., Davison	14	Belt Lad
Horden	William, Dawson	18	Engineman
Trimdon Grange	John, Hagen	19	Driver
Marsden	William, Joss	23	Driver
Towneley	J. W., Mitchinson	21	Driver
Lumley	Joseph, Moody	17	Pick Carrier
Chopwell	William, Noble	63	Stoneman
Chopwell	James, Robinson	60	Stoneman
Shotton	Robert, Scott	18	Working at Shaft Bottom
Eldon	William, Smith	27	Putter
Chopwell	John, Wilkinson	60	Hewer
Chopwell	Matthew, Wilkinson	61	Hewer
Dawdon	Mark, Wylie	18	Endless-Rope Lad

Durham, January 1916. T. H. Cann.

 

Source:

NEEMARC - Ref: NUMDA/1/6/41, D.M.A. Minutes, Circulars etc. for 1916 (one volume: covers Jan-Jun)