THE TABLET, August 27th, 1955. VOL. 206, No. 6014

Published as a Newspaper

THE TABLET

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

*

AUGUST 27th, 1955

NINEPENCE

«The U n d e r ly in g Erosion” : . Mr. Lippmann’s Thesis and its Colonial Bearing

V io le n c e in A lg eria and .M orocco : Little-Recognized Factors in French North Africa

Southern Sudan and th e North: The Spear Returns. By Francis Fytton

“Ferragosto” in R om e : Communist Thoughts o f a Popular Front

Pax Romana at N o t t in gh am : Some o f the Principal Addresses

The Satire o f Mark T w a in : The Irreligion o f Huckleberry Finn. By Christopher Hollis

Form and Appearance : At the Royal Photographic Society. By Alex Cain

M ondriaan in R e t r o sp e c t : Neo-plasticism in Whitechapel. By Winefride Wilson

D eb a te s w i th H is to r ia n s : Pieter Geyl’s Conception o f History. By T. S. Gregory

The W estm in ster Treasure: An Exhibition in the Cathedral Sacristy

B o o k s R e v i e w e d : The Making o f a Poem, by Stephen Spender ; Balmoral, by Ivor Brown ;

The Life o f Lord Nuffield, by P. W. S. Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner ; The Concise Encyclopedia o f Antiques, edited by L. G. G. Ramsey ; Christians Courageous, by Aloysius R oche; The Wedge o f Gold, by M. Margaret Mary ; Saint o f the Displaced, by Robert Nash, S.J. ; Saint Vincent de Paul, by Victor Giraud ; Three volumes o f translation from the Fathers o f the Church ; Caroline Matilda, by G. V. Blackstone ; Up the Green River, by Thomas Gilby ; The Dancing Tree, by John Keir Cross ; and The Essentials o f Domestic Law in Summary Courts, by E. R. Guest. Reviewed by Roger Sharrock, A. C. F. Beales, B. C. L. Keelan, Adrian Brookholding Jones, Augusta L.

Francis, A. H. Armstrong and M. Bellasis.

TRADE UNION DUALISM

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E ACH decade that passes brings out more clearly how bad a thing it was for the country when the trade unions here set out to create their own political party instead of remaining, as the American trade union movement has done, outside politics. The Trade Union Congress has come to occupy a very important place, not officially recognized in the political constitution of the country, but in fact present where policy is decided. It holds today a position analogous to that enjoyed before 1931 by the Governors of the Bank of England, speaking not only for the City but for the foreign capitals whose views under the old gold standard every British Government had to bear carefully in mind in framing economic policies. When we were driven off gold the Government found.itself in a vastly stronger position as master of its own money ; and while the views of the Bank and the City cannot be arbitrarily ignored, even by Labour Chancellors, the centre of gravity has shifted, and the trade union leaders today occupy the position the City leaders occupied thirty years ago.

It is a proof of their new and settled importance that they should be proposing to discuss, at the Trade Union Congress which opens on September 5th, ways in which the TUC can play a part in industrial disputes, where they affect the livelihood of many third parties, at a much earlier stage. These proposals are the natural result of the way a few hundred electricians were able to jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of their fellow-workers in the newspaper industry. Industrial peace is so important to this country, and so difficult to maintain, that almost everyone will like to see the TUC taking this larger and earlier part in its own industrial field. The TUC and the chiefs of most of the unions have a very good record of responsibility, moderation and good sense. But they inevitably weaken their standing with the public when they show themselves also thinking, as party politicians, how to discredit the Conservatives in order to pave the way for a return of their own party to power.

Party politics are a legitimate activity, but they are unsuitable for men who are also performing other quasi-judicial industrial functions, such as are increasingly falling to the leaders of the trade union movement. It may be presumed that the violently partisan passages in the TUC report, published on Monday, were contributed from the Parliamentary Labour Party. They are offered not as a serious diagnosis of the causes of the country’s economic difficulties, but as ammunition for Labour Party propaganda. The