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THE TABLET. [Saturday, January 31, 1 9 l ^ ‘

as it stands, Mr. Redmond said it was a good Bill, and they desired to see it so pass. The changes suggested by the Opposition were for the worse, and he saw no prospect of buying the goodwill of Ulster by any change to enable the Bill to pass. “ W e are as well.without them,” said a voice. ‘ ‘ No, we are not as well without them,” retorted Mr. Redmond warmly. ‘ ‘ It is a fallacy and almost a blasphemy to say that, for Ireland can afford to lose no single son. Their goodwill is worth purchasing, and at a big price. I have always said so .” Of course, there were limits to concession, but, subject to these, “ I am, as I always have been, prepared to pay a big price for a settlement by consent. My position has never wavered. It is worth paying a price, and a large price, to buy the goodwill of these men.” Finally, in reference to Mr. O ’ Brien’s attempt to force a contest in Cork, Mr. Redmond said that such a contest between professing Nationalists would at the moment be “ a serious blow to our cause,” and that he would do all he could to prevent such a scandal. And here it may be interesting to note what he said previously to the meeting in answer to the addresses presented to him. When Home Rule was passed, he said, the people would be asked to send “ steady, sensible, practical business men ” to the Irish Parliament. He supposed the old gladiators who had won the fight would not be entirely thrown aside, but what was wanted was that they should be associated with keen business men. Politics, as they now understood them in Ireland, and as they had been carried on for thirty years, would disappear.

THE COAL STRIKE. London is in the grip of a coal famine. The coal porters think

the time opportune for demanding

higher wages. The coal merchants, while making some concessions and offering arbitration, will not grant all the men demand, and so the people suffer. The bottom fact of the situation is that the public wants coal, and that coal is waiting for them at river wharves and the railway depots. For the moment the coal porters refuse to carry the coal, and are doing their best to prevent others doing it. Up to a certain point the public will suffer cold and privation with good-humour, or at least patience. But the time will be soon reached when they will go out to get the coal for themselves, and the community is stronger than any section of it. On Saturday there was jubilation in the ranks of the strikers because one important merchant, Sir Edwin Cornwall, had broken away from his fellows and granted the terms demanded by the men. Sir Edwin was in a painful position as a Liberal member, and has explained that he has made the concession not because he regards the demands of the men as reasonable, but from the highest humanitarian motives— because the cold weather makes fuel specially necessary for the poor. Incidentally his action was likely to add to the profits of his firm by enabling him to capture the customers of his rivals, who would necessarily go to the only merchant in a position to supply the coal. This example, however, has not been followed, and even Sir Edwin may for a time have been inclined to doubt the wisdom of his well-intentioned decision. The strikers at first refused to carry his coal even on the new terms, thinking that the supply thus made available would lessen the pressure on the public. Subsequently, however, it was decided that the surrendering firms should be served— the men employed paying a levy towards the support of those still on strike. At first the strikers refused to allow coal to be delivered even at the hospitals. This inhuman decision was justified on the plea that war had been declared— as if even war could justify an attempt to starve the sick and the dying. This callousness naturally hardened public opinion against them : it seemed like firing upon the ambulance. On Tuesday the strikers reversed their decision, and granted permits for the hospitals, but refused them to the Salvation Army, who begged leave to buy coal to distribute at cheap rates among the poor. That, however, was the beginning of the end. J h e public was resolute to help itself, and now the strikers are everywhere going back to work.

THE BUILDERS’

LOCK-OUT.

The trouble in this case nothing to do with wages. cfi. master builders have their .

ments with the unions, but find them of no avail- e after time the men, in violation of their contracts,

thrown down their tools in support of some sympadlC strike with which they had no personal conoe. Despairing of the ability or the willingness of the Hr>* leaders to enforce faith, the builders decided to ~- t upon each man employed to enter into an individ contract, to be enforced by the. payment of a fi°c a

The case has been put fairly enough

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a guinea. m e ease lias uecn pur rainy enoug" builder, who is also a Socialist, in a communicaB1^ to the Daily Herald. “ The terms have not been cafB^ out in this instance, so they— the masters— have drawn them, and now they are attempting to de^ individually with the employed in calling upon t to give some guarantee that their operations shall n be interfered with. It must be remembered that ca * ditions in the building trade are about the best t have yet been obtained by the workers, certainly United Kingdom, The hours average only eight a ojK’ mechanics earn n | d . per hour, and labourers 7* s Overtime is well paid. If other industries fared well, we should not have reached our goal by a 1° ^5 long way, but we should have a very different of material to mould into the desired shape. it not seem, then, a great pity that this industry sh0uj,5 be disorganized solely, or mainly, because the mernb ^ and their officials do not act in unison? It seertfS .‘ though an undertaking given by a strong maj°r* of the members of the Unions to adhere to the f11 j recently approved might yet avert a serious 3 m a fruitless struggle, provided that the objection315,1 personal pledge be withdrawn by the employerf^I) How the struggle will end no one can say. The Ha* ¡j threatens a great extension of the strike, until ^ includes all the allied trades. On the other hafld> j cessation in the building operations of London W»3 leave the bulk of the citizens quite unmoved. a ,y present proposals of the master builders represent a means to an end. Eloquent demagogues may \ j, momentary applause by shouting “ To Hell 'vV1 contracts ! ” but sooner or later they have got to le3 the truth that faithfulness to contracts is the corn0 stone of social morality.

t h e l a b o u r p a r t y a n d d he preliminary discussion . — p a r l i a m e n t a r y the meeting of the Labour pa -

’ RESENTATIVES. at Glasgow on Tuesday f t

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marked by criticisms of its politicians which certm cannot be charged with any lack of frankness, thong the strong language used was not followed up by a. g effective action. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald defended policy pursued by the Labour men in Parliament as ^ best that could be followed under Parliamentary c° ;l| ditions. It was no good trying to displace the Lif,eflI) by a Tory Government, for the difference between thee was only that between Tweedledum and Twecdlc~ [ . But this did not commend itself to the meeting. OPe speaker said the party thought too much of Par!\jt mentary exigencies. Alderman Sanders declared in order to convince the country that a third party ' v‘ y necessary they would have to justify themselves \ action, even at the risk of putting Tweedledum out a Tweedledee in. Mr. Quin (Manchester) said { Parliamentary Labour party left the orange boxes the street corners to sit on the soft cushions of . e House of Commons, instead of doing the work of ^ party outside. There was too much of the garden paf and la-di-da and doing the grand about them. He afraid some members of the party sometimes negle0 .jj their work in order to ape the Dukes. Mr. YA Thorne, M .P ., went further, and charging Macdonald with secretly bargaining with the GoVe' g ment, said that they should take the risk of thr°'Yice out the Government. They ought not to sacry principle every time to keep the Cabinet in. The ^ cussion also showed how strongly the party outs’ Parliament has been moved by the Marconi ¡t\c Alderman Sanders declared that they did not tr> 0f Marconi ethics worthy of the British Parliament of

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