By Our Trade Union Correspondent, A few years before the war started some of the more politically conscious and alert Labour workers suddenly awoke to a full realization of the new Slave State Mr. Ramsey Macdonald was getting ready for them. It was to consist of two classes. On top there was to be a great army of officials controlled by Messrs. Macdonald and Webb all engaged in bossing a greater army of docile and obedient workers who were to be hygienically clothed, housed, and The reaction against this depressing prospect took different forms Many of the more advanced workers in the factories abandoned State Socialism for Syndicalism, and dreamt of a future when the trade unions and not the State should be the governing element in the nation. The weapon which wag to bring about this revolution was sabotage. The workers were fo ca-canny, damage machinery, and do anything else conducive to the destruction of the present industrial system, unti] the disgusted employer would throw up his hands and the workers take over what was left of his plant.
The new theory attracted a lot of attention and not a few supporters. The latter, however, with few exception confined their sup-Port to advocating the new theory without practising it. Here and there a fanatical adherent "'tried it on," and.soon found himself looking for a fresh job with little hope of getting one.
THE YEARNING FOR ISMs, The reaction against State Socialism found a considerable number of sympathizers amongst writers for journals like the "New Age," in whill high literary and artistic ideals are cunningly blended with dangerous thoughts." But if the establishment- of an,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.