St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 7, 1918

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| British Labor’s Plan for ‘Reconstruction’ : of Society After the War | BY DEMOBILIZATION . 4 3a gS Re A 5 ee es = + the Japanese statesman foresees, we must insure _ the judgment of this detached observer, the civ- - flization of all Europe is even now receiving its Ss UNDAY 1ST LOUIS POST- DISPATCH } ce w - a= VOL. 70. NO. 227. } ST. LOUIS, SUNDAY we kceaiest APRIL 7, 1918. PAGES 1-12, ll 7 _ NATION TO PROVIDE WORK AT STANDARD WAGES FOR 8,000,000 CAST UPON IT - Calls for the Nationalization of Mines, Railroads and Other Resources and Conv eniences W hose Prod-’ HE Post-Dispatch presents herewith the complete sethdatlaaeal' text of the British Labor party’s extraordinary proposed plan for the “reconstruction” of society after the war. When the plan: was presented to the Labor party in January, it was briefly summarized in | press dispatches and, since then fragmentary references have been made to it in various cablegrams. The text of this momentous document reached the United States only recently, a committee appointed for the purpose, has not been formally adopted , by the Labor party, and it is-but fair to say that it may be changed in} some of its details but, as a whole, it represents the concrete thought of British labor and is not likely to be altered in its essential aspects. The | text follows: { The British Labor Party's Atter-the-War Program | its own program for reconstruction after the war, and in criticising the various- prepara- tions and plans that are being made by the pres- ent Government, to look at the problem as a whole. We have to make clear what it is that we wish to construct. It is important to empha- | size the fact that, whatever may be the case with regard to other political parties, our detailed prac- tical proposals proceed from definitely held principles. We need to beware of patchwork. + ea of the Labor.party is that what has to be recon- structed after the war is not this or that Govern- ment department, or this or that piece, of social machinery; but, so far as Britain is concerned, society itself. The individual workers, or for that matter the individual statesman, immersed in / daily routine—like the individual soldier in battle —easily fails te understand the magnitude and } far-reaching importance of what is taking place around him. How does it fit together as a whole? How does it look from a distance? Count Okuma, one of the oldest, most experienced and ablest of. the statesmen of Japan, watching the present con- flict from the other side of the globe, declares it to be nothing less than the death of European civilization. Pon ser' the Labor party, in aide aged every person born into the world—not on an enforced dominion over subject nations, subject ject sex, but, in industry as well as in govern- ‘ ment, on that equal freedom, that general con- ticipation in power, both economic and political, which is characteristic of democracy. We do not, of course, pretend that it is possible, even after the drastic clearing away that is now going on, to build society anew in a year or two of fever- ish “reconstruction.” What the Labor party in- > tends to satisfy itself about is that each brick / that it helps to lay shall go to erect the structure that it intends, and no other. We need not here recapitulate, one by one, the ) different items in the labor party’s program, which successive party Conferences have adopted. | These proposals, some of them in various pub-; lications worked: out:in practical detail, ate often } carelessly derided as impractical, even by ) the politicians ‘who ‘steal: them piecemeal : from us! The members of the Labor party, themselves \ actually: working by hand or by brain,: in close contact with the facts, have perhaps at all times a more accurate appreciation of what is practicable, } in industry as in politics, than those who depend solely on academic instruction or are biased by great possessions. But today no man dares to} say that anything is impracticable. The war which has scared the old political parties right out of their dogmas, has taught every statesman and every Government official, surprise, how very much more can be doné along the lines that we have laid down than he had ever before thought possible. What we now pro- mulgate as our policy, whether for opposition or for office, is not merely this or that specific re- form, but a deliberately thought out, systematic New Order Based Upon Fraternity. Just as in the past the civilization of Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage and the great Roman empire have been successively destroyed, so, in death blow. We of the Labor party can so far agree in this estimate as to recognize, in the Europe, .of civilization itself, at any rate the cul- mination and collapse of a distinctive indus- The program, which was formulated by | cession of consent, and that widest possible par- : to his enduring | Ot cattle an tn. ail, stn, again, ail ? ) j ( 4 ( / ) } ) ( riches, but on a systematic approach towards a | healthy equality of material circumstances for } } | races, subject colonies, subject classes, or a sub- ( 3 ; | } gt tags Oat AO nt, tt ntl, | )° | ! } Post Bellum Labor Problem As Labor Sees It (From the Preamble of the British Labor Party’s Program.) jf Y HE view of the Labor party is that what has to be reconstructed after the war is not this or that Government department or this or that piece of social machinery; but so far as Britain is concerned, society itself. The individual workers, or for that matter the individual statesman, immersed in daily routine—like the individual soldier in battle—easily fails to understand the magnitude and far-reaching importance of what is taking place around him. How does it fit together as a whole? Count Okuma, one of the oldest, most experienced and ablest of the statesmen of Japan, watching the present conflict . fro mthe other side of the globe, declares it to be nothing less than the death of European civilization. Just as in the past the civilization ofBabylon Egypt, Greece, Carthage and the great Roman empire have been successively destroyed, so, in the judgment of this detached observer the:civilization of.all Europe 1s even now receiving its death blow. We of the Labor party can so far agree in this estimate as to ree- ognize, in the present world catastrophe, if not the death, in Eurape, of civiliza- tion itself, at any rate the culmination and collapse of a distinctive industrial civilization, which the workers will not seek to reconstruct. At such times of crisis it is easier to slip into ruin than to progress into higher forms of organiza- That 1s the problem as it presents itself to the Labor party. What this war 1s consuming Is not merely the security, the homes, the live- lihood and the lives of millions of innocent families, and an enormous propor- tion of all the accumulated wealth of the world, but also the very basis of the peculiar social order in which it has arisen. The individualist system of capi- talist production, based on the private ownership and competitive administration of land and capital with its reckless “profiteering” and wage-slavery; with its glorification of the unhampered struggle for the means of life and its hypocriti- cal pretense of the “survival of the fittest;” with the monstrous inequality of circumstances which it produces and the degradation and brutalization both moral and spiritual, resulting therefrom, may, we hope, indeed have received a death blow. With it must go the political system and ideas in which tt natural- ly found expression. We of the Labor party, whether in opposition or in due time called upon to form an administration, will certainly lend no hand to its revival. On the contrary, we shall do our utmost to see that it is buried with the millions whom it has done to death. tion. ) \ \ ( No Person Is to Be Discharged From the Arne Until ‘Industry Is Ready to Absorb Him or Her and the Trades Unions Offer to Organize Employment Exchanges That Will Arrange Places for Persons They Are Needed. So — ‘ mobijization will produce, goes, however, far be- } Small holdings and in other practicable ways. \ / 4 their own service. ) \ yond the 8,000,000 men and women whom vdrious departments will suddenly discharge from The effect of this peremptory , Ceneee on all the other workers has also to be taken into account. To the Labor party it wi!l , seem the supreme concern of the Government of ( the day to see to it that there shall be, as a result ‘of the gigantic “general post” which it will itself have deliberately set going, nowhere any degra- » dation of the standard of life. | the trade union conditions and ‘‘pre-war practices The Government has pledged itself to restore ‘s ,of the workshop, which the trade unions patriot- ‘ically gave up at the direct request of the Gov- )}ernment itself; and this solemn pledge must be ' fulfilled, of course, in the spirit as well as in the ) letter. The Labor party, mureover, holds it to be }the duty of the Government of the day to take | all,necessary steps to prevent the standard rates of wages, in any trade or occupation whatsoever, \ ( } \ } from suffering any reduction, relatively to the ;}contemporary cost of living. Unfortunately, the > present Government, like the Liberal and Con- > th> ‘ ! ) } ( Moreover, in order to relieve any pressure of af overstocked labor market, the opportunity should be taken, if unemployment should threaten to become widespread, (a) immediately to raise the school-leaving age to 16; (b) greatly to in- crease the number of scholarships and bursaries for secondary and higher education; and (¢) substantially. to shorten the hours of labor of all young persons, even to a greater extent thafl the eight hours per week contemplated in the new education bill. in order to enable them to attend technical and other classes in the day- time. Finally, wherever practicable, the hours of adult labor should be reduced to not more than 48 per week, without reduction of the standard rates of wages. There can be no economic or other justification for keeping any man or wom- an to work for long hours, or at overtime, whilst others are unemployed. £ Demobilized When | Social Insurance Against Unemployme | : In so far as the Government fails to prevent : ) servative parties, so far refuses to speak On this {( unemployment—whenever it finds it impossible . to discover for any willing worker, man or wom- ’ important matter with any clear voice. ) : ) We claim that it should be a cardinal! point of Government policy to make it plain to every cap- italist. employer that any attempt to reduce the \ customary rates of wages when peace comes, or to : an, a suitable situation at the standard rate— — the Labor party holds that the Government must, — in the interest of the community as a whole, pro~ — vide him or her with adequate maintenance, : nactonal minimum, to which (as embodied in the ) plain that regard should be had, in stopping Gov- ' take advantage of the dislocation of demobiliza- | either with such arrangements for honorable em ~ successive elaborations of the factory, mines, rail- ) ernment orders, reducing the staff of the nation- } tion to worsen the conditions of employment in ( ployment or with such useful training as may be — ways, shops, merchant shipping and truck acts,}al factories and demobilizing the army, the public, health, housing and education acts actual state of employment in particular indus- | and the minimum wage act—all of them aiming at the enforcement of at least the prescribed mini- mum of leisure, health, education and sistence, the spokesmen of Labor have already gained the support of the enlightened statesmen and economists of the world. All these laws pur- ! lease first the kinds of labor most urgently re- | to prevent any congestion of the market. less imperative that suitable provision against | should be made, not only for the soldiers, but also for the 5,000,000 operatives in munition works and other war trades, who will be discharged long be- fore most of the army can be disbanded. On this important point, which is the most urgent of all, the present Government has, we | porting to protect against extreme degradation of ‘the standard of life need considerable improve- ment and extension, whilst their administration leaves much to be desired. For instance, the workmen's compensation act fails shamefully, not merely to secure proper provision for all the vic- tims of the accident and industrial disease, but ( pnelieve, down to the present hour, formulated no what is much more important, does not succeed | plan, and come to no decision, and neither the in preventing their continual increase. Liberal nor the Conservative party has appar- )}ently deemed the matter worthy of agitation. ‘Any Government which should allow the dis- charged soldier or munition worker to fall into the clutches of charity or the poor law would have to be instantly driven from office by an out- burst of popular indignation. What every one of them will look for is a’ situation in accordance with his capacity. The Demobilization Problem. —= The amendment and consolidation of the fac- tory and workshop acts, with their extension to all employed persons, is long overdue, and it will be the policy of Labor greatly to strengthen the staff of inspectors, especially by the addition of more men and women of actual experience of the workshop and mine. The coal mines (minimum | Wage) act must certainly be maintained in force, Secure Employment for All. | The Labor party insists—as no other political party has thought fit to do—that the obligation to find suitable employment in productive work er uniformity of conditions among the several districts, and to make the district minimum in trial civilization, which the workers will not seek to reconstruct.. At such times of crisis it is easier to slip into ruin than to progress into highei forms of organization. That is the problem as it pre- sents itself to the Labor party. What this war is consuming is not merely the security, the homes, the livelihood and the lives of millions of innocent families, and an enormous and comprehensive plan for that immediate s0- cial rebuilding which any ministry, whether or( all cases an effective reality. not it desires to grapple with the problem, will) The same policy will, in the interests of the be driven to undertake. The four pillars of he agricultural laborers, dictate the perpetuation of house that we propose to erect, resting upon the} the legal wage clauses of the new corn law just common foundation of the democratic control of } society in all fits activities, may be termed: (~) The universal —— of the ccna j minimum. passed for a term of five years, and the prompt amendment of any defects that may be revealed in their working. And, in view of the fact that many millions of wage earners, notably women for all these men and women rests upon the Gov- ernment for the time being. The work of re- settling the disbanded soldiers and discharged munition workers into new situations is a na- tional obligation; and the Labor party emphat- ically protests against its being regarded as a matter for private charity. It strongly objects to this public duty being handed over either to proportion of all the accumulated wealth of the world, but also the very basis of the peculiar so- cial order in which it has arisen. The individual- ist system of capitalist production, based on the private ownership and competitive administra- (b) The democratic control of industry. (c) The revolution in national finance, and, (d) The surplus wealth for the common good. | committees of philanthropists or benevolent so- cieties, or to any of the military or recruiting authorities. The policy of the Labor party in this matter is and the less skilled workmen in various occupa- tions, are unable by combination to obtain | Wages adequate for decent maintenance in health and suitably amended, so as both to insure the Labor party intends to see to it that the tion of land and capital, with its reckless “profiteering” and wage-slavery; with its glori- fication of the unhampered struggle for the means of life and its hypocritical pretense of the. “‘sur- “a ¥ival of the fittest;” with the monstrous inequal- “#ty of circumstances which it produces and the - degradation and brutalization, both moral and spiritual, resulting therefrom, may, we hope, in- deed have received a death blow. With it must g0 the political system and ideas in which it \ .ite, of healthy life and worthy citizenship. This - BRaturally found expression. ——— 71a The Pillars of the House. We of the Labor party, whether in opposition or in due time called upon to form an adminis- ‘tration, will certainly lend no hand to its re- vival. On the contrary, we shall do our utmost to see that it is buried with the millions whom it has done to death. If we in Britain are to escape from the decay of civilization itself, which that what is presently to be built up is a new ‘pocial order, based not on fighting, but on fra- _ ternity—not on the competitive struggle for the means of bare life, but on a deliberately planned : - ¢0-operation in production and distribution for be on benefit of all who participate by hand or by ot on the utmost possible inequality of present world catastrophe, if not the death, J ) ’ Trade Boards act is suitable amended and made to apply to all industrial employments in which any considerable number of those employed ob- | Enforcement of a National Minimum. The first principle of the Labor party—in sig- nificant contrast with those of the capitalist sys- tem, whether expressed ‘by the Liberal or the Conservative party—is the securing to every mem- ber of the cofmmunity, in good times and bad alike (and not only to the strong and able, the well-born or the fortunate), of all the requi- tain less than 30s ($7.50) per week. This mini mum of not less than 30s per week (which will need revision according to the level of prices) ought to be.the very lowest statutory base line for the least skilled adult workers, men or women, in any occupation, in all parts of the United Kingdom. But the coming industrial dislocation, which will inevitably follow the discharge from war service of half* of all the working population, imposes new obligations upon the community The demobilization and discharge of the 8,000,000 Wage earners now being paid from public funds, either for service with the colors or in munition work and other war trades, will bring to the whole wage-earning class grave peril of unemploy- ment, reduction of wages and a lasting degrada- tion of the standard of life, which can be pre- vented only by deliberate national organiza- tion. The Labor party has repeatedly called upon the present Government to formulate its plan, and to make in advance all arrangements necessary for the coping with so unparalleled a dislocation. The policy to which the Labor party commits is in no sense a “‘class’’ proposal. Such an amount of social protection of the individual, however poor and lowly, from birth to death, is, as the economist knows, as indispensable to fruitful co- operation as it is to successful combination; and it affords the only complete safeguard against that insidious degradation of the standard of life which is the worst economic and social ca- lamity to which any community can be subject- ed. We are members one of another. No man Hreth to himself alone. If any, even the hum- blest, is made to suffer, the whole community and every one of us, whether or not we recog- nize the fact, is thereby injured. Generation after generation this has been the corner stone of the faith of Labor. It will be the guiding principle of any Labor government. Thus it is that the Labor party today stands for’the universal application of the policy of the 4 eat? : # 4, a A ae a a ce anti raat ee re re ra ce ee en Se ee ee ee ee ee ee | to make the utmost use of the trade unions, and, equally for the brain workers, of the various pro- fessional associations. In view of the fact that, in any trade, the best organization for placing men in situations is a national trade union hav- ing local branches throughout the kingdom, every soldier should be allowed, if he chooses to have a duplicate of his industrial discharge notice sent, one month before the date fixed for his discharge, to the secretary of the trade union to which he belongs or wishes to belong. Apart from this use of the trade union (and a corresponding use o? the professional association) the Government must. of course, avail itself of some such public machinery as that of the employment exchanges; but before the existing exchanges (which will need to be greatly extended) can receive the co- operation and support of the organized Labor movement, without which their operations can never be fully successful, it is imperative that they should be dfastically reformed, on the li: s laid down in the demobilization report of the “Labor After the War” Joint Committee; and, in particular, that each exchange should be placed under the supervision and control of a joint com- mittee of employers and trade unionists in equal numbers. The responsibility of the Government, for the itself is unhesitating and uncompromising. It is time being, in the grave industrial crisis that de- 4 -. 7 | tries and in different districts, so. as. both to re- highest degree detrimental to the national inter- | )} ests; and that the Government of the day will sub- ( quired for the revival of peace production and ; not hesitate to take all necessary steps to avert It is no } such a calamity. In the great impending crisis the Government being turned suddenly adrift without resources } of the day should not only, as the greatest em- ployer of both brainworkers and manual work- ers, set a good example in this respect, but should also actively seek to influence private employers by proclaiming in advance that it will not itself attempt to lower the standard rates of conditions in public employment by announcing that it will insist on the most rigorous observ- ance of the fair wages clause in all public con- tracts, and by explicitly recommending every local authority to adopt the same policy. But nothing is more dangerous to the stand- ard of life, or so destructive of those minimum conditions of healthy existence, which must in the interests of the community be assured to every worker, than any widespread or continued unemployment. It has always been a fundamen- tal principle of the Labor party (a point on which, significantly enough, it has not been followed by either of the other political parties) that, in a modern industr#al community, it is one of the foremost obligations of the Govern- ment to find, for every willing worker, whether by hand or by brains, productive work at stand- | In many ways the best Pe provision for those who must be unemploye because the industrial organization of the este munity so far breaks down as to be temporarily — unable to set them to work, is out-of-work benefit 4 afforded by a well-administered trade union, to the ; any grade whatsoever, will certainly lead to em-{ fouhd practicable, according to age, health and - f bittered industrial strife, which will be in the previous occupation. “eS This is a special tax on the trade unionists them-— if selves which they have voluntarily undertaken, q but toward which they have a right to claim a public subvention—a subvention which was actu- — ally granted by Parliament (though only to the @ extent of a couple of shillings or so per week) @F under Part II of the insurance act. The arbitrary withdrawal by the Goverameis in 1915 of this statutory right of the trade unions ‘ was one of the least excusable of the war econ- omies; and the Labor party must insist on the re- — | sumption of this subvention immediately the war ceases, and on its increase to at least half the amount spent in out-of-work benefit. The ex- tension of state employment insurance to other occupations may afford a convenient method of providing for such of the unemployed, especially in the case of badly paid women workers and the ie less skilled men, whom it is difficult to organize @ in trade unions. But the weekly rate of the state im in these days of © unemployment benefit needs, Hinge privces, to be considerably raised: whilst In industry ought to be compulsorily brought within tis scope against the declared will of the workers concerned, and especially of their trade unions. | ard rates. _ — | Unemployment Must Be Prevented ity, with its haphazard and ill-considered doles, or the poor law, with the futilities and bat- barities of its “stone yard,” or its “Ablebodidd It is accordingly the duty of the Government to adopt a policy of deliberately and systematical- ly preventing the occurrence of unemployment, instead of, as heretofore, letting unemployment Test Workhouse.” versal application of the policy of the national occur, and then seeking, vainly and expensively, to relieve the unemployed. It is now known that the Government can,.if it chooses, arrange the public works and the orders of national de- partments and local authorities in such a way as In the twentieth century there must be no question of driving the unemployed to anything ~ Only on the basis of a unl- 4 minimum, affording complete security against — destitution, in sickness and health, times and bad alike, to every member of the com- in good munity can any worthy social order be butlt : Up. to maintain the aggregate demand for labor in the whole kingdom (iftcluding that of capital employers) approximately at a uniform level from year to year; and it is therefore a primary obligation of the Government to prevent any con- siderable or widespread fluctuations in the total numbers employed in times of good or bad trade. But this is not all, in order to prepare for the possibility of there being any unemployment, either in the course of demobilization or in the first years of peace, it is essential that the Gov- ernment should make all necessary preparations for putting instantly in hand, directly or through the local authorities, such urgently need- ed plblic work as (a) the rehousing of the pop- ulation alike in rural districts, mining villages, and town slums, to the extent, possibly, of a mil- lion new cottages and an outlay of £300,000,000; (b) the immediate making good of the sbortage of schools, training colleges, technical colleges, etc. and the engagement of the necessary ad- The Labor party declares euiphationliy ditional teaching, clerical, and administrative F any continuance of thy militancy qsevien The Democratic Control of I — The universal application of the policy of the of the pillars of the house that the so obsolete and discredited as either private char- sonal freedom. This has suffered so many ¢R- ‘ecroachments during the’ war that it sary to state with clearness that the freedom of speech, freedom of publication, f dom of the press, freedom of travel and f (of choice of place of residence and kind of « a ployment must take place the day after peace is declared. staffs: (c) new roads; (d) light railways; (e) the unification end reorghaization of the yail- ( 7U™S™* tensor than the Smperative rey and canal system; (f) afforestation: (g) } (of the war excuse But individual freedom panier wae of land: (h) the develonment and g tittle use without complete political righta. better equipment of our ports and harbors; (i) \ /*>°T party sees its repeated demands the opening up of access to land by co-operative , removal of alf the war time restriction a national minimum, is, of course, only ers ij party intends to see built. What marks off this : party most distinctly from any of the other po m litical parties is its demand for the full and genuine adoption of the principle of democracy. — ‘ /The first condition of democracy is cffective per- i s pee aa Ye me id