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"The general strike in England is to all intents and purposes a revolution " said Professor W. C. Abbott in an interview granted to the CRIMSON yesterday on the British situation.
"It is an attempt on the part of labor to seize control of the government by force. The question of bad faith on the part of government operators or labor leaders is only the apparent issue in what seems to be developing into a struggle for mastery between the labor leaders and the Government. All England is rapidly developing into two camps, the Trade Union group and the Parliamentary group. Unless some compromise can be arranged the question will arise whether England is to be governed by Parliament or by the Trade Union Congress. That issue depends upon the outcome of the strike."
In further contradiction to claims advanced by labor leaders that the general strike was only part of the peaceful methods for economic reconstruction adopted by the Trade Unions, Professor Abbott quoted the late Samuel Gompers to the effect that "direct action is both tragic and fantastic" and that "destroying political democracy cannot by any interpretation be called constructive or productive of permanent benefit." He continued:
"The present situation is the inevitable outcome of the situation developed within the Labor Party ever since it adopted a political program 20 years or so ago. The development of the party has been accompanied by the formation of a group determined to control the government either through parliament or by a general strike. The radicals have grown impatient of the inch by inch progress which results from the policy followed by the American Federation. They demand quick action and the 'united front' which is essential to a general strike. They have perfected their organization and dealt the swift blow which they had been waiting to strike, but they cannot change fundamental economic laws by methods used in altering political statutes."
Professor Abbott considers that the fundamental trouble in the mining situation is that there are too many mines in an industry which already needs retrenchment and consideration. He said, "This is one of the evils often produced by industrialism. A possible remedy is emigration but the difficulty there is that the surplus workers do not as a rule settle on the land. They have received a highly specialized training and they are both unable and unwilling to adapt themselves to new conditions."
Labor leaders like J. H. Thomas, M. P., and Rennie Smith, M. P., who visited Harvard last fall, lay the blame, however, on maladministration by the operators. In his speech here Mr. Smith said, "The great problem in the mining industry is that there are so many small, privately owned companies with conflicting interests. They are badly managed and their methods are wasteful. The remedy is the reorganization of the entire industry, establishing a national system not handicapped by the petty interests of small owners."
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