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REGISTERED FOR INLAND AND FOREIGN TRANSMISSION. LONDON, SATURDAY, FEB. 1o, 1894. [P r ice O n e P en n y. cating the establishment of peasant proprietary in CRITICAL CHRONICLE. Great Britain, that form of landholding and agricul­ ture is breaking down in every civilised country. Mr. Labouchere, for instance, points with triumph More Journalistic I magination. to 7,000,000 peasant cultivators in France. There are not so many, but let that pass. He should look Since the brutal behaviour of the a little deeper. The small holdings have been City Police to the unemployed pro­ absorbed nearly all through the north of France, cession of Saturday last various highly- and the small cultivator is now almost universally coloured speeches have been attributed regarded as being economically doomed in other to our comrade Williams. Last Tues­ districts, One of the most serious signs in modern day night there appeared in all the France is the decrease of saving and thrift among evening newspapers a sensational that saving and thrifty people. Diseases arising report of a speech supposed to have from insufficient nourishment are rapidly on the been delivered by Williams, in which increase among these very peasants. So elsewhere he was made to talk a quantity of wild in Silesia, Baden-Baden, Alsace-Lorraine, Switzer­ nonsense about people taking explo­ land, Lombardy, Venice, and so on and so on. You sives in their pockets made up in cannot put back the hands on the dial of economic packets about the size of a penny. progress. Peasant proprietary is played out. We are requested to give an emphatic denial to such an absurd falsehood, As L iberals See H im. published for no other reason than to damage the present unemployed agitation. Its inaccuracy can If any of our friends are inclined to think that we easily be proved by the notes of the police reporter have been unduly severe in our references to Mr. himself. The worst of the whole business is that John Burns, we commend to their perusal an article “ liners”— like some we know— often make up sen­ on that gentleman which appeared in the D a ily sational reports from their own imagination in order N ew s of last Saturday week. The article is most to ensure their insertion in the columns of the capi- adulatory in tone, and among other things says of talist press. Mr. Burns that “ in the debate on the Featherstone riots he took a very bold line indeed, admitting John E. W illiams.. that dangerous rioters ought to be shot, and even condemning the use of less deadly weapons than the We Social-Democrats are becoming almost afraid Lee-Metford rifle. W hen Mr. Burns took his seat, to say a good word for one another, or to praise along with Mr. Keir Hardie, on the left of the genuine good work done by a member o f our body. Speaker it was too hastily inferred that he would Our experience of the results of such praise in the past having been so bad. But something we must not support Her Majesty's Government. As a say about what has been done by our old comrade matter of fact, Ministers have had few more staunch John Williams in this unemployed agitation. No and loyal allies. When a Radical protest is made one could have worked harder, no one could have in the Lobbies Mr. Burns almost always gives a spoken more plainly, no one could have been more Radical vote. But he never makes mischief, or judicious, and no one could have been more suc­ attempts to organise a revolt.” Comment on this cessful. The whole business has been most credit- commendation from the official organ of the Liberal able to himself, to the S.D.F. committee, and to the Government is unnecessary. We could not possibly S.D F. at large. It is now just thirteen years since say anything more strongly condemnatory. John Williams joined our organisation, and when A utocratic “ Socialism ” in the U nited States. the history of the body comes to be written, it will certainly appear that no one has had more imprisonment, more kicks and cuffs from the The Government receiver of the Union Pacific police, or has done more for his class by teaching, Railway has recently ordered that wages shall be organisation and agitation than has indefatigable reduced 10 per cent., and that the men shall not and plucky little John E. Williams. strike, but must continue, under penalty of the law, to work at the reduced rate. This order will be better appreciated when it is known that one quarter L ectures on E conomics. of the 170,000 miles of railway in the United States It is most encouraging to see the Central Hall of is now in the hands of Government receivers owing the S.D.F. crowded to the door and many standing to their reconstruction during bankruptcy. In other up to hear Hyndman’s lectures on “ Socialist Eco­ words, more than 40,000 miles of railway, employing nomics,” especially as all who attend have to make over 175,000 men, are now under the temporary a small payment to the general fund. This shows control of the State in America, and an edict is that our comrades are getting to understand more issued ordering a reduction of wage without the and more clearly that without a thoroughly sound option of refusal. Can any sane person think that economic basis all our propaganda is comparatively such events do not portend a revolutionary era ? vain. No doubt political economy is hard work. To grasp firmly the theories of value, surplus value, A rrest of D r. M erlino. &c., which underlie the only existing analysis of capitalist production is no easy matter. But on the We regret, thongh we are not surprised, to hear whole it is easier for working men to do this than of the arrest of Dr. Merlino at Naples. Merlino’s for most of the half-educated but wholly-conceited movements have, we understand, been watched by middle-class. They can think their difficulties out the police for some time past, and during his two unhampered by class prejudice. Mere reading is last visits to Italy they could have laid hands on him not enough. No man, least of all Marx, ever pre­ had they desired to do so. Unfortunately, Merlino tended that he had solved all the problems of eco­ has been arrested at a time of excitement, when the nomics. But he has furnished us with the key by most brutal sentences of imprisonment will be which we ourselves can help to solve them. And it hurriedly passed on all whom the Italian Govern­ is this key which Hyndman is trying to explain the ment get in their clutches. working of in his Saturday lectures at 337, Strand. We understand that the lectures will be published Alderman Faudel Philips had a case before him hereafter. last week at the Guildhall of a carpenter charged with assaulting his wife, who asked for a separation order. ------ P easant P roprietary. The wife got the order, the man was to pay his It is worthy of note that, just at the time when wife 8s. a week, and was sentenced to a month's im­ our Radical wiseacres and Tory geniuses are advo- prisonment with hard labour. Puzzle— find the 8s.! “ W ill you explain more fully what yon mean by ROUND THE CROWD. that ? ” SCOTTISH NOTES. “ Yes, certainly. I mean that all the money paid B y t h e D o d g e r . in rent, rates and taxes is a portion of the total I mentioned some time ago that that section of wealth produced by labour in the course of its the Scottish Labour Party that runs public meetings Comrade Hobart has forwarded me a letter con- manipulation of the gifts of nature. It therefore in the Albion Hall, Glasgow, would not sell J u s t i c e taining a very interesting problem. The problem belongs to labour, is taken from labour; and, inside the hall. These lectures are managed and is in this wise :— although paid as rent, rates, and taxes by the arranged by a lecture committee. This committee “ A quantity of municipal work will cost the middle-class, is indirectly payment from the workers. is composed— so I understand—of delegates from all the branches in Glasgow. The other week this municipality £ 30,000 if executed by a con- Thus the workers indirectly pay all the rents, rates, tractor and £20,000 if executed without the and taxes.” committee discussed a motion “ whether it is now intervention of a contractor, thus saving, appa­ “ That I can understand. But do you consider advisable to sell J u s t i c e inside the hall or not ” and by a sweeping majority decided not to do so, coupled rently, £10,000. But if the municipality do the that a reduction of the rates in any one municipality with what was akin to a vote of censure upon work they will employ their own men at, say, 4d. would be of material advantage to the workers an hour, and will displace the contractor’s men at belonging to that municipality ? ” William Maguire for allowing this paper to lie on the table outside so as any person asking for it 7d. an hour. Which would you recommend Social- “ Well, yes; temporarily. Because you must might get it.

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