favorite of the King; W. Abraham, ex-coal miner,
who so endeared himself to the coal operators of Wales in his capacity
as official of the Miners' Union and Scale Committee that when his
daughter was married several years ago she received a cheque for L100
from one of the aforesaid operators, and others whom space forbids
mentioning. Such is the material of which the labor parties now in the
House of Commons is formed, and it requires a violent stretch of
imagination to see any real, lasting benefit can accrue from the
forty-three men now sitting there as representatives of the oppressed
masses. An inability to see this, however, by no means implies a lack of
inherent good in the formation of the Labor Representation Committee and
the Miners' Federation, their fraternization with the Socialists and the
forces which impelled that organization and fraternization. It is the
agitation which preceded it, and we hope will continue, and the growing
desire on the part of the workers for a larger share of the product of
their toil and a part in the management of industry that we see hope.
The form that movement has taken or the beneficial results from the
efforts of the elected are details. It is scarcely five years since the
Labor Representation Committee sprang into existence, and it says much
for the solidarity of labor that over a million trade unionists,
thirteen thousand members of the Independent Labor Party and eight
hundred Fabians could be got together on a political program in so short
a time.

For good or ill the British workingman has gone in for political action
and will have a try at that before he listens to the Anarchists. Slow of
thought and used to compromise, he is a stern taskmaker and will exact a
rigid account of the stewardship entrusted to those who sought his
suffrage. When the disillusionment comes, as it surely will, real
progress may come. The process of disillusionment does not come with
geometrical precision. To some it comes over night, to others it is a
process of years, and to some it is denied altogether. For years the
Anarchists have been scoffed at as impossible dreamers for advocating
the General Strike as the only effective means of overthrowing the
present system. The glorious fight of the Russian people for freedom has
changed all this, and we find even Bebel threatening the German
Government with a general strike if they attempt to withdraw the
franchise; and Hyndman, who opposed it for