"As to the first, though the Government has nominally taken possession of all stocks of white lead, and forbidden its use without permit, it is, in fact, being used all over the country. This means that the patriotic employer is losing business because others, less scrupulous, do not hesitate to ignore the regulations; whilst the Government, by complete inaction, encourage this violation of the law. This state of affairs has been pointed out repeatedly by our council to the officials of the Priority Branch. These gentlemen admit their failure, but take no steps to remedy matters. Once, indeed, our council was asked to prepare a scheme for rationing white lead, and without delay it did so. Doubtless, that scheme had faults, but it was, at least, simple and practicable. Evidently these qualities condemned it in the eyes of the department, for when it was presented, a deputation from our council was informed that the amount of white lead available was insufficient to make rationing worth while. The fact remains that the amount being used to-day, contrary to the regulations, would, if equitably distributed, be of real service to the trade we represent, and the owners of property. The waste on Admiralty work is again admitted. The evidence in this case comes mainly from operatives engaged in the work.

"As to the controlled establishments, the following quotation is from a written statement by an employer who is personally known to us and whose integrity is beyond question.

"'A small munition works had to be painted. Enough white lead was secured on permit: (1) To do this work; (2) to enable the master painter who did the job to paint the outside of a mill, contract $650; (3) to enable him to offer to sell a quantity of white lead to anyone wanting any. You can rely on this as a fact and quote it anywhere. In the first place, the works no more needed white lead than any other job. The mill could have waited, or been done with a substitute. Secondly, the works in common with hundreds of others, considering the times, did not need painting. The cost is put through current account, while profits are big to save payment, to that extent, of excess profits duty. In fact, an extra coat of paint was put on, and the painter told he might as well have the money as the Government. This kind of thing is taking place all over the country.'

"

"The neglect of correspondence is apparently normal at the Priority Branch. Three weeks is by no means an exceptional delay, and the reply often shows that no trouble has been taken to understand the matter raised. Our first request was for an

equitable and workable system of rationing. On the declaration of the Government that supplies were insufficient for this, we asked for a real and rigid application of the prohibitive regulations, and that Government departments should exercise reasonable economy in their use of this valuable material. Surely these requests are reasonable. The painting industry is as patriotic as any other. It asks for no privilege and is prepared for any sacrifice that may be necessary in the national interest. But it has the right to ask when regulations of a drastic character affecting the trade are introduced, that they shall be administered competently, and in such a manner the honorable employer is, at least, on an equality with his less scrupulous competitor. The present position is chaotic, and on behalf of the industry we have the honor to represent, we desire to record this protest."

that

This letter speaks for itself and the next move on the part of the Government will be watched with interest.

With regard to the general labor movement, a few strikes occur sporadically and sometimes attain fairly large diminsions. Most of these are the result of misunderstandings. For example: A strike of 50,000 aeroplane and allied workers in the city of Coventry, which lasted a week, was due to the fact that one of the partners in one of the firms (a foreigner) was out of touch with English trade union methods. He refused to meet a deputation of the men when he found that the deputation consist1 of shop stewards, and if the national executive officials were not present. Without going into this matter deeply it may be explained here that the shop steward system in the engineering and allied trades, painted at times by the newspapers as syndicalist, Bolshevist, incendiary, and so forth-is a natural development of British trade unionism. It is an endeavor to expedite the settlement of grievances. The shop stewards are elected by the men of all the trades in a particular workshop and are directed to lay complaint before the management. In former days the plan was to communicate with the London executives of all the unions concerned and this took time. Since the Coventry strike, the shop stewards are recognized both by the union officials and by the employers and a prolific source of misunderstanding is thereby removed. Put in another way, the shop steward movement, which is growing in this country, is a method of decentralization intended to overcome the delays caused by the over-centralization of some of our larger unions. It will make the unions stronger and more progressive.

REE Russia is not lost yet to the Allied cause. She can easily be converted yet into a powerful striking force against Germany, if only an immediate effort is made by the Allies to understand the Russian state of mind and the real cause of the Russian crisis.

At the basis of all of the new Russia's troubles lies the universal longing of the masses for peace, not a separate, but a general peace. The Russian revolution itself was the product of this longing. The great fact, hardly recognized yet outside of Russia, is that the revolution was an outbreak not only against Czarism, but also against the war, in so far as the Russian masses considered it Czar-made.

It is therefore a great mistake to ascribe Russia's chronic crisis during the last six months to internal causes, such as party differences, economic troubles, racial and nationalistic aspirations. These would undoubtedly have manifested themselves in a first-degree crisis had Russia been at peace and in an internationally normal situation. But what ails the new Russia now is a far deeper cause. It is the failure of the revolution up to the present to carry out its very fundamental purpose, its own mandate, the bringing about of peace.

But how could peace be brought about, from the Russian viewpoint? It is here that one will find the abyss of misunderstanding lying between Russia and the Allies. There is the idea, maliciously fostered in Allied countries, that Russia is after a separate peace. Every Russian's blood boils with indignation at this suggestion, and yet it has apparently found a firm position in Allied public opinion. The truth is, and one wishes it reverberated throughout the world incessantly, that there is not and never has been a party or faction in the new Russia favoring a separate peace with Germany. The Bolsheviki even never stood for it. If certain individuals, in the pay of Germany, were active in Russia in the interests of a separate peace, it does not follow that the Russian people are for such a peace.

Free Russia, of her own momentum, never will conclude a separate peace. But can one imagine her being driven toward it, not by Germany, but by the Allies. The latter have done their best in the last six

months, to alienate the sentiments of the Russian masses. By failing to recognize the cardinal fact that a new Russia has come into existence last March, a Russia which could not possibly be bound by treaties concluded by the Czar, the Allies laid the foundation of all the Russian disasters.

The new Russia, upon finding herself in the Allied camp, regarded the partners of the Czar with suspicion from the very beginning. To the Russian mind affiliation with Czarism was in itself a crime. The Russian revolution automatically severed the bonds tying Russia and the Allies. But the Allies would not face this fact. Nor would they listen to those Russians who begged them to negotiate at a conference a new alliance with the free Russian masses.

These masses, within a few weeks after the revolution, worked out their own philosophy on the war and the way to end it. Yearning for peace, the masses, through the executive council of workmen and soldiers, issued a fiery appeal to the German masses to rise in revolt against the Hohenzollerns and make an end to the war. But the German masses failed to rise. Instead, their leaders informed the Russians that a German revolution could be made possible only by undermining the popular German belief that the Teutons were fighting a defensive war against greedy enemies.

The Russians acted upon this suggestion immediately. Early in May the world was told of the first Petrograd disturbances since March. What happened? The proletariat marched in protest against the Foreign Minister of the first Provisional Government, Prof. Paul Miliukoff. The latter was in complete harmony, with the Allied war aims. He favored very much Russia's possession of Constantinople and the Dardanelles. The Russian masses had no desire for them. In fact, they saw in Miliukoff's war aims an obstacle to peace, as they recognized these war aims as imperialistic and consequently only fortifying the belief of the masses of the Central Powers that they were waging a defensive war.

The Russian people became convinced that a repudiation by the Allies of all imperialistic designs would breed revolution in Germany. They proceeded to repudiate Russia's aims at annexation. They forced Miliukoff out. They forced the Provisional

Government to repudiate formally the Russian share of the Czar's treaty with the Allies, by which the Dardanelles were to become Russian. They evolved the famous "no annexations and no indemnities" formula and had the Government pledge it.

Two weeks after Russia's adoption of the new foreign policy Scheidemann, the leader of the Majority Socialists, made a momentous declaration in the Reichstag, which was never adequately reported in the United States. He said: "If Great Britain and France should follow the example of Russia and renounce all aims at conquest

*** there would be a revolution in this country," meaning, of course, Germany.

Scheidemann's

statement naturally made a profound impression on the Russian radicals, especially so, as they considered Scheidemann before a traitor to the cause of internationalism. The Russian masses, through their councils, compelled the Provisional Government to issue a call to the Allies for a conference to discuss war aims. It was clear to every Russian mind that a new understanding was necessary between Russia and the Allies if the former were to continue as a partner of the latter. The Allies unfortunately failed to grasp the full meaning of the Russian demand for a conference. At first they promised Kerensky to hold such a meeting, then they delayed in living up to their promise and finally withdrew it, after the nerves of the Russian masses had been strained to the limit waiting for the conference.

What did the Russian masses expect of a meeting with the Allies? They expected to make Britain, France and Italy repudiate their share of the treaties with the Czar and declare their aim in the war as the democratization of Germany only. The Russians believed and still believe that such an act would cause a revolution in Germany.

The Allied failure to understand the import of the Russian obsession with the idea of a German revolution as a short cut to peace cost them the confidence of the Russian people. As days and weeks passed by and the Russo-Allied war aims conference did not come into being, a deep wave of resentment against the Allies spread throughout Russia. Agitators and German agents thrived on it.

All the time the Bolsheviki, representing the radical wing of the Russian Socialist party, gained strength. They adopted the viewpoint that the Allies will never change their war aims, as they are afraid of a German revolution. The Russian

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