scandalous since, in the first place, the congress of railway workers had decided that the syndicate should not enter into politics and, secondly, because a former deputy, a Guesdist, was Millerand's opponent. The author of the article feared that "the corporative groups were on the wrong track, and that, although they started out to utilise politics, they might finally find themselves the tools of a party." He was quite right; in any deals between the representatives of the syndicates and politicians, it will always be the latter who will reap the greater advantage.
Politicians have more than once intervened in strikes, desiring to destroy the prestige of their adversaries and to capture the confidence of the workers. The Longwy dock strikes, in 1905, arose out of the efforts of a Republican federation which attempted to organise the syndicates that might possibly serve its policy as against that of the employers;[1] the business did not quite take the turn desired by the promoters of the movement, who were not familiar enough with this kind of operation. Some Socialist politicians, on the contrary, possess consummate skill in combining instincts of revolt into electoral forces. It was inevitable, therefore, that a few people should be struck by the idea that the great movements of the masses might be used for political ends.
The history of England affords more than one example of a Government giving way when numerous demonstrations against its proposals took place, even though it was strong enough to repel by force any attack on existing institutions. It seems to be an admitted principle of Parliamentary Government that the majority cannot persist in pursuing schemes which give rise to popular demonstrations of too serious a kind. It is one of the applications of the system of compromise on which this régime is founded; no law is valid when it is looked upon
- ↑ Mouvement socialiste, December 1–15, 1905, p. 130.
