Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/820

 798 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL Redemption in silver would at its present price mean large profit for the Treasury. Some very striking evidence as to the evil effect of rising prices on the interests of workmen was given by Mr. J. D. Warner, and Mr. Knox, formerly Comptroller of Currency, completely refuted the often- repeated statement that the Act of '1873 was carried through Congress in secrecy by giving a full history of the passage of the measure. It is difcult to understand the origin of the following statements. ' In 1857 Germany abandoned gold, and adopted silver 'I .(Report, p. 3. ' Fifteen to one is the ratio in India with free coinage, and open mints at Calcutta and Bombay' I (Evidence, p. 289). C. F. BASTABLE [NDUSTRIAL CONGRESSES. THE Autumn Labour Congresses won more public attention than usual this year. First came the International Socialist Labour Con- gress which assembled at Brussels in the end of August, on the invitation of the Belgian Socialist Labour Party, and was attended by 400 delegates from 13 different countries, including 29 from England. It was chiefly remarkable (lst) for reuniting, if only for a week, the estranged fractions of revolutionary Socialism, French Marxists, Possibi- lists, and Blanquists, German Social Democrats, English Socialists of the League, and English Socialists of the Federation; (2nd), for the presence of delegates from a few English trade unions, including old unions like the Cabinet-makers and the London Compositors, as well as unions of the newer order, like the Seamen and Firemen, and the Navvies, which are known to be more or less socialist in their feeling; and (3rd), for the spectacle of a united Socialism openly turning its back on revolution and revolutionists, and stretching out both hands for an alliance' with English trade unions on the basis of a moderate and practicable policy. Anarchists were not even invited to the Congress, and its first three morning sittings were taken up with the pulsion or exclusion of Anarchist delegates, who had come all the way from France, Italy, and Spain to attend it. On the other hand, the English trade unions were invited and were at one time expected to send representatives, though only very few of them actually did so, the rest thinking the objects of the Congress too uncertain; and the Secretary of the Congress explained that it was possible to co-operate with English trade unionists, notwithstanding they were not all Socialists, because they believed in the two great principles of working-class organization and State intervention; but it was not possible to co-operate with Anarchists, even though they were Socialist in principle, because they would have nothing to say to organization, or State, or anything but revolution and dynamite. Co-operation, however, is not merely working with common instruments, but for common objects, so that this explanation already implies that Socialists are at present of