The important thing to remember about the English working man
is that it is what he does that matters, not what he says. He is breezily indifferent as to whether his deeds square with his words, and he troubles very little as to the wording of reso- lutions, and still less as to the exact significance of perorations. He will, for example, cheerfully conclude what he calls an anti- conscriptionist speech by a vehement demand for compulsion. It is clear from the first day's proceedings of the Labour Con- ference at Bristol that we are going to see notable proof of tho characteristics we have just described. The Conference will let off a good deal of mixed steam and gas about conscription, but the net result of its operations will be to give a strenuous support to the policy of pushing the war to the utmost, and it will in fact, if not in name, endorse the Derby scheme as a necessary if regrettable emergency measure. The mass of the workers is evidently not worrying in the least about com- pelling the slacker to do his bit, but only as to whether we are putting enough energy into our prosecution of the war.
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