THE TRADES UNION CONGRESS AND WORKERS' EDUCATION.

The strike of Ruskin College students in 1909 has resulted in the development of a conflict between two groups for the control of the Workers' Educational Movement in England. Differing over the aim and methods of workers' education, they have contested for endorsement and support by the Trades Union Congress. In the process they have reduced the Congress, already committed to the idea of workers' education, to a state of practical inaction because of inability to choose between the contending viewpoints or to get the two groups to cooperate in a unified scheme. Individual unions with a more or less homogeneous membership have been able to choose between the two educational viewpoints. The Trade Union Movement was actively seeking political power, and the training in economics and politics which the College provided seemed to offer a tangible means to that end. Support from working-class organizations came to it in increasing amounts, until, in a short time, practically all of the students and an appreciable amount of the finances were coming from the trade unions. Even in these cases there has sometimes been a split between the leaders and the rank-and-file, as in the support of the Central Labour College by the National Union of Railwaymen despite the bitter opposition of J.H. Thomas, general secretary of the Union.