| <trailer><p> <Westralian Worker,> <19 July 1918> 
| <pb n="2"> </p></trailer>
| <headline><p> <Our Bookshelf Working-Class History> 
| <(By "Vigilant")> <A Notable Publication.> </p></headline>
| <p> At the risk of being considered ad nauseum we will 
| venture the declaration that Will W. Craik's 
| compilation, entitled <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo">
| "Outlines of the History of the Modern British 
| Working Class Movement," </title> fills a "long-felt 
| want." It does; but the chief merit of the work is 
| that it does, or should, create a sense of that want, 
| while at the same time filling it. </p>
| <p> The volume is what its title purports. After a 
| brief introductory chapter in which he sketches the 
| status and relations of the worker in ancient and 
| mediaeval times, the author plunges right into the 
| heart of his subject. The early trade unions of the 
| eighteenth century, and their associations with 
| industrial revolution the penal laws of the early 
| nineteenth century; the first attempts at national 
| organisation, under the guidance of Robert Owen; the 
| Chartist Movement; the growth of the present day 
| unions; the rise of the Parliamentary Labor Party 
| <mdash>-</mdash> these form the chief heads, and each 
| is dealt with in turn in simple, straightforward, and 
| concise fashion. One might say that there is hardly a 
| line of "fine writing" in the whole book 
| <mdash>-</mdash> not that the style is uninteresting or 
| affectedly ponderous, but merely because the author 
| has an immense mass of fact to present, and desires 
| to present it in the smallest possible compass. He 
| has written a text book, not a classic. Some day a 
| classic, covering similar ground, will be written, 
| embellished with gems from the oratory of Owen, the 
| poetry and art of Morris, and the genius of 
| Kropotkin, and undoubtedly we wish that, even today, 
| it were at hand; perhaps, indeed, Will Craik is 
| himself at work at it; but whether it be he or 
| another, we know of no volume more likely than the 
| booklet under review to prove the constant companion 
| of the author of the more ambitious work, as, indeed 
| it might well be of every Labor propagandist, speaker 
| or writer. </p>
| <p> We have but one serious complaint to make 
| <mdash>-</mdash> the work is not indexed. </p>
| <p> The volume is notable for two reasons. In the 
| first place it presents in a convenient manner an 
| enormous mass of facts not otherwise available in 
| collected form ~~ if we exclude Sidney Webb's 
| <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> "History of Trade 
| Unionism," </title> which is a much more ponderous 
| work. Secondly, it is an example of union activity 
| well worthy of imitation. </p>
| <p> The English edition was published by the London 
| District Council of the National Union of Railwaymen, 
| and the Australian edition by the Victorian Railways 
| Union. Copies may be had on application to the union 
| secretary, Mr Frank Hyett, and the charge is 1/4 
| posted. </p>
| <p> A Brilliant Australian Woman </p>
| <p> Another recent publication, entitled 
| <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> "The Trade Union 
| Woman," </title> by Alice Henry, services to remind us 
| that its author is an Australian; although for many 
| years past engaged in organising the women workers of 
| that great boodlers' paradise, the United States of 
| America. <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> "Life and 
| Labor," </title> a fine American working-class review 
| largely owes its high standard to her genius. </p>
| <p> A Labor University </p>
| <p> Books of this sort <mdash>-</mdash> the fewness of 
| them, rather than anything else <mdash>-</mdash> 
| bring forcibly home to us the great need that Labor 
| has for more scholarship in her ranks. A few 
| students' classes, conducted at haphazard, an 
| occasional writer relying almost entirely on his own 
| efforts <mdash>-</mdash> there it begins and ends. 
| This is not enough. The times now call for organised 
| studentship, systematic research. A university has 
| two functions <mdash>-</mdash> that is, on its 
| material side. It serves as a storehouse for 
| knowledge already accumulated, and also functions as 
| a factory in which new knowledge is made. The idea of 
| the Workers' Educational Association is a good one. 
| It is on the right lines, and deserves more 
| encouragement, especially from big unions. In fact, 
| it is little short of a crime against the future of 
| the Labor Movement that big unions should boast of 
| their bank balances while students' classes languish 
| for want of libraries, text-books and properly 
| equipped lecture halls. Labor must make recruits 
| <mdash>-</mdash> not merely secure new Labor voters, 
| who will stampede at the first sign of reverse, but 
| new blood, young men convinced by study that the 
| Labor Movement alone can lead the workers forward to 
| a happier world. </p>
| <p> This is not all. Labor is confronted with the 
| gigantic task of healing the world. Labor is the only 
| power on earth great enough to do it. Labor is the 
| only power that wants to do it. Mighty problems must 
| be solved. Finance, Cost of Living, Control of 
| Industry <mdash>-</mdash> these are a few to go on 
| with. The rule o'thumb politician will not do. 
| Tinkering methods will not do. The fact is that 
| nobody really knows what policy must be followed. We 
| must have our research schools <mdash>-</mdash> 
| associations of investigators all over the 
| Commonwealth, devoting their time to the collection 
| of facts and study of methods. This would not be an 
| university in the accept sense of the term, but it 
| would be the sort of university that Labor requires 
| to direct her footsteps. One of its first tasks will 
| be the compilation of the history of the Labor 
| movement. Dale's book on Broken Hill, recently 
| reviewed in this column, was a good instalment, but 
| after all, he only touched a small corner of the 
| field. </p>
| <p> <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> "VALUE AND 
| SURPLUS VALUE" </title></p>
| <p> The above is the title of a pamphlet just 
| published in Melbourne. It is by Karl Marx. It 
| consists of several chapters from the middle of 
| <title rend="PRE lsquo POST rsquo"> "Value, Price and 
| Profit," </title> a larger pamphlet by the same 
| author. The chapters selected are those in which Marx 
| explains, in simple language, his theories of value 
| and surplus value. The first chapter deals with what 
| determines the value of a commodity; incidentally how 
| the price of a commodity is determined. Next we have 
| a chapter on how the value of labor power, or the 
| wages of the laborer, is arrived at. These two 
| chapters open up the way for the discussion of 
| "Surplus Value," and here we find an exposition of 
| the subtle method by which the working class is 
| fleeced, and how the spoil is divided amongst the 
| various sections of the exploiting class. It is the 
| pamphlet on economics for the man who reads as he 
| runs, while at the same time it is undoubtedly one of 
| the best statements in simple language of those 
| theories of Marx, upon which is based so much of 
| Socialist philosophy. Every person in the movement 
| should study it. Every person who studies it should 
| induce his fellow unionists or workmates to do 
| likewise. 3d; posted 4; per dozen 2/6 post free. 
| Apply to Ross's, 345 Queen Street, Melbourne. </p>