THE HUNGER MARCHERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 October 1908, Page 9

THE HUNGER MARCHERS.

On Sunday afternoon, Septemlwr 6, a number of unemployed were present .at tho 3 o'clock Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Tho men, it was understood, had inarched to London from the Midlands, in order to call attention to the straits to which they and the fellow-workmen they represent ;have been reduced, owing mainly to the introduction -of labour-saving machinery. Canon Scott Holland (a leading Christian Socialist), ■ who- had been informed of the presence of tho men, preached a special sermon dealing with the various'aspects of unemployment and the duty of the whole social body in regard to .it.' Happily, there was an entire absence of the unseemly behaviour which occurred in other parts of the country where bodies of unemployed wero present at Church services. There had been wild rumours of an attempt by tho men's leader to the congregation from the pulpit, _ but if any such intention had been entertained, wiser counsel!. afterwards prevailed, and the men's conduct during .'the scrvico was all that could lx wished for. At the close the leader, an. ex. soldier who had seen active service in Souti Africa, had an interview with Caiiff Holland. In the course of his sermon Canon Hoi land said: "These friends,of ours have como here to-day just to enforce that responsibility upon us to evoke, to challenge, by their presence at our service, this consciousness of our obligations; to press home tho demand that is always thrown Upon us, which we in our comfortable forgetfulness can so lightly ignore... They are here to, say that all over England there aro thousands of men who are only wanting to work, who would work if they could, who do not at all desire your stupid charities or your* silly pity, the coin that is flung, just to ease the prick of conscience and to evude the issue. Tlicy.-ask not for pity, but work, opportunities to plaj their part, room and occasion to exercise hers on this earth such powers as they have for goneral welfare, the chance of living. That is what they say. And they are only here as tho symbols of a vast body behind, which is waiting there for thc r coming. winter, tho winter of our terror. This is a serious hour which can only demand of us now that it should be. taken seriously, and in time; that it should not be left, this winter that is coming, to desultory and degrading alms and doles, but there should bo, an organised, systematic, adequate, responsible, and honourable undertaking of tho work in hand ; citizens taking, up their moral obligations towards thoso fellow-citizens in misfortune, recognising the justice of their claim', and" dealing with it in the-open, under careful and deliberate guidance 1 ; tackling a great troublo efficiently and with mastery."