ALDERMAN BEN TILLETT.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 22, 26 July 1897, Page 2

ALDERMAN BEN TILLETT.

"LABOUR AND THE LEGISLATURE." On Saturday evening Mr. Ben Tillett lectured to a fairly numerous audience in the Exchange llall on the subject of "Labour and the Legislature." Mr. John Hutcheson, M.H.R., was in the chair. After singing what was described as "an original and stirring New Zealand song, composed in Dnnedin," the lecturer entered upon his subject, first of all tracing the connection between Labour and the Legislature, and .dealing- with the history of the matter from the age in which there were only primitive methods of Industry down to recent times. 'Until the advent of machinery there was, he said, little need for Labour to claim a share of Parliamentary representation, but by the time the Reform Act was passed labour had gone through the first stago of its crucifixion by capital. Before that children had been bought as slaves, and men and woman were worked any number of , hours. Fortunes were rapidly made by manufacturers, and England dominated the markets' of the world. But with the passing of the Reform Act .Labour began to make itself felt, He traced this movement down to the time of the Chartist organisation, andexpressed his regret that the Chartists in their time did not stand together in-, dependent of either Radical, Liberal, or Tory. If they 'had stood together the Labour Party to-day would be in a much stronger position in the Old Couutry than even the Socialists in Germany. In this movement in the fqrtjes the Chartists stood for protection of life in factories, protection of the worker against laws, the granting to the worker of electoral rights, and the giving to the'worker his position ; aud these things had; still to be fought for. The reforms advocated by the Chartists, were, however, combated by men like Cobden and Bright, and, much as he admired the many qualities of men like John Bright, he was bound to say that it was through them that the first great betrayal of Labour took place. The -Radical Party which they headed was then, an.d had .been up to this day, the most aggressive opponents of Labour concerning legislation. They were not the real friends of Labour, but they patronised Labour as if it had no brains, and sometimes as if it had no rights. In this respeot no more aggressive, sordid, selfish man than John Bright ever lived. It was because of his eloquence, his humanity, and his power that he succeeded. He led the battalions with all the tact of a skilled general and all the eloquence of a sophist. Thus it .would be seen, that Labonr had to fight its way in. the Legislature against great odds, and it was a very funny state of things that a titled aristocrat in the person of Lord Shaftegbury was the man 'who fought against the Radicals for the abolition of one of the vilest forms of human slavery. Inter, under men like John Stuart Mill and Frederick Harrison, Labour progressed, and had its views intelligently and forcibly represented before Commissions of Enquiry as to the condition of the workers in connection with special manufactures. The working classes began to feel their political and Parliamentary feet. Then when the Liberals and Whigs saw that Labour was a factor to be counted and a power to be represented,' they placed themselves at the head of it. But they only "gammoned" Labour. Yet in spite of the betraj-als and the lies of Parliamentary hands aud the opposition of the press machinery, the very momentum of enthusiasm had carried the workers of the Old Country into the arena of politics with the full conviction that the fulness of the earth was the right of the people. The employer had followed up the advantages of improved machinery, but Labour hiid remained stationary in spite of its mighty organisation. It had only maintained wages at a great sacrifice of time and energy expended .to resist the encroachment of the employer. It was only in the sixties with the movement conducted by Robert Owen that Labour became organised in the Old Country rational^. The first Trades Union Congress was held, and expressed its political power. But the politicians of that period did their best to prevent trades unions being formed. On the question of political representation the leotnrer was very severe on those ' Labour members who. servilely allied themselves to party. The power of the labourers was in themselves, and if they allied themselves to any party they would find themselves in the position of the " young lady of Riga, Who went for a ride on a tiger. At the enu of the ride, The girl was inside, And a smile on the face of the tiger ! " Thus Labour in setting out to join a party had generally returned from the excursion inside the party, and henceforth had no existence as" a Labour entity. The Labour 'representatives he regarded as mere nobodies. The real power was behind the Parliamentary representation. The representative himself was sometimes a lion on the platform; but in Parliament he was a very lamb, led by the blue ribbon of the Whip. As to the vaunted superiority of New Zealand he failed utterly to see it, and he pointed out that according to our last Census we had 18,000 people unemployed. The proportion to the population was little better than in the Old Country. The reason was that we had conducted our country under the old capitalistic system. We could not be well off until we began to realise the truth that we had something more than bread and meat to look after. It was not only a beef.steak oV a mutton chop that was wanted. Pigs cpuld get that when there was too much mutton. No ; their political horizon should be as wide as their human horizon, and that human horizon was as wide as the earth. Education, culture, and leisure were theirs by right. All the good things were theirs by right, and he wanted the labourer to recognise that he should go on with a wider human scope to his ambition and his benevolence; that he should improve liis Country for his. own "sake and for the sake of- his children coming after him ; for no class^ but for all of the people that lived and would live in the days yet to- be. Amid enthusiastic applause he spoke in eulogy of the late Jfch'n Ballance as a statesman, a philosopher, and a far-seeing man,, who always recognised any adyanc.e in (.he interests of Labour, "and fecognised also that all the Parliamentary and political bower he ever'had he got from il. Labour was supposed to be pretty well off hero, but if it could be 50 times better off, why not? Why should the people not have a bit of carpet, or a piano ? It was only/ the intellectual and social prigs that would deny them such things. He would wager that these people, if they ever got to Heaven, would expect a Mary Jane to wait on them up there— so vulgar and so common were they. Reverting to the power of the workers, he said that in New Zealand they could send to the House three - fourths or seven - eights of the representatives, for in this country there was no excuse for Labour being disorganised. If they would only give one shilling a 3*ear they could build up an organisation so powerful in its influence that capital wouid not stand the ghost of a chance against it. He concluded with a stirring appeal to the laboureis to be united. " Hang together or you will hang separately," he said. " Stick together. l Your Parliament should be a really representative institution. You should see that the land is for the people and the people for the land, and your nation a democracy of brotherhood— a mighty nation making for all that is great and glorious and noble." 'RELIGION AND SOCIALISM."/ A large audience assembled last night d tha Onera House to hear Mr. TillotL'a ac-

dress on "Religion and Socialism." Sir Robert Stout presided. The lecture was preceded by a selection of sacred songs by Mrs. Moore and Messrs. Pringle, Munt. Allison, and Volcknian. Mr. Tillett said he had been induced to speak on the subject chosen by Socialists who were in doubt as to their ■ relation with ' religion and religionists who were in doubt as to their relations with Socialism. , Religion of some kind had always existed, ffut not as a separate entity. Its power, iv spite. of the small number of its enthusiasts, had been so great that it must in a very large iiie;isure be held responsible for the unsavoury economic conditions which esist. At its outset Christianity w-ts Communistic, but spon it became political, and in spite of Reformations and Nonconformity . the Cliurvheji cared more, for Ihyir political power than for the spread of brotherhood. This was their disgrace!. Socialism was a question wholly apart from religion as it was from art or literature. It \vj(s essentially an economic theory, and took no .conqer^n :(bout its professors' religion.- It was a science concerned with the organisation of society for the production and distribution, of wealth. It desired to give the community the commodities it produced ; it wanted to democratise institutions, leisure, education, and the comforts of life, but it did not concern itself directly with religion, although it was in accord with the real principles that underlie, or should underlie, all religion. The Churches had failed in their duty, and Socialism was a regenerative for<;B, based on economic principles but acting independently of them. Poverty was the cause of misery, vice, crime, and drunkenness ; Socialism would remove it, aud therefore Socialism could be accepted independently of creed or Church.