TALL TALK BY THE BARRIER UNEMPLOYED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1909, Page 3

TALL TALK BY THE BARRIER UNEMPLOYED.

A suggestion was made at the unemployed meeting at Broken Hill yesterday week that two or three hundred men should march to Sydney and make their claims heard. The chairman said he would take the names of those willing to make the journey. Beirken, who was one of the witnesses for the defence at the Albury trials, said he would make one of the party, and he promised not one of them would be hungry on the way. He had no sympathy with the proposal to take the British mine. What could they do with it if they got it? he asked. Another speaker, Percy Laidler, thought the trip to Sydney would be all right if they helped themselves to mutton on the way, and set fire to the stations of some of the Albury jurors. He related how he and his friends took practical possession of the Stock Exchange in Melbourne, and subsequently of their visit to Federal Parliament House, where they did their best to smash the doors in. The result was that hundreds of men were put to work next day. He knew there was a risk in the business, but they could do nothing without taking a risk. He referred to the action taken by the unemployed in England in the first half of the last century, and told now the people whipped the Duke of Wellington in the streets. If a couple of hundred of them here were put into gaol their wives would be kept in the meantime, and they themselves would be just as well off. He contended that his system had forced their grievances under the notice of the Government and of Australia. So far, however, the walking demonstration has not eventuated.