THE LABOR RALLY

Evening Star, Issue 17226, 16 December 1919, Page 3

THE LABOR RALLY

Last night Labor held a "rally" in the Grand Ther.tre, and .their four official candidates for Dunedin addressed an audi- : Mice which quite.filled the building. In addition to the candidates, the chairman Q£r J. D. Smith) took the opportunity of placing his riews before those- assembled. Mr Smith ia a very earnest supporter of the party, and eometimes becomes so en"in his subject during the item known as "the chairman's remarks" that he is inclined to niako it the principal—or the most lengthy—speech of the evening. It was so last night, and he had got only halfway through with -what he had a intended to say when, at the third attempt, the audience convinced him that they had come to hear the candidates speak. Still, Mr Smith got in 25 minutes. Mr Brown spoke for 10 minutes. Mr Mnnro for 40 minutes. Mr Walker for 20 minutes, and Mr Paul for just over hah" an hour. And the burden of the complaint of all five wa* much the same; their hymn of bate was not "The Press, the Pulpit, and the Petticoat;" as the old song has it, but "The Press, the Politician, and the Profiteer"—the Press represented in the main by the 'Evening Star.' the Politician as represented by all members and candidates not under the official Labor banner, and the Profiteer as represented by the members of the Welfare League. Broadly speaking, these, were the effigies set up by the sneakers in order to be knocked down. And the wordy missiles used in tho process were substantially the same as these used at each of their" previous meetings. Editors and everyone else connected with journalism were no pood: tho articles against Labor were written by the foot, or the yard;, and cut off to fill space (Mr Brown had measured 68ft in a fortnight and the others had seen "yards and yards of it"—except Mr Munro, who had " got tired of the piffle and wouldn't read it," so evidently based his condemnation on hearsay evidence). Anyone who was standing in the interests of the Reform or Liberal Party, or as an Independent was no good. (The " socn lied "sane Labor candidates were "just the kind of free labor that tho capitalists wanted.") The Welfare League were no good, because, amongst other things, they were composed of merchants and such like people, who opposed official Labor. They had even (declared Mr Paul) sent out circulars asking for the loan of motor cars on Wednesday to "help defeat the party who. represented extreme revolution"! They were, in short, "fighting for their economic interests." Mr Brown was not well, and did not go very deeply into matters; Mr'Munro and Mr Paul were vigorous, but Mr Walker was, M usual, sedate and comparatively polite. Mis speech was made between those of Messrs Munro and Paul, and was a pale, pleasant "blue light" (with just an occasional rocket) between two bursts of fizzy fireworks.

Bursts of cheering were frequent during the procedings, and the evident enthusiasm was such as to make Mr Paul's genial smile widen still more, while Mr Mnnro's look.of determination became less grim, and:Mr Walker relaxed into a condescending wave of the hand. At the close came more cheers, and someone in the audience started to sing. For a moment, it appeared as though it was the Rational Anthem, but it proved to be *or they are jolly good fellows,' and this third slogan of the evening was taken up and heartily sung.