TWO LABOUR STALWARTS.

Evening Star, Issue 24415, 29 January 1943, Page 2

TWO LABOUR STALWARTS.

John Burns and Ben Tillett have died within a few days of each other. They were prominently associated with the British Labour movement in days that were less tolerant than they are' now. Fearless champions of the workers, they wrought mightily for the betterment of conditions that certainly" called for reform. Each was born in the humblest of circumstances, but unflagging industry, combined with intellectual ability of no mean order, raised them to distinction in the ail'airs of the nation. They were leaders in the great dock strike of 1889, which lasted for some weeks. The dockers were so poorly paid and work was so intermittent that poverty pressed hard on them. Public sympathy was aroused in Great Britain and other parts of the Empire as well, and large- sums were raised on their behalf. In the end the dockers obtained most of their demands. Before the strike Bums suffered imprisonment for resisting the police in an attempt to break up an open-air meeting. Burns and Tillett obtained seats in Parliament in the early days of the political Labour movement, and the former became a Cabinet Minister. .In 1914 he left the Government, as he disagreed with its decision to join in the last war. _ Burns was too much of an individualist to be permanently shackled by the rules of the Labour Party, but he was always a champion of the workers. Tillett continued within the ranks, and his chief achievement was in building up the National Transport Federation, which to-day is one of the most powerful of the trade unions in Great Britain. The names of these two men are now almost legendary, but they were paladins in their day. Characteristics that marked them were their gifts of oratory and their courage, sincerity, and incorruptible honest v.