THE VAG’S COLUMN

Grey River Argus, 27 May 1922, Page 7

THE VAG’S COLUMN

By the Understudy. Dear Henry,—The winter is jnT about on us, and as I travel backwardl- - forwards to the place where 1 earn my daily crust the “Grey baidx-r" goes through my cheap, shoddy coat and •mit and turns my tlesh like unto that uf a goo.-i-. 1 don 't complain :ny more than I can help, Hen, because ] no Live your coal is as thin or thinner than mine, and I hope that some day, when your miseries fairly gel you down you’ll wake up and help me alter the cursed system that forces us to buy a I’3 overcoat when goods ones are going t 19. I feel a sort of sat.isfnetion when 1 set* you <*ol<i, lien, bceausr it only through your own miseries that you will move. This time last year 1 called your attention to the way you sent your children to school. i iom nared them to the bosses’ kiddie.-; in their warm clothes and oilskins and gum boots. Your Fttle ones did not gain much by comp::rison, lien. I’oor little beggar: —shoddy clothes and rag boots i are no! milch protection ng.'-inst th. 1 cold :ud wit. I noticed Hon, that some of lhe toilers have taken my last vear's lesson to heart, and now and then I son some of their kiddies dress'd in dainty liith* cloaks and oilskins. Xow then, Hen, you can get those little comforts for the youngsters if you want to. It is no use you- telling mo you don't got enough wages. If you don't it your own fault, tiicre is no one to blame but yourself. This Vag hasn't got any kiddies, but if I h: d I \l fight like a fiend if they were forced to go wet and miserable to school. It's when I look at your little ones, lieu, that I loose patience with you. I love kiddies, that is probably because I’m a follower uf the Great Teacher who said “Suffer little chil'iren to conn* unto me,’’ ami when I see them illtreated, either by capitalists who hold up their food and clothing, or their p; rents who won’t put up a decent, light for sufficient wages to clothe ami feed them properly I fed like turning the whole world upside down. Hen, it's no use you telling us with one breath that you luxe your kiddies ami in the ne-.t that you cannot afford tins or that comfort. If you really loved tlpui, lien, vou would torment the ('onriliat ion Commissioner, and .Judge Frazer, Bill Massey, Joe Ward, and Harry Holland; vou would agitate and organist*, and even fight, strike, or go slow until your children had full and plenty. You might well ask, Hen, what is the proper course for you to pursue. Il you did I’d have to answer that no industrial or political party you can jein will make any difference to you if you don’t put ginger into the fight yourself. It s not parties vou want, Hen, but bra.ilis. And it is the fact that your br. ins wants brushing so badly tha_t makes me an agitator. Being an agitator is not always a comfortable berth, Hen. one is often < umpeiic'i to quarrel with his friends. A chap who feels rather friendly' tow: rds me said, the other day: “The trouble with yon, Vag, is Hint vou are so extreme, you are caustic in vour remarks and would get on far better if .vou would work quietly. Ami want to jam your Socialism down the throats of your friends.” “Is it any wonder that I'm extreme,” I asked him, “you say that I am always agitating and stirring up strife —that 1 am intolerant and sarcastic in my answers—don't you know that every agitator who is genuine is almost the s: me as I. Don’t you know that when you uphold this rotten capitalist system you are helping to keep millions of women as prostitutes. Don’t vou know that millions of boys and girls are forced into factories, live in hovels, are underfed and overworked and consequently their minds and bodies are warped and twisted until they arc less th: n half human. If you don’t know these things 1 do, ami when yon speak your little capitalist platitude! to me I feel bhe insulting you. The shadow of the babitys, the boys and girls and the poor prostitutes ever hangs over me. While the world tolerates these things 1 will always bo intolerant. and extreme.’’ No, lion, 1 enn never use “gentlemanly” or mild langu: ge to an exponent of capitalism. One of the worst things I have to put up with, Ben, is the clergyman who tells me that Socialism is materialism, and therefore cannot be subscribed to by anyone who believes in God. I immediately thir.k of the millions of God’s beautiful women who are forced to live the lives of prostitutes, the millions of God’s images whose bodies are twisted : n I distorted in the capitalists’ factories, mining hells and slums, ami whose finer God like thoughts are crushed out of their poor brains by their surroundings, leaving them still possessed of the most depraved ideas and feelings ajid I want to insult that clergyman and I lute the awful system, whereby he, a follower of the gentle and lowly Jesus, was taught to be an upholderof capitalism. No, Hen, while I have you, and the poverty and misery, on the one side, and the apologists and direct opponents on the other, I will never be anything else but :n intolerant agitating Vagabond. Don’t Maine me old eli.np, get off your toe and lend me a hand to alter things. THE VAG'B UNDERSTUDY.