MR JOHN BURNS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 58, 9 March 1906, Page 4

MR JOHN BURNS.

HIS PLAIN SPEAKING

Addressing-, about" 500 men from a waggon on the eva of the Battersoa election, Mis John Burns said the fight in his constituency, could have but one result—his return-by a bigger majority than he-had ever.yet had. Money, he continued, , had failed to seduce them, premises had failed to divert them. TJie only thing he had to fear was envyli'of his "class and the'greater ignorance' of tho^e who did hot stand by him/ He .referred exulting]y to the election retiirns. They - had the sunshine with them. Manchester had sent Mr.. Balfour about his business. A gas .stoker had defeated Sir James Fergus'ijon.'" Bradford, Halifax, and Derby. 'jiad sliowii that the country was >V,eary of'being governed by the dicg^; of the' sporting world, by th« riff-raff.of; the Stock Exchange," and the, parliamentary dead-beats and ivastrelS'Avhoni ;it returned to office and power in 1;595. These men plundered their' taxes, blundered their Government, and prostituted their army to enable a lot of German' Jew.s to establish slavery in South Africa. His .opponent, h^ continued, would tax the clu'ldren'V food in order to. let his Canadian timber come free ; - canvassers had gone from house to house ly-nig,-.against him (Mr Burns). "My life^," he, went on, "has been-an open boolv. 'iVha's no dirty pages in it. 1 never bribed a voter; 1 never gave a letter of introduction; but 1 have . fought the battle of labor . openly, !Cleanly, and above-board. I challenge my* detractors to come and substantiate any of their lies, libels, and wicked misrepresentations. ' I have not gone to the brothels and bookmakers' dens of. Chelsea for my supporters or to provide audiences. Since 1 have held office my greatest trouble has been to get the distress committees to spend money collected from private charity. The people do not want work which has to be provided by charity, by subscriptions given only when there is to be an election." Having asked his supporters to vote as early as they could, Mr Burns said the Government wctuld have to extend the polling time to ten o'clock. They could do that without much trouble. The late* Government had spent 300 'millions and killed 20,000 soldiers to enslave Chinese laborers. He by a stroke of the pen would be able to extend the franchise for better people than those for whom the last Government went to

Avar."

Speaking later, on at tlie Chelsea Town Hall, he said the administration of the late Government had revealed jobbery in high places, extravagance everywhere, and maladministration to an extent that would have been, discreditable to one of the worst of the old vestries forty or fifty years ago. Education had been sacrificed to sacerdotalism in the interest of political expediency. Honor had been sacrificed to place. The souls and consciences of the people were being stirred by deep moral reasons. They held the late Government responsible for everything surrounding the Jameson Raid, for the repayment of the thirty millions by the South African mine-owners, for the introduction of Chinese labor, and for the waste.and extravagance incurred in chasing the Mad Mullah. He contended that the nation had not received value for the money it had put into the War Office, and that the volunteers had been badly treated with the express object of getting rid of them and securing conscription. Mr Chamberlain had represented England as a country in which there was a vanishing race, dying trades, and disappearing industries. But even wliile he was uttering this melancholy mis-description of his own country the very trades that he said were dying popped np with obtrusive impudence and declared it was not true. The fact was there had never been a year in which their trade and industry had been as good a/> it was in the last. Mr Chamberlain was in the habit of looking at everything in these daj's with the wrong end of the telescope. The Tory debacle in the country was due to the fact that all the North had risen in revolt against Mr Chamberlain. Manchester had shed Toryism to the very roots because Toryism, at the instance of a political gambler, had dared, after ruining South Africa, to attempt the ruin of Lancashire. Labor had given the everlasting nay to Joseph,