BRITISH BLACKLEGS.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 1

BRITISH BLACKLEGS.

SCUM, -.SBPIMENT AND "SCABS."

The proposal made m the House of ' [Commons by the well-known Labor representative. Mr William Crooks, that tJie provisions of - the Foreign Enlistment Act 'should be extended bo men -going to another country to "blackleg" or "scab" during a strike is of the utmost importance and . value. Feelings of the most bitter character have been aroused m Antwerp, and other parts of the Continent of Europe, because of the conduct of the Antwerp employers m importing from England a cargo of the wretched creatures called blacklegs, and unloading them upon a city that is trying to cleanse itself from the microbe of industrial treachfvv. . It is. ..indeed, the most disgraceful thine" that has ever been , said about Englishmen, that, at the time when foreign workers are struggling for better conditions of labor, there should be found m Old England, the land of alleged freedom and .proßT>?ritv, miserable-creatures whose condition is such that they are ready to serve as the tools of foreign employers. The fact that this ■is so, too. should forever dispose of -the ancient fable that the Britons '"who never shall be slaves" are m better material circumstances than vfthc foreigners whom they have long } to despise. . ; The conduct of the wretched rabble i 1 Who have dishonoured England by i "acting as "scabs" m a foreign land, , is m considerable contrast to the < of some Germans who. at a : period famous m the history of the > •British Labor movement, were taken ] \ .to England to take the place of men ; ion strike. There was, at the- time a , strike of the men employed as stone- ; masons m the construction of the , . new Law Courts. Upon the German - stonemasons appearing, they were m- , terviewed by members of the industrial organisation : the facts were quietly, but eloquently, put before ; ithem m their own Teutonic tongue, , and the result of this interview was : (that the German stonemasons declar- ;- jed that they had been entirely mis- ( led as to tlie nature of the condition , of affairs., existing m England, and quite misinformed as to the condi- ' toons upon which they were to work m England, and, their rpassage being paid by the English unionists, they promptly ••• returned, to Germany. /These --men shdwed manliness and spirit .-but- the wretched sweepings of jt-he Liverpool slums whom- the National Free- Labor Association is exporting to Antwerp ;: to work as blacklegs -are ■ scarcely men ; • they would be more acburatelv described as manikins. ■ In eyerv' country. ■. now, there are ; degenerates, who more closely. resemble ■ anes than men, and are . mentally not much m advance of apes, who will, willingly work for.. any -vages that-* are suffix cient -to. ..provide them with' beer, * 'counter-lunches'? ..and cigarettes.' and who ...when they are not blacklegging during a strike, are acting as the. hangers-on of immoral ' women ... _. .'■■'•'.■ ... * _ *„/,'.' ... '-■« Yet it is these miserable manikins, as deficient m morality as they are m manliness; who might, by . their dastardly-" actions, bring about serious 'trouble-. -between "tyjr.eat. Britain and some- Continental Power. In such human fungi civilisation has produced the- means of destroying itself. -Such creatures are to be found m every country, it is true, but not m so • dangerous a condition to-, international peace as England. Iff' Ay- '■ -tralia, • the type is common enough. In the- United States they have it htoo, as they have m France ,; but , m none of the countries mentioned 'has there been produced the peculiar, modification of the type that is ■bringing about the trouble 'm Antwerp,. and may. one day. produce the spark that will cause Europe to '"break out into the flames of a terrible war.. Civilisation is paying a terrible penalty for having permitted fthe existence of social conditions favoring the production of such human microbes. Microbes are the lowest, but the mast dangerous of living things. Analogous creatures are to be found among the degenerate products oi humanity m large cities, and they will continue to be produced as long as their breeding-grounds exist, and social conditions favor their development. Well, Mr Crooks, wfio "by his int^ SB*3^l&»itffe*iMe -. adherence... to pv'-g

1 ciple Has risen from the poorhousc to Westminster, proposes one way of dealing with the British black[leg; If is, perhaps, as good a temporary expedient as can be devised; This is what he proposes, according to the cablegrams published m . the daily press :— "LONDON. Friday 'Afternoon.— Mr W. Crooks, Labor member for Woolwich, has introduced a bill m the House of Commons applying the penalties of the Foreign Enlistment Act to Britishers taking the places of workmen on strike or locked out abroad." \ "The Foreign Enlistment Act for-' bids,, under heavy penalties, British subjects entering or enlisting others for the service of a foreign State when at war. without license from the Kin"- or Privy Council,; and also prohibits the fitting-put or equipping of ships for any foreign Power to be employed against any Power with which Britain is at peace. It was announced last week that 1500 Britisn 'strike-breakers' had landed m Antwerp, where a strike is m active progress." • * * The Foreign -Enlistment Act, it will be seen, prohibits the enlistment of a British subject m the service of a foreign kin?;. Mr Will Crooks will also prohibit the enlistment of a British subject, at a time of industrial warfare, m the serviceof a foreign plutocrat. There is no good reason w.hy British capitalists should not support Mr Croots's , proposal, for, if those who compete with British, employers of labor are to be supplied with, cheap labor from England itself, then it means t^t the industrial resources from Great Britain are*c*ng used to drive to the wall, or perhaps to ruin, the British employers. A blackleg "scabbing" during a strike m a foreign country ia not only brin>£Hng< disgrace upon the country of Ms birt-h,, but he is materially iwjiurin'g his own fellow countrymen by enabling foreign employers competitively to defeat British employers, and thus to throw .Englishmen out oi employment. If, m addition to this, the British blacklegs sent fron* Englarai by the National Free Laibor Association are likely, to arouse so much anger amon*c those "vrhose places they seek to take as to lead to the outbreak of hostilities between the British blacklegs and the fpreign unionists— as was recently the case m Antwerp— these hostili- : ties might easily . result m trouble that would lead to war. . A,' . pretty state' of things it would be, indeed, for Great Britain, the alleged land of freedom, to become the .protagonist of t?ic creeping creatures of capitalism, •yrhom unionists appropriately call "scabs" ! .''■"* * * Tfe kind of individuals who are enrolled as opponents otf organised Labor is well illustrated by an . item of n*ws tfeat comes to us by cable m reference to Italy. It is as follows :— "London. Friday Afternoon.— A cabdrivcr and three other men, all convicts, were setn m deposit two trunks m a cufcurH of Palermo, Italy, and set firo to them. ;■ "The men v/are arrested, and th's trunks were found' to contain the rem?irs of an unknown youth, who had: been murdered. "One of the trunks was entirely destroyed. The other, which was ondy nartially destroyed, contained the head, arms, and legs. "London, Saturday.— lt transpires that the victim of toe terrible tragedy at Palermo was a French lithographer named Henry Francois. He i helped one of the murderers, a man named Saccci, to forge bank notes, and they afterwards quarrelled. : "According to some r.ccornts, a.ll the iv concerned b^lon^d to the Mafia isty and the 'victim was suspc of a wish to divulge its secrets." * • % The Mafia ami Ih2 Camorra are Italian secret societies that arc composed of precisely I.he same section of the population as that from .which., m Great britain, blacklegs and '•scabs" are drawn. Between these two secret societies and the organised' trades unionists there has long been a deadly conflict. Scoundrels of all classes, it is true, belong to ths Camorra and the Mafia, but among the poorer classes it is the blackleg ' aodr'.'BOWk'.'- tjj?e^me£-yhAt£ jfl»r

those daaa;erous secret societies. Wdth regard tx the latter society,, a recent issue of the British "Labor Leader" say's ■:— . . "According to Mr Mprgari. the Ms.P., o r most of them, m the South of- Italy, are elected by "Camorras," who exact as blackmail an assurance that they shall be protected from 'the results of their bribery and crime. The Government dare not move a hair 'spread t-h, for if these isarne M's.P, voted against them they ■would lose their r xjoricy. Consequently, Trickedness is winked at m hiffh places." * *. * If it be possible, we must take measures to prevent Mafia scoundrels and Czmorra criminals from teins brought to this country as immicrants. Ferhaps it might prove effective if we compelled suspected Italian immie;rants to declare upon oath whether ther do, or do not, belong to those Itiliah. secret societies. Those who b-elons ,to the Italian Labor Movciueot' might be welcomed, . but ths criminal scu-m .of the Mafia and th? Camorra w-s do not want. While British social sediment and scmn should not be allowed to' invade foreign coivtttrks, and thus to dasturli foreign Lribor conditions, and possibly prcd : «cc International oomplications, lUlian crimirils should not be permitted to come to this country, and thus to reduce to the lowest •European standards the workers of Australasia.