BEN TILLETT.

NZ Truth, Issue 120, 5 October 1907, Page 6

BEN TILLETT.

LECTURE ON INDUSTRIAL

UNIONISM.

The Coal Lumpers' Strike m

Sydney.

How It Was Ended.

Time has dealt kindly with Ben fTillett, who will be recollected as a iWorkers'advocate futher back than 25 Rears ago. Yet the comfortable, well-dressed personage who stepped on to the stage of His Majesty's Theatre and delivered an impassioned address last Thursday night jpartakes of an extremely youthful character m heroic drama, and looks Ills part. Ben, who is rather short \n stature, but thick-set, is .clean Shaven, and wears his - hair rather iong m front, a rebellious lock on his forehead, still unstrcaked with -gray, and has rather a poetic appearance. He was well-tailored m a i)rown tweed suit, and was resplendent m a white "weskit." With fthe knowledge of the practised debater, he commenced his theme m a moderately low voice, then worked up to a higher key, and reached the highest pitch of oratory m an overwrought state, dropped his voice impressively, aud made his point m the hush of expectancy of a sympathetic audience. At ordinary moments, «ne hand is raised m gesture, but m the full torrent of passionate declamation both hands are brought to play, principally above the head of (the speaker, and as he closes a passionate appeal they are thrown out ttowards the audience, with fingers joutstretched after the manner^ of some heroic personage m a drama. St is no reflection upon the earnestness and sincerity of Ben Tillett to say that the stage has lost an admirable- impersonator m himself. Ben, " by Ihe way, is getting very comfortable m appearance, a certain embonpoint adding girth to his figure. There was a nominal charge for -a-dmission, which may or may not account for. the fact that the hall was not full, although there* was a Barge audience. It certainly criabled chairman Fitzgerald to get m his customary dig at this blasted. Government, which has been -guilty of so many hateful palliatives m the shape of labor legislation. Fitz. remarked : "Seeing that this is a working man's paradise, I am sorry ft hat there are so many empty seats. I take it that "shillings are scarce, even m heaven." The ■• chairman then

: DELIVERED A HOMILY ON SOCIALISM ns a curative agent for economic ailments.

Tillett's subject was "Industrial' •Unionism," and right at the start he read a preamble of the 1.W.W., •Which mystic initials, although Ben "didn't say so, represent an organisation known as the Industrial Workers of the World, and which started m America some time ago. The preamble held that there was nothing m common between capital and labor, and recommended the preservation of class distinctions. The speaker remarked that the preamble was the basic principle which inspired the workers of 100 years ago m their fight. There was a class distinction between the man who •worked and the man who exploited •his labor. No man could become rich by his own unaided efforts, and •his richness was gauged by the number of men he employed ; hence his indebtedness to the workers. The lecture was practically based on the Sthree principles, (1) No one can get rich unless someone helps him to do so ; (2) No capitalist employs a •workman unless he can make something out of him; (3) No workman can be an independent person under the capitalist system, as capital controls anil directs everything. He referred to the Heywood charge of murder m America, where capitalism had sought this means of suppressing the labor leaders. These accused persons, he pointed out, had since been exonerated, and he asked them if there could not be furnished proof of murder against capitalism itself. In Sydney alone, 9000 children were '/lone to death every year, and m Wellington close on 2000 little babies met their fate for want of sustenance and care of the mothers. He .claimed that on an average the working classes lived half the years of the life lived by the uppah class, •or the class that didn't work between meals. Gut of poverty SPRANG- DISEASE AND STUNTED MANHOOD.: Of the applicants to be shot m the last Boer war 60 per cent, were rejected because they did not have a chest big enough to hold a shot. The fact that 120,000 children go to school breakfastless m London was contributory murder on the part of capitalism. When they realised the absence of attention and the privation suffered by the women m the working class during the time of her (trouble, it was not difficult to understand that ten women of the Working class died to every one woman of the wealthy class who was brought, to child-bed. Speaking of (the impotency of money as a reproductive agent, Ben remarked that if they were to make a ; pile of all /the gold m the world and put on it all of the kings, emperors, nobles bishops, prelates and capitalist persons, they would not hatch out anvrthing. Perhaps it might be said that these rich persons ought to take their gold with them when they died. Possibly they . might, but, unfortunately, it would not stand the climate. Tho man who owned no projperty nor land had no control over his own lift;, and sold himself to the ! ■highest b Meter, where he didn't rush .the first job and take what was offered him. "Our trades unionism." said TilJetf/, "is lacking m a knowledge of economics," a sentiment much applauded by the socialists present. He was pleased to see, however, that there was a tendency amongst trades unions to federate and present a united front all over the world. Ben was much amused at an incident m the coal-lumners' strike at S.vdney. He was m England when ■ the strike started, but when he arrived m New South Wales the pres-fj attributed the trouble to him. 'the affair ended favorably for Ihe mr<n. and apparently the women did i<„ with Ben. The men were som-jwhat grumpy. and Ben called a mee-tine of women and talked 1o theja, '-»*» *»toer, Ifo.ey. tallytf to

him. The result was that the WOMEN USED THEIR INFLUENCE and even -did their share of the street picketing, dragging their children after them, to the shocked astonishment of the uppah class who happened to be about. The lumpers were not assisted by kindred unions, because they were not affiliated, and had the principle of the Independent Workers of the World been m operation, the strike would never have taken place ; had there been federation or co-rordination of the various unions, the employers would have come to terms and obviated the necessity for a strike. There should hot only be a national but also an international movement. He quoted John Stuart Mill's advice to the workers forty years ago to show that the workers must establish a class division if only to save themselves. All the wars on the world's battlefields had not killed so many people m twenty years as poverty did m one year. The class division lay m the unemployed and the starving. The workers had a greater dynamic force than bombs ; they had brains and intellect, and the world would be the better if the workers were only alive to their potent force. Hired mouthpieces of capitalism had asked him why do you not preach thrift -and temperance, and advise the people to attend the churches ? '"I say without blasphemy," said Tillett with passion, "that if

WE WERE ALL JESUS CHRISTS, poverty would still exist under the capitalist system." (Loud applause.) He had no desire to seek a contest with religious institutions, but he knew of not one single religion that had laid itself out to tackle the problem of 'poverty.. Religion should help the weak against the strong, the ill-fed against the well-fed. The speaker advised the worker to go to the capitalist and demand a rightful wage, and refuse work unless he got it. He took ( consolation m the fact that the big fish of capitalism were swallowing the little fish ; the mid-dle-class people were being turned into wage-slaves, and as they were not used to that condition they would join the workers and overthrow capitalism. This was particularly the case m America, where trusts abounded. Mr Tillett concluded a very fine speech with an appeal on behalf of the motherhood of their country.

The questions were restricted by the chairman. One person wanted to know what method the visitor would adopt to bring about the reforms. "No s&cialist talks about 'method,' " said Tillett. They talked only; about the growth of the capitalist. No man had a right to lay down any method at all, nor to talk about Utopias until

WAGE SLAVERY AND PROFIT were abolished. Another individual, m the dress circle, who referred to the matter published m the "Post," "Times," and "Dominion," as "tripe," he being a military man, wanted to know if Tillett' favored the I.W.W. or pure socialism. Ben replied, "Both." In the course of a lengthy explanation, he remarked that the desire was that class-con-sciousness should be instructed amongst trade unionists. The meeting closed so abruptly that everybody forgot to propose a vote of thanks to the visitor, and the chairman escaped a like honor..