FLEECING THE FLEECERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 131, 21 December 1907, Page 1

FLEECING THE FLEECERS.

A Plutish Plea for Parasites.

Having been rendered drowsy at divine service aboard the "Bombala" yesterday, "en route" to Brisbane, I> was dozing m a chair on deck, . waiting for the sound of "that tocsin of the soul, ,the . dinner bell," : to rouse me, when a newspaper fluttered off a seat, and fell across «iy feet. It v/as a copy of the * Sydney Morning Herald" of last Saturday. I looked at it ; and, as I "looted, I laughed" "fit to bust." What made roe read ? The following curious caption over the leading article : "The Middle Classes." What made me laugh ? The devious, demented drivel^in which doddering old Granny Gumboil confesses that Capitalism is played out, and that hi spite of all the Fartingtonian ©Sorts of the plutish press to push back the tide of progress, the cause •f the People— the cause of Reform, Restitution and Revolution— is com- , ing on apice ; and, what is worse, ( that Granny !s own pet clients, the .Middle Classes, don't seem -to care a curse when, it comes, how it comes er what it brings when it does ; effme. * . * * ,' That paradoxical prevaricator and ] scoffirfg cynic, ""Befirard^haw. recent- \ ly lectured m London on "How the Middle Classes are Fleeced." Granny Gumboil, who never bothers herself as to "How the Working Classre are Fleeced," '.sends forth a craven capitalistic cry at the bare suggestion that the parasitical classes, who bleed and sweat the producing classes should be basted with their *wn gravy. "Granny," who dees not seem to be aware that Bernard Shaw is himself a Socialist of fthe-„ finicking Fabian sort, -is convinced that the satirical Shaw han •made out his case entirely to her ■satisfaction. Anyone who agrees with greedy" old "Granny," m her policy of grab would have no difficulty m convincing her that the Middle Classes are being fleeced; the arguments of the maddest madman m a madhouse would be accepted by "Granny" as proof of •Shaw's plutish but paradoxical proposition. "And it's all along o those Labor agitators and Socialist schemers " screams Granny" ; and because these Middle Class people for whom "Granny" caters, won't do as she calls on them to do, viz.., to yise. "en masse" and smother Socialism at the Ballot Box. the grasping, garrulous old gasbag makes mournful moan. ." -, '« » ■ Now, mark how this. bVetherins nei-(■-m. of Middle Class monopoly excitedly flourishes hex gamp at those who refuse to be roused mto action from their unpatriotiV apathy, by her owlish hobtings :- - Ke (Shaw) made out his case, but incidentally he touched on a state of things which readily rmrta its counterpart m Australia, and probable m- every other country where the right of constitutional government has been first won, and then allowed to fall, into virtual contempt by certain sections of the community. How ofteD is it found necessary I for the leaders ol puiblic opinion m Australia, earnest political thinkers of any and every shade •of view, and particularly the press, to urge upon people the elementary duty /Of voting ? A return published the other day shows that at the last elections this appeal was so far successful that' a higher percentage went to the dolls than oa previous occasions. W«have seen the voting figures down as low as 60 and 50 per cent., where, indeed, they remain m certain districts. What is the cause qi this, but political apathy '. And tliis is the very thing that Mr Shaw, m his characteristic way,, is new vigorously denouncing v London. It is the middle class ■trhich he especially impeaches— "that clever middle class," he calls it— "so^ clever m industry, and so stupid* m politics." Matters have so drifted with it, he holds, that it has fallen into a quite- extraordinary state of neglect and contempt practically, without real representation m Parliament, and apparently without sufficient intelligence to wish to be reprß»ntcd. What a confession of impotence on the Dart of the. plutish press have we not here ! Here are the Middle Classes .being fleeced without knowin" it, apparently,- until good old Cranny Gumboil tells them^ Even

when warned they won't believe that they are being fleeced ; or, believing it, they are too apathetic to resist \; or. perhaps, as the eel is said to enjoy being skinned, these fleeced Middle Classes like Jo be fleeced. * ■ m'f * ; According to "Granny," the alleged abstention from voting of the | Middle Classes puts political power into the hands of organised Labor or thc Aristocratic Class. Such a statement is an absurd assumption based on a lie. As a matter of fact the Middle Classes do not constitute, as "seems to be assumed, a majority of the voters eithe.r here or m England. Were every middle class vote i polled either here or there at every election it would not prevent the i Fleecing, of the Middle Classes or 'take political rtower away from j Organised Labor. To" talk abou-j Middlo Class apathy placing politi|cal power m the hands of the A ris* tocracy is arrant nonsense. The Middle Classes m England poH & much larger vote proportionately to their actual numbers than do th*'. Working Classes. But millions of the adult workers of England are dis;-* franchised by a rotten and corrupt property franchise : while the women are bilked of the franchise altogether. God help the Middle Classes when the women of England get ths vote ; they will "then he fleeced with a vengeance." It. will, indeed, be well with them if. m that Great Day of Judgment, the women o! England do not do by them as thewomen of France did by the "bourgeoisie"—the French Middle Class— h) the Great Revolution, and as they richly deserve to be done by to-da ;. : • * * With that claptrap cunning "Which serves her and her kind m Ueu ol common sense, Granny Gumboil tries to make capital for the Middle Classes by representing Democracy and Aristocracy as common enemies of Middle Class society : and, m a sense, so they are. None despised the/ despicable and deservedly despised bourgeois bounder and parvenu plutocrat more than the genuine gentry ancl aristocracy of England. The gentry and aristocracy bf England hstve often rendered great and patriotic services to' the peopleTheir birth and breeding, their c-al- . tnx'i anri courtesy constrain thorn, often unconsciously, to champion the cause of the weak, friendless, and oppressed. The aristocracy are, at least actuated by the sentiment of "noblesse , oblige." But the -Middle Clas,<*-es— the blasted bumptious, brutal, bourgeois, boodling bounders of France and England— what are they, whence came they. what have they 'done, what are they doing, and what will they do m the future, if Democracy docs not hasten to first do them, by legislatively "fleecing" them, and politically paralysing j them into impotency ? ' • j ar j Thf Middle Classes stand for murderour monopoly hern m Australia, and everywhere; else where King Boodle They arc the outcome o' that .-system o. White Slavery mis-called F*-eetrade, championed by Peel. Cobden and Bright, and condemned and . checked by the great and good seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. The Middle Classes of England, with Gladstone at their head, championed Negro Slaver**- for the sake of cheap sugar and cheap cotton to keep their factories going. For the same reason Gladstone, thc son of a plutish slave plantation owner, espous- ' ed the cause of the Slave South against the Free North ih the great. Secession War m the United States of America. All the big Middle Class manufacturing bleeders anc. sweaters of the people wore behind Gladstone applauding the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, and execrating the Federal President. Abraham Lincoln. It was for the sake oi securing cheap raw material for their factories, and cheap food for their factory hands— pretty much as they sought cheap feed and fodder for hordes and cattle— that Cobden and Bright bitterly opposed the Nine Hours Bill m Factories, and the Limitation of the Hours of Employment of Women and Children m 1 Works-hops, Factories, Foundries and Coal-mines. In these and other directions -these monopolistic Middle Classes have always shown them- : selves murderously opposed to the . industrial manumission and social • salvation of the masses, who are i now but beginning a righteous war i of retribution by, -" fleecing" these

Middle Classes' by way' of exacting restitution for past robberies and present pluhderingsT. * '-,'-.*■ .'.*.' * These .Middle Classes— who must be "fleeced" before the People can come to their own— are m industry what the Whigs were and still are, m politics, pirates and panders. They rob the peopie of the product of their industry, and of their heritage ■ the land, and then abuse and insult them. These parasites on, production pander to their superiors m birth, station and education ; and cringe and crawl to those from whom they seek social recognition, political favor, or a tinsel title. The genuine gentry of England hate them * and the real aristocracy despise them ; and the plundered people aibhor them. Made up as they are of lucky speculators, 'boodling bankers, .bus-juice brewers, lying lawyers, swindling i stocKjobbers, fraudulent forestallers of food, looting land-grabbers, mer- ! cantile monopolists, coal-mine combines, murderous manufacturers, and all the rest of the shypoo shindicating set of swindling shicers, and every other sort of crook combine dnd cronk concern that lives , and thrives on the blood and sweat of the toilers and the sufferings of the poorr— and boosted, withal, by the press and hacked up by the parsons —these Middle Classes are parasites on the body politic and as noxiouy and deadly as ticks on 'stock, noisome as bugs in'a bed, and loathsome as lice on . beauty's bosom. They feed on rottenness, corruption and putridity ; and simply because Democracy demands ■to cleanse Socialism, it is denounced by such wicked old wops as Granny Gumboil, who rants and raves like pome prostitute of the. pavement when the police presume to protect the public •"rom her pestiferious practices and those of her brutal, boodling bludgers. » * * I Here . again, or rather sec, this senile old slut grind her gummy, grindeiless gums at the bare, thought of hsr - and' the 'rest of the fleecers being legislatively "fleeced" by Labo:;? of v 'raction of that of which they have tleeced the producers :— • The demands of Labor will mean Uu. spending of large- sums of pubUc money. It will have to be spent freclv if measures like those recently foreshadowed m the speeches of British political leaders are passed, and it seems inevitable > that the rivalry of parties must result sooner or later m their being co passed by one side or the other. But who pays ? Mr Shaw says the direct burden must fall on the middle class, that politically-inar-ticulate section whiph has no part m politics, because it disdains to do its share, but which, nevertheless, is the most important m the community— whioh "runs the community." and to Withdraw which "would be to take out the linchpin of society." The capacious pocket of the middle class will find the money for experiments m legislation which this class will have no hand m passing, simply because it refuses to take "she trouble of asserting its right under the Constitution. Spending large sums of money to satisfy- Labor's domands, forsooth !• What the devil is this delirious drivelling old drab of a plutish procuress driving at ? To whom does the public money belong, but to tiiose who produce it ? Did the Middle > Classes, the'minority, product -t, or, the Working Classes, the majority ? The Majority, to be sure. Aw' yet, although they have produced by sweated toil, and poured into ''the capacious pocket of the middle class" the product of Labor, m the shape of iniquitous, taxation/ Granny Gumboil has the. gall to gammon that this parasitical, plundering Middle Classes "is the most important an the community."' that this murderous. •■ monopolistic Middle Class "runs the community." and that to cause the disappearance of this predatory, plutocratic Middle Class, "would be to take out the lincii-pin of society." « * a Such, says "Granny,- is the Socialistic Gospel, according to Sham Socialist Shaw. Mayhap, such a gospel will convey a crum of comfort to the corrupt crowd for whom the "Sydne^ Morning Herald" and the whole of the daily press of Australia whoops and weeps. But /the boodlers had better bestir themselves and prepare to flee from the fleecing of the fleecers that is coming. "Granny" herself admits that the prophecy of the destyuction of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat is r .ast approaching fulfilment :— Karl Marx predicted, long before Mr Shaw was heard of, that the middle class would eventually be crushed out, though the alternative he saw was a handful of millionaires on one side, and a nation' of half-starved wage-earners on the other. A more modern authority points out a more real danger to the middle class m the uncertainly, the weakening of confidence, •and the timidity which thc con- / ditions we have been considering produce m the minds of those who control commerce and industry. Socialism, when it shall have settled the major monster of the Middle

I Classes is not likely -...to. allow itself !to ibe -sea-red ox'o stopped, "isy^iihe minor monster- of s ''^.*in[fere v lian"dful of millionaires. .It ,is .not the aristocracy, or even a handful of millionaires, who half-starved ahd sweated the wage-earners. No, no ; well do the Working Classes know that the realv- Minotaur of Monopoly is the Middle Classes, who . have to be fleeced, sweated, and. bled m their turn, before tlie Workers, whom they have fleeced, sweated and bled, shall cease to starve and be the bondmen of the non-producing, parasitical push of plut.es, who fatten^ and fester oil the proceeds oE labor j like maggots m a midden. is * ..'*■--• The day has long since gone by when the Workers can be moved to make moan over tlie prospects of these Middle Class marauders being forced to make restitution, or, at least cease from robbing. .' And, good cause, indeed, have these- same Mid- j die Class plunderers;' of the people i to congratulate themselves that the | People are prepared to manumit themselves from the manacles of this I murderous Middle Class by the slow ; but stable British -^process of Legis- ! lation, rather thah } 'by the bloody | ar ; bitament of the French Revolution \ through the medium . of the gory I guillotine. ; 'JTOHN NORTON. Hotel Daniell, ' .* . Brisbane, Monday, .December ,2, 1907.;