PERSONS, PLEBS AND PLUTES

NZ Truth, Issue 771, 14 August 1920, Page 1

PERSONS, PLEBS AND PLUTES

Of late quite a great deal of newspaper space has been deVoted to the efforts of a man named Lipton, ast Ulsterman who has accumulated a vast fortune from the sale of tea, to win a yacht race In America, and, presumably, a coveted but empty and value'ess trophy, called the American Cup. tt is quite possible that < onsiderable interest 1b manifested m the series of .aces for the Cup m question, buf. it I; also the case that the world over viilliona of men and women are faced \'lth grave economic problems, the fhief 'of which is the maintenance of .'heir lives, and the warding off of'thw spectre of starvation, and, consecuiently, are little concerned with the fact that a British multi-millionaire is seeking to satisfy his vanity by owning a yacht fast enough to defeat an American defender. From a purely sporting point of view, It is "possible that a very small section of the people of the world view with interest the efforts of the Tea man to win back for Britain the laurels which seem to have been lost as far back aa 1851. Nearly seventy years ago a schooner, called the America, won a Cup at a Cowes regatta, and for nearly threequarters of a century British yacht owners have endeavored, but without success, to build m Britain a yacht, not only capable of defeating whatever yacht the Americans "had up their sleeves," but which must be so stout and taut that she should cross the Atlantic, and do the trick for Britain. Many ao-called British sportsmen have expended time and money m the, to them, laudable desire of defeating the Yankee yacht, and all grew tired of the quest. However, for close on a quarter of a century, Tea-man Lipton has entered the lists, but, like the e& fortu of his predeceesors, his aT2% have come to naught. (i is it Hurry McKeowen, one of th a most popular and best known workers m the head office of the Railway Department, to which he has been attached for the past twenty-five years, has gone on promotion to Grey mouth. Harry, perhaps, Is best known as an Irishman .and a Catholic," and his activities m these respects have been phenomenal, He has been the mainstay of Boxing Day and St. Patrick's Day picnics m Wellington for years and years, and will be sorely missed by promoters of these celebrations. Members of the local Hibernian Society declare that the Banshee has been wailing for weeks past and they were at a loss to know what catastrophe was about to happen, but when they heard that Harry McKeowen had been transferred south they sadly understood what the hubbub was about. Mrs. Sophia Julian Gompers, wife of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, died at Washington, after an illness that, dated from the death of her daughter Sadie, nearly two years ago. Mrs. Gompers never recovered from the passing of this ideal. and only daughter. Mrs. Gompers was # 69 years of age. She was born m London and went to America when eight years of age. She married Samuel Gompers m 1867. She was the mother of Bix children,' three of whom died after they attained young manhood and womanhood. The surviving children are married sons — Henry, a, granite outter; Alexander, a cigar maker, and . Samuel, a printer.' , The remains wers interred m New

— _ft York. Those m attendance at the funeral services Included a large number of trade unionists, 'among whom I were members of the A. F. of L. executive council and officers of national and international trade unions. These workers all knew "Ma" Gompers. In subdued tones they talked of the quiet little figure that, was always present a t A. F. of L.. conventions. And a few grizzled veterans talked of longyears ago when a little tobacco stripper' married a young- cigar maker, and how this Blip of a girl saved pennies that "her Sam" could buy books to .equip himself m their protest against bittfcr wrongs of the workers over half a century ago. Among th 6 many wreaths received was one with a card inscribed, "The President and Mrs. Wilson, with sincere sympathy," s* :i t: Tarn Mutch, the Scoto -Australian scribe, who, with Jack Mahony, the Insh-Au3tralian writer, once editor of the Noo Zee "Mail," used to keep his shoulders well m the collar helping H. E. Boote, the English-Australian i Labor journalist and "Fool"-osopher ' make th e "Australian Worker" one of %txe best, if not the best, Labor papers published m the English language is now Minister of Education m the New f? n }\ Wales Labor Government. Mutchi is not too much "uplifted" over his elevation; nevertheless, with a Scots veneration for learning, he is taking his job seriously, and it is on the cards that Tarn will prove to be one of the ablest Education ministers New South Wales has yet had It iq yery funny now to recall that during the war rover Tarn's name to thf Ignorant Sassenach suggested Hunnlshi extraction. The thfn "Workerscribe, however, was able to retort "Nnt Mutch." Indeed, not «o much as The average Englishman, who, after all ia a Tueton. The new Minister of Education immediately set out "to iriva flag- worship and jingoism the boot" we are told by. his old paper, the Sydney "Worker," "and intends to see that the true Australian sentiment is fostered m the schoofs." Tarn, as we have said, is an able fellow, but can he dp both these things at the same w^»! « i , the em P h aalsing of the National sentiment, aa against the International Ideal that leads to flaeworship. jingoism, militarism and ■outrage. Here at least Tarn had much better "ea* cannie." »" «« si How these Liberals love one another. Rlcketty Russell's rag, m reporting the collaps© of the Budget debate, heads it: Wilford Caught Napping. Is this fair? Two Tories and two Liberals, including Deputy-leader Wilford of the latter, had spoken and, no doubt, Tom and his followers, thought it was but playing the game not to monopolise the debate, but to give Labor an opportunity to butt m. That the debate collapsed wasn't altogether the blame of the Liberals; nor was It of the Tories, for good and kindly George Hunter when he saw how things stood rose and talked for twenty minutes — which must have' been a serious mental and, physical strain for- the quiet, complacent member for Waipawa. And, anyway, Wilford was wide awake enough to win out at the election, whereas, "Ricketty," so far as the result of the Avon election was concerned. If he wasn't, might aa well hay© been asleep!