JIM LARKIN BEATEN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16870, 27 October 1925, Page 4

JIM LARKIN BEATEN.

WIiYxHE LEFT IRELAND. DUBLIN, Sc.pt. 10.—The departure of Mr Jim Larkin, the Irish revolutionary, from Ireland lias been foreseen for some time, His influence has been waning gradually, and now it is almost at an end. When lie was deported from the United States in 1922, after having served a term of imprisonment in Sing Sing, lie returned to Ireland. There lie found the Transport Union, which lie had founded in the stormy days before the war, was in the hands of a group of moderate men. He formed a new body known as t-lje Irish Workers’ Union, and succeeded in wean-ing-a fairly large number of men from the Transport Union. He promptly engineered a dockers’ strike, which created an impossible situation. Some of the dockers belonged to bis union and some to the Transport Union. Employers were at their wits’-end, for they did not know with whom they were dealing. Strikes wore virtually continuous for a year.

WAR ONLAEKINISM. Mr Larkin decided some weeks ago to play liis tramp card. The coal porters were ordered to refuse to work with the Transport Union members. The employers declared a lock-out, and there was a complete coal trade .stoppage for nearly six weeks. Dublin was without coal, and then the employers pledged themselves to stand together and fight Larkinism to a finish. They were joined by the- Transport Workers’ Union.

Mr Larkin breathed fire and thunder, and intimidation as it is known only in this country began. Men who dared to unload coal were attacked in their homes. Government protection was given, and the were discharged. Then delivery began. At first people were nervous about ordering coal, but when they saw that the employers and the workers were determined to break Mr Larkin they plucked up courage, and to-day deliveries all over Dublin are sufficient to satisfy all reasonable demands.

Mr Larkin is beaten, and lie haS'gnne to England. There is a widespread feeling that it is a ense of reculer pour mieux sauter (going back to have another try).