The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1912. THE AGITATOR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 68, 15 March 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1912. THE AGITATOR.

' The growth of tlie influence of the - Labour agitator, both at Home and ■ : in Hie colonies isa menace to industry. It lias for long enough been o ui te plain that there is a class who I Jive ,by ..stirring up strife >betw-on labour and capital;-and who, at the same time, live in much greater luxury than the, ordinary artisan who supplies the funds to keep these parasites go.rg A loading London paper has been (inclosing in detail how the agitator mrin- , ages matters in the old land, and how the honest worker is taxed to keep him in the style he demands. This au thority states that to manage the , affairs of the 2,500,000 trade unioh- | ists in the United Kingdom there are over 10,000 paid secretaries, organisers, and agitators. Many of these, quite admittedly, are necessary officials, who do the legitimate work oi . managing trade union business; but it is the paid agitator against whom the “Standard” directs its attacks. The ranks of this profession \are growing, and there is very keen competition to enter them. “No real work, the milk and honey of a good job, and the open cheque-boqk of the workingmen is making the business boom.” The “Standard” gives a description of the grades into which the profession is divided. At the bottom there is the “casual,” who works at his trade during the week, and on Sundays speaks at “grievance” meetings, often, away from his town. His fee for a speech is 12s 6d, and if he finds favour he soon becomes a delegate and travels about making speeches and attending conferences. Quite at the top of the ladder is the “star” agitator, whose foes for an address range from live to fifteen guineas; there is a regular tariff iu tin's knd of oratory. Those delegates and speakers live splendidly at the expense of the unions. Iho case is cited of a man earning 6s (id a day at his trade who was sent down from London to a. conference in the provinces. He drew altogether Lb J2s 9d lor throe days’ work, including an allowance of a guinea a day, L2 Is hotel expenses, and 7s <Jd for cabs, etc., though this man was not by any means in the front rank of his profession. The “star” agitator, we are told, does things in a much more lordly style. “Fix up large bedroom first floor,— hotel” telegraphed one of these agents to a local organiser iu the Midlands who hud appealed for help. “Shall want private room, lire, with telephone and good light. : Meet train with taxi. Arrange I meeting local committee for to-mor- ; row, noon. Lunch at hotel ! 1 ho organiser is hound to obey orders, i otherwise an adverse report may re- I commend a change of local manage- 1 me lit. A Hoard of Trade official is ] quoted by the “Standard” as declaring that tiicse men “loathe peace.” According to him “scores of those ‘loaders of men,’ who have engineered strikes—whether the men have lost nr won—have retired from the scone in late years in a state of affluence, while many have purchased businesses j or gone to preferments where f ic ‘flitter cry of the worker’ does not pone- 1 irate.” He even goes so far as to sav tint, “of all the safe moan? of i

closing one’s career prosperously as the work! counts it, the ladder cl agitation is among the safest. ’■ It is to men of this class that the responsibility of the great coal strike in Britain must be attributed.