MR TILLETT'S VISIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5805, 24 February 1897, Page 4

MR TILLETT'S VISIT.

«. HIS SPEECH AT DUNEDIN. At the reception accorded him by representatives of labour, organisations at Dunedin on Monday night, Mr Ben .Tillett, according to the Otago Daily Times, spoke to the following effect :— He said he had made up his mind that it was possible for him to go to some spot of the earth without being called upon to address a meeting. Ho had an idea that it would be possible for him to come to New- Zealand and to look around at this very beautiful country that he had heard so much about from his friend Mr Reeves, and he had hoped also that the voyage here would Lave enabled him to have entered very heartily into its beauties ; but he found now, at the end of the voyage, that he had still to take exceeding care of himself. He did not value himself very much for his individual self ; but one had a home, one had a mission, one had work, and one had friends; and ten years of hard. work in agitating had given him views of manhood and a very strong love of working men. He could count ingratitude, many disappointments, many failures, many heartaches and many heartbreaks, if one might use the term. But against that he put the hope given to men whose lives were darkened, the recognition of a common humanity, and tho general comradeship; and if a man could see into the soids of his fellow-men he thought he had seen in many and many a fight sacrifices ; he had seen heroic qualities in men ; he had seen fortitude ; he had seen sturdy characterin fact, bold . bravery that no soldier in any battlefield ever equalled, let alone surpassed. And that had endeared the labour . movement to him. He had had his rough time from a child. He did not remember a childhood that was hopeful. He did not remember a happy childhood; he only remembered misery and hardship. He remembered entering into manhood feeling , that life was not worth living if God had ordained that so many should starve, and so many of our brightest women "should be without the means of being mothers, and healthy wives and helpmates of men; and with what poor powers he possessed he entered into this fight and consecrated them. Then when he remembered that he belonged to the working class, he ■ thought that there was something worth living for by the simple fact of their being created. He looked about him, and saw that men's and women's lives had been brutalised — that their energies had been wasted for the purpose of . finery . and wanton luxury. Then he thought that these things need not be if men and women were only conscious of a fuller manhood and a fuller womanhood. So far as we could comprehend the meaning of true manhood and true womanhood, it meant that everything that stunted or interfered with one's mental, moral or physical being had no right to be there by the laws of our nature; and this sentiment had inspired some. with sufficient courage to make them fight in the cause of labour as never soldier fought in the days of old. It might be said that this was far-fetched sentiment; but it was sentiment of the kind that had inspired over hah? a million of unskilled workmen to unite together ; it was a sentiment that had gained them recognition by the State, after ten years of hard work, ■with the Press opposed to them, with the clergy opposed to them, with every governing institution opposed to them, with every judge opposed to them, with the law opposed to them, and what was more than that — the ignorance and apathy of their own class opposed to them. (Applause.) He would not mind something that was tangible, something substantial, something that could be seen, measured, and weighed, but the invincible folly of their own class — the folly that allowed them to stoop to be the dlaves, to be the " lickspittles," of their so-called superiors — , was what dragged upon the wheels of progress} and if one did nothing else but help a few men to realise their true manhood, one had done something practical. Mr Tillett proceeded to speak of the fight between labour and capital in the Old Country, and said that that fight was intense now, and more bitter than ever it had been ■before. The opposition to the labour movement was more scientific, relentless and unscrupulous than ever it was in the history of most men connected with that movement. But that was only, after all, the recognition of the growing power of the workers, and they smiled. (Applause). The capitalists would not put themselves out if they were not in trouble, and the ■workers in the old country were consoling. • themselves that they were stirring them up a bit. The speaker went on to say he now wished to expiess out of the fulness of • his heart his intense gratitude for the brotherly welcome that had been given him . that night. And here he desired to refer to the other side of the question— that was that labour, the world over, was beginning to recognise a common 'humanity. Higher • perhaps than any other sentiment, was this sentiment, that they who lived by the sweat of their brow and the labour of their hands must unite, and if any word from him could help to bring about that happy consummation when the workers of New Zealand would unite with those at Home and have an international federation, with no barriers of creed or country, only recog- . nising their common humanity, their , common vicissitudes, and common sufferings, he would be glad to speak - that word. He wanted to say that the •workers at Home did take an interest in New Zealand. If the labour cause had done one thing more than another it had taught the workers of the world to love and know . each other. They had worked with the idea that they should unite labour internationally — that they should have a com- ■ mon ground, because capital knew no country, was bounded by no horizon ; it had no patriotism, it had no scruple, it had no feeling. Capital had no soul to save or body to kick. If a capitalist could get his wealth from a Kaffir he would get it, -, if he could get it from a slave he would get it; if he could get it from a man, woman, boy or girl he would get it. The - labour legislation in the old country ,had taken the children out of the mines — applause — it had taken the children • out of the mills; it had taken women out . of mills and mines that worked night and . day. In Scotland, not so many years ago, women with families actually lived in the mines. In Great Britain to-day women worked in quarries, worked upon the pit's brow, worked in the brickfields, and worked in ..the open, doing work that many men iwould be afraid of attacking. And the capitalist had no scruple about it. Capital had no heart, it had no feeling, it was nuthless — a tiger that grumbled if its prey were shifted from its paws. There•fore capital was organised, and there w,as a fraternity and a confraternity. The capitalist in London would join with 'the capitalist in Melbourne, and so .on throughout the world. If, then, capital recognised its powers by combination, surely labour, which earned the wealth Of capital, should organise. Capital was .never divided where a bawbee could be got. The workers were divided where many pounds might be Becured. Capitalists never qtiarrelled if they could obtain increased judicial or political power ; they never grumbled if they could possess our Press. Then why should the workers, who had more at stake than even the capitalists, grumble with each other? He kne,w of this division throughout the world. He knew that these quarrels had stood in the way of progress in years past. That, however, was no reason why, with increasing intelligence, with increasing education, with increased facilities for inter- .. change of opinions— 'these quarrels should live forever; and he hoped in the near future the development of working men's organisations would bring about a common understanding. He thought the time was coming when they, should not be so anxious to do all the work. (Hear 1 , hear.) • He thought the time was coming when there should be no distinction of nationality, creed or colour. Wherever a man worked for his living, that man, whoever he might be, was entitled to the recognition of his full manhood. In concluding, Mr Tillett said he read in the welcome he had received that night apt that which

flattered, himself personally, for after all ho was only a little chap and had done iust a little. What he had done he had done with all his might, but that had been so very little that he had no right to claim to himself even the hearty recognition that he had received. But he thought that the expressions of goodwill were meant for more than himself. They were, the loving expressions of opinion going out to the men, to the workers, of the old. country. The electric bond of sympathy which united those, there .that night with him and those at Home was a bond that was going to sound a trumpet call to manhood mthat lime coming .when labour should possess its rights. The old country was a heaven for the .. capitalist and a hell for the worker. .They wanted to change that, for if anybody should have hell it would be better to sacrifice the few than the many. (Laughter . and applause.) They wanted to get rid of poverty.. That was the greatest curse of all. There was no reason for poverty. Earth said " No," Heaven said " No," and the instincts of life said " No." Bobbie Burns a century ago struck the true democratic note that will never bo sounded louder in the days when even the most beautiful conception of. Socialism shall prevail. He struck the note of a common humanity when he said : The rauk is but the guinea's stamp ; The man's tho gowd for a' that. (Loud and prolonged applause).