The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-21 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY DEMONSTRATION

IN LONDON.

On Monday afternoon a demonstration of unem-
ployed men, promoted by the National Democratic
Federation, was opened at two o'clock by a meeting
on the Thames Embankment, the base of Cleopatra's
Needle forming a platform for the speakers. A num-
ber of those present came up in procession, headed
by red bannerets, the officials wearing red rosettes.
The strength of the gathering was subsequently repre-
sented to Mr. G. W. Russell, at the Local Govern-
ment Board offices, by the leaders of the deputation
at 50,000; but impartial calculation ..ioes not place
the number higher than 5000. Mr. H. M. Hyndman,
the chairman of the Democratic Federation, was the
first speaker, and he was followed by Mr. Burns, a
working man, who said that, like a great many more
present, he was hunger-stricken; Mr. Frost, a member
of the Democratic Federation Council, who recently
visited Skye; and Mr. Macdonald, a tailor out of work,
who usually distinguishes himself at meetings for the
consideration of the social situation by extreme
speeches. As a contingent from the East-end arrived,
a number of those present, on a suggestion from the
platform, gave "Three cheers for the social revolu-
tion." Mr. Burns supported a programme which de-
manded that in all Government establishmeats the
hours of work might be reduced to eight hours per
day, so that employment may be given to 40,000 or
50,000 more men; that the Government should at
once commence, at the standard rates of wages, to
make the public embankments which have been too
long postponed, and drain tracts of land in the
country, say in Lincolnshire; that the Government
should at once call upon the local authorities to build
hundreds of blocks of artisans' dWellings, utilise open
spaces, build public libraries, and carry out great
sanitary measures; and that the railway, omnibus,
and tramway companies should be prohibited from
employing their servants more than eight hours per
day. In defending this last demand, Mr. Burns
asserted that Jay Gould, who recently defeated a
similar measure in New York States, had his proto-
types in the Goschens, the Rothschilds, and the
Brasseys of this country. He also remarked that the
Government could reconquer Khartoum in the inte-
rests of the bondholders, but they would not relieve
the distress of the honest unemployed workrasn at
home. This sentiment was loudly cheered. The
programme was not formally adopted; but, by the
direction of Mr. Hyndman, the meeting proceeded
to form into procession, with a view to a march to
the Local Government Board Office, where a deputa-
tion previously appointed had arranged to meet Sir
Charles Dilke and Mr. G. W. Russell.

The meeting had been held amidst rain, and the
procession marched in a heavy shower. Among the
inscriptions borne aloft were "We demand the right
to work," "Work for all, overwork for none," and
"Fox Populi, Vox Dei." The procession, headed by
a band, walked up Northumberland-avenue, and
round by Charing-cross, into Parliament-street. They
stopped on the way at Downing-street, where a
Cabinet Council was sitting at the time. When
the processionists reached Charles - street, they
speedily filled the street. A small force of policemen
was assembled in front of the entrance to the Local
Government Board Office, but in the course of a few
minutes the conduct of the crowd made it necessary
to reinforce this body by a small contingent, which
emerged from the vacant ground behind King-street
police-station, and with extreme difficulty worked
their way into the front of the crowd until they
managed to cover the door of the Local Government
Board Office. For two or three minutes the situation
had an ugly look. There were several violent rushes,
and two or three missiles were thrown. The police
arrangements were admirable, but the organisation at
the Local Board Office was not what it might have
been, representatives of the press being kept waiting
on the doorstep, where they received the missiles
thrown by the crowd for some twenty minutes. On
the deputation—consisting of Messrs. Burns, Mac-
donald, Williams, Tonnan, and Murphy I being
admitted, they were received by Mr. G. W. Russell,
who apologised for the unavoidable absence of Sir
Charles Dilke at a Cabinet Council, which, he said,
would probably not terminate for several hours.
Mr. Burns then spoke at some length. The un-
employed in the country, he said, demanded that the
hours of work in all Government offices be fixed at a
maximum of eight hours; that all uncultivated land
be cultivated; that the necessary labour be paid for at
a rate of wages sufficient to keep them in health and
comfort; that public works of importance be begun
at once, and a fair rate of wages paid, and that the
cost of initial proceedings and the payment of wages
be met by ratepayers and the State in equal propor-
tions.

Mr. Russell, in replying, said he heartily sympa-
thised with the deputation, and undertook to repre-
sent to Sir Charles Dilke what they had urged. The
work of the Local Government Board was to deal
with the questions of kcal taxation and sanitary
reform, and while it was unquestionably the duty of
the Government to see that no person starved through
lack of work, the making of such provisions was
rather the work of each district than the central
Government

All the time while the deputation was with Mr.
Russell the crowd was diverted by speeches delivered
by members of the Democratic Federation and others
from the lampposts in front of the Local Government
Board Office. The cheers with which the speeches
were greeted were distinctly heard in the room at the
back part of the building in which Mr. Russell was
listening to the deputation. The speeches were diver-
sified by the crowd singing, "We've got no work to
do," "The sweet bye-and-bye," and the "March to
Victory." The crowd was kept engaged thus for nearly
an hour and a half while the deputation interviewed
Mr. Russell, and during this period the turmoil was
great. Fortunately good humour was maintained by
the great bulk of those present, and when, just a few
minutes before the interview terminated, the crowd
(then listening to an address by a gentleman who had
perched himself on a paling opposite the office) was
charged by the police, it simply fled before them.
Almost immediately afterwards (about half-past four
o'clock), Mr. Burns invited the crowd to accompany
him back to the Embankment, where a
meeting was held which was addressed by
the deputation, Mr. Burns communicating to them
the answer of Mr. Russell. The following resolution
was at the close unanimously passed: "That this
meeting of the unemployed having heard the answer
given by the Local Government Board to their depu-
tations, considers the refusal to start public works to
be a sentence of death on thousands of those out of
work, and the recommendation to bring pressure to
bear on the local bodies to be a direct incitement to
violence. Further, it will hold Mr. G. W. Russell
and the members of the Government, individually
and collectively, guilty of the murder of those who
may die in the next few weeks, and whose lives would
have been saved had the suggestions of the deputation
been acted on." A copy of this resolution was
forwarded to Sir Charles Dilke.