The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-29 00:00:00

AFfER THE SERVICE.-VIOLENT
SPEECHES.

About a quarter-past four o'clock a rush of people
towards the south side of the square, and across the
roadway leading to Northumberland-avenue, indi-
cated the return of the procession from the Abbey.
Again preceded by their red flag, they marched to
the base of the Nelson monument, where speeches,
principally in denunciation of Sir Charles Warren
and the money classes, were delivered. Prominent
among the orators were Allman and Walker, who
have recently been regular speakers in Hyde-park
and Trafalgar-square, and they were reinforced by
Burns, Ward, and other Socialists. Ward's opening
words "We are here to protest against the action
of Sir Charles Warren "were loudly cheered, and
there was further applause when he went on,
" and also against the tyrannous Government
in refusing to listen to the legitimate demands
of our unemployed fellow-workers.' There was,
he maintained, one obvious course—for the Govern-
ment to immediately grapple with the question. Did
Sir Charles Warren, he asked—" the gentleman who
gave lectures on the Holy Land and the truths of
Christianily "—believe in the saying that if his
brother asked for bread he should give him a stone?
"No," proceeded Ward, amid the plaudits of his
listeners "he won't give you a stone, but he will give
you a policeman's bludgeon. We are told now that
bludgeons are not sufficient, but that it may come to
bayonets. But men like Sir Charles Warren have
had their time. It is time now for demos to have its
day." Personally, this speaker went on to explain,
he was one of the most moderate of men, but there
was only one alternative—force. " If force," he said
in conclusion. "is used to suppress our legitimate
demands, there is only one thing to be
done, and that is to meet force by force."
Following him came John Burns, who waving
the red flag aloft, was greeted with much
cheering. He spoke at far:too great length for the
listeners, and towards the close of his remarks there
were frequent cries of " Time " even from his own
supporters in the crowd. Speaking of himself as "an
ebgineer in employment," he eulogised the "pluck,
courage, and self-sacrifice" which the unemployed
had displayed in the conduct of their meetings during
the week, and there was abundance of hooting when
he made reference to "the tyrannical action of Sir
Charles Warren, who, with the nominal object of
clearing the streets of obstruction, was really, in the
interests of his class, striking a blow at one of our
moat cherished privileges, the right of free speech."
The cry of "law and order " was, he said, only invoked
when the plunder of the rich was threatened by their
victims, the poor whom they robbed. Reasonable
demands were met by the bludgeon of the police and
the bayonet of the soldier, and before 12 months were
°yet their heads horse, foot, and artillery would
probably be employed to crush the workers before
their movement became too strong, He declared that
the success of the unemployed would be in proportion
to the extremity of their language and of their action.
" Fling your rags and your poverty before the faces of
the idle rich," was his counsel, with the supplementary
advice, "Go to their churches, their chapels, their
resorts, and make them realise that your poverty is
the measure of their luxury, their comfort, and
their ill-gotten wealth." He warned the authorities
that if these free meetings were suppressed,
"The mass would follow the Continental example,
and form themselves into secret societies."
A man named Olding having spoken, a resolution,
understood to be condemnatory of Sir Charles
Warren, was put, and several hundred hands were
held up in its favour. The red flag was then carried
through the crowd, and a straggling procession
having been formed, marched eastwards along the
Strand, impeding the traffic in a considerable degree.
It was now growing dusk, but the police, exercising
that patience and discretion which had been so
marked a feature of their proceedings throughout
the day, suffered the crowd to disperse at its leisure,
and as the evening was cold and raw, less than an
hour sufficed to restore Trafalgar-square to that
quiet and orderly aspect which it usually wears on a
Sunday evening.