The Labor enquirer., 1884-12-27

S<e0aevo "a 4p4e111o4s - ~ a. 81
Mm lond ssnnst III forms Of power
Untaznished bsowz, tsmpestneus tongues :
Expecting III thips Ii IN hour
Brass mouths. md iron tongues.
Cspitelism ought nov 70 engage the
poets to write odes il praise Of their ad-
vertised goods Seeing the amount Of
metal in Tennyson's metaphor he should
be able to write : ringing ode upon the
the ironmoneer's wares; and his genius
would surely be able to cope with a
poem on patent soap, or an apostrophy
to anti-bllious pills.
q.
The politicians are now going to redis-
tribute the parliamentary seats, ere long
they will see some one else redistribnt-
ing the wealth.
~
The Social Democratic Federation are
now going to carry the open air agitation
into other parts of London. In the poor
est quarters Of the East End we were
very well received, aud got much more
encouragement than we expected. Our
plan Of operations is 10 take one district
at time. To send the whole force at
the disposal of the AGITATION committee
into that district. We have about forty
available speakers, who will address
meetings in the streets. Thus, we can
aeitate q district for a fortnight, and hold
three or four meetings every night, In
order to attract crowds we parade the
streets with large red standards bearing
socialistic notices. In the dark winter
nights we may also use large red lam
terms At the end of each district agita-
tion we will get the biggest hall within
reach and there propose our resolutions
and form branches of the federation.
We hope by this means to add very
much to the strength of the federation,
the agitation viii be among those who
lose most by the system, and if they can
but be wakened up and induced to get
into active propaganda we may soon see
q thorough and extensive Socialist moye-
ment in Britain. The movement is now
very large but ITS supporters are, for the
most part, men who belong to fhe middle
class men who spend their time among
books being the chief supporters. But
there is most encouraging signs that the
workers are beginning to take an active
interest in the new movement.
NJ
William Morris lectured at Edinburgh
in November on 7 Misery, and the way
OUT The audience that turned out was
large and received the lecture enthu-
slastically. The Rev. Mr.. Glssse moved
a vote of thanks and expressed himself
very sincerely and determinedly in favor
of Socialism. He also told the audience
that " Thrift does not bring any real
benefit to the workers as long as the iron
law of wages is in operation.
~
Mr.. Glass is minister of the Church
of Scotland, and, of course, was at once
upon by some bigoted persons
who seemed to have thoroughly COM
mercial idea of Christianity. The Scots
man, one of the leading papers in Scot
land, and thoroughly servile hack Of
the wealthy classes, also lent the weight
of an article which at best called Morris
and Glasse fools, and at the worst charged
them with preaching wholesale plunder.
The weight of a Scotsman article is very
heavy in a social sense, for the, Scotsman
is the Scottish national friend of Grundv.
But the same article judged as,a piece of
reasoning, is very light indeed, and is
only conspicuous for the great bulk of
stupidity which can be crushed into q
newspaper column.
49,
The Scotsman informs its readers in q
which is q melancholy effort
at humor that William Morris and John
Glasse do not look unlike other men;
that they wear clothes, eat food, and
walk about just as if they were sane per-
sons. The Scotsman is SO confident that
these men are wrong, and SO completely
unconscious of Its own glaring stupidity
that it wishes to evoke surprise that
there are any men in existence who dare
dispute the.orthodox ideas on economi-
cal questions. Sd Y l. .-
~ {. ~
1t is certainly astonishing that there
are any men like W. Morris or j. Glasse
in existence. How men like these can
breathe in social atmosphere tainted
with such corruption as is suited. to the
nutriment of the Scotsman is indeed sur
prising. That they earned the sneers OF
the Scotsman is only an evidence of that
journals poverty of intellect. The age
that fosters such press as we have in
Britain is depraved and servile in the
extreme. The men who revolt against
it are its redeeming features. The en-
nifty of their opponents is the best rec
concentrations they can get in the eyes
of honest and enlightened men.
~ u
The defenders of capitalism are not
courageous as q rule. They write books
blythe score and publish them by the
thousand. But it is very seldom they ap-