The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-01

ldce W ldct WlIn Lne luxury auQ WealIn
enjoyed by men who had been enable
all their lives to do an honest days
work. (Applause.) They were told ii
was laHo or riot. He said it was moth
ing more or less than honest poverty
knocking at the door of selfish luxury
and comfort-poverty demanding that
in the future every man should have the
full value of what he created.
When men in clubs and from club
windows mocked the poverty ofthe men
whose votes they wanted when elections
took place-on them rested the immedi-
ate responsibility of the riots and not
on the Social Democrats, who told the
truth. How much property was de.
stroYed in London? Ell 900 worth.
What was the immediate effect of the
disturbance? 1t stimulated public
opinion in the direction of the Social
Democratic proposals. Hear hear, and
applause) Ifit did not impress the
government with the necessity of start
ing puclic works, he would tell them
what at least it did.
It made the landlord and the capital
ist surrender over to the Mansion House
Fund some of the proceeds of his rob-
berry in the past in the shape of charity.
Applause They had come there that
day not to demand charity. ("Right.")
They had come to demand that Ahich
was better, and which, if it prevailed,
would prevent the possibility of poverty
occurring. That was justice, equal op-
portunities to every man willing to work.
| (Applause) Society journals demanded
| imprisonment of the Socialist leaders,
Why? Because Ell, 900 worth of
windows had been broken. But how
about the sacred human lives that had
been degraded and bllghted by the pres
ent system of capitalism Well-fed
men never revolted. POverty-stricke
men had all to gain and nothing to lose
by Revolution. Loud applause.) If they
wanted 10 suppress incendiarY language,
if they wanted to put down tnmults IN
their infancy, it they wanted to suppress
agltations of that kind, let them do it by
removing the cause and not the effect of
the agitation. Applause
He was to attend, on April 5. with his
comrades, at the Central police court for
seditiOn. What was seditiOn? He
wanted to know. Was it sedition for
man to ask his brothers to combine If
so, seditlen of that kind was going to be
very popular in the immediate future.
Hear, hear, and applause Was it Rev
olution t. deman1 that the workers
should take back the land of which they
had been deprived? ('RObbed.") If so,
there were thousands of physical-force
Revolutionists north of the Tweed who
knew that the land of Scytl.nd was
made, not for the few landlords, but for
the people who titled it. lApplause.)
What were the Socialists doing to day
The7 were standing on the platform.
propagating the same principles as
Ernest Jones and Robert Owen, the
founders of the modern school Of En-
0lish Socialism, advocating the same
ideas for which men the past had been
imprisoned by arbitrary governments.
Hear, hear But the democracy had
raised its head at last At last the peo-
pie had recognized that a vote was only
good in so far as it was used for getting
social equality and justice to those who
put 1t into the ballot box. They were
beginning to see that until the wealth OF
a country was owned and used in the
interests of the re pie Of that country,
poverty. misery and vice were sure to
prevail. The other night the house of
commons were discussing the rights of
the state to find relief for the unem-
ploved. They were told by no less man
than Charles BradIaugh, laughter, that
it was dangerous doctrine for gov
ernment to provide work at exceptional
times of distress. What did they elect
their members of parliament for? 1t
was to speak and vote in the direction OF
bringing about a condition in Whlc !
vice aud poverty would be reduced to
an irreducible minimum. Hear, hear,
and applause
Tney had been told by R Rlbert Gtfen
and other figure forgers-men VINO were
paid by the middle class to manipulate
statistics so that the working classes
could be diverted om the true cause OF
their poverty-that the rich were not
getting richer and tie poor were not
getting poorer. What was Londons
answer to Robert Gffen? Its answer
was that he did not tell the truth. What
was 70 be the answer of Glasgow that
day? He asked them, as Scotchmen,
where we're their Draw Highlanders
now? Laughter and applaCse.) Driven
off the soil into the slums and lanes,
there to lead degraded lives with the
town operatives, or. if not, to fgnt wars
abroad in the interests Of capitalist bond
holders, driving the bayonet through
the breasts of men " no were rlghteously
struggling to be free. applause
Where should these Highlsnders rs De
Clearing out the landlands D. the same
method. (Applause.) He asked them
wba.ber men were not born Ito this