Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
A TYRANT QUELLER'S ELOQUENCE
Affects the Members of the Commission to
Such an Extent That They Are
Helpless Before Him.
A GRIM CATALOGUE OF DIRE HORRORS
Reeled on by an Ancient Corn Porter. Who AbhOrs
LabOr.SaYing Machinery.
rBY CABLE TO THE DIsPATcH.l J


else. Sensible men predicted that if the
commission sat in open court, the witnesses,
instead of giving useful evidence, would
make speeches and air fads The prophecy
has been amply justified by the facts On
THURSDAY, for instance, the chief witness
was Henry Quelch, a Socialist leader,
known among his friends on account of his
vitriolic eloquence as "The Tyrant
Queller' He made series of speeches in
the most approved Hyde Park style and ir-
ritated Chairman Lord Derby almost to
madness. 1t was probably the first time
Quelch had met a lord, and he made the
most of his opportunity, rolling off his
tongue revolutionary rhetoric and econom-
ical heresies with prodigious prodigality.
Had the orator been in Hyde Park Lord
Derby could have run away, or called a
policeman to protect him; but neither re-
source was open to him upon this occasion.
Once only did His Lordship manage to get
in a word edgeways and Quelch promptly
sat upon him with the perfectly true, if
somewhat irrelevant, remark: ''Oh what do
YOU know about it? You've never knocked
about the riverside looking for work for
three months with no grub in your
stomach
No Employer but the State.
Qnelch was so satisfied with this per-
formanoe that he submittedt 10 be questioned
bv the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach.
He wished, he said, the State to be the one
and only employer, with State farms, State
factories and State railways, and he thought
the thing could be easily managed Gas
for liberty said Comrade Quelch, "why
liberty is impossible in society. Real
liberty probably can only be found in the
uninhabited distiets of Central Africa"
Quelch retired in the halo of this moon
shine, giving place to William Falvy, an
aged, bent, white-haired, gray-faced man,
who had worked in London as corn porter
for over 50 wears. Falvy looked just the
but he proved veritable tartar. Distrust-
ing his unprepared oratorical pow
ers, Falvy had brought with him
a huge parcel of manuscript,
from which he read narrowing details of
apparently every accident to workmen
which he had witnessed, or heard of, or read
about during his half century of daily toll.
Now and then Falvy gave glimmerings of
an intent to prove that these accidents
were due to the use of labor-saying ma
chinery, thing accursed in his eyes, and
TO be abolished root and branch without
delay.
A Catalogue of Horrors.
This reading was long dreary recital of |
fractured skulls, smashed limbs and other |
horrors. Lord Derby, after several vain at |
tempts to confine Falvy to the question, |
leaned back in his chair and glared at the |
obstinate old corn porter. Two or three |
commissioners skunk out of the room and |
abandoned themselves to cooling drinks. |
Two or three went asleep without any at |
tempt at disguise and the remainder stroYe |
verv unsuccessfully to abstain from yawning. |
These signs of inattention had not escaped |
old Falvy's notice, and the gathering gloom |
on his wrinkled brow should have warned |
Lord Derby that storm was coming. But /
His Lordship, although he had been some |
what disconnected by Falvy's cavalier |
treatment of himself, did not dream that |
such common person would dare to COM
nit more overt acts of disrespect toward |
Her Maiesty's Commissioner. The storm |
burst Just wnen Lord Derby closed his eyes |
after gallant effort to keep awake. He |
opened both optics very quickly and very |
widely, for Falvy, dashing his big right |
hand upon the table before him, roared out: |
eff you won't listen to me what's the good |
of nv telling you anything" and, grabbing
his manuscript, rose to walk out of the |
room.
Lord Derby's Soothing Power.
In that supreme moment the Earl of |
Derby's politeness, inherited from scores of |
noble ancestors, stood him in good stead.
Sir Michael Hicks Beach, whose family did |
not come over with the Norman conqueror,
smiled at the old workman's wrath and sew
eral capitalist commissioners laughed out
right But the patrician Earl spoke sooth-
ing words to the plebeian corn porter and
finally induced the old fellow to resume the
witness chair and even to answer questions
instead of continuing his catalogue of hor-
rors
Scenes like these have already convinced
a majority of the Commissioners of the un-
wisdom of their decision to conduct the pro-
ceedings in public. The witnesses and some
of the Commissioners manifest a strong
disposition ''to play to the gallery" with
the result that speeches take the place of
evidence, and the value of the inquiry is
thus deteriorated.
The education bill has passed through
the Committee after some further protests,
from ultra Tories and there is prospect of
its passing into law this session, if, as is
probable, the Government sacrifices orfe or
two minor measures to make way for sue
cess.
The Land Bill Almost Done With.
The House of Lords, knowing what is
good for them, have nearly disposed of the
land bill, and the jaded legislators look for
ward hopefully to the close of the session
within a month from now. The Carlow |
election has proved disappointing. Parnell
has not made any further political revela.
tions, as promised, and, although Timothy
Healy has brought forth from his inexhaus-
tible store of invectives few more novel
adiectives and several new things in the
way of SMILES, the contest on the whole has
been dull.
The London Trades Council has given
practical form to the outcry against the
Dauper immigration, by appointing CON-
mittee of its members ''to find out by
studying the laws of Germany and the
United States of America and the provis-
ions of the alien act of William w the
best means of preventing the immigration
IF paupers and aliens" The committee con-
,ists of one representative each of the tailors,
boot makers, dock laborers, barge
builders, machinists, cabinet makers and
The result of the inquiries
will be submitted to the next trade unions,
conference and be ultimately embodied in
lill which the labor members will be in
,tructed to introduce in the House of Com
mons early the next session.
The subject has also occupied the atten-
ion this week of the Royal Commission on
Labor, nearly every witness having man
'ged to drag it in somehow or other.
rnpnprnH rpnp onrraoD