Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-11-07
Thursday, November z, 1895.
THINKER, NO RANTER
KElR HARDlE, THE ENGLISH LABOR
LEADER, is SOMEWHAT SURPRISED.

u 10
Must Not smoke His Pipe In Delmonico's.
Our Treatment of CoIored Folks Also
Surprised Him-HIeets sonc Rich and
Idle New Workers.
Mr.. Keir Hardie, who represents the
workingmen Of England, is now in
America to see our country and make n
few speeches.
Since his arrival he has been de-
nounced by patriotic reporters because
he does not think the elevated railroads
an ornament TO q great city and becaTse
he has said that lie thought there we're
some men in America who we've not
very rich.
Mr.. Hardie smoke the other night at
the Social Reform club IN New York.
He made a short speech. After his
speech was done / asked him to see
some Of the other sides Of New York,
and no was good enough to so aooat
with mo and see what wanted TO show
him.
We went TO Dolmonic1's, where plu-
tocrats and w~orkingmen have spent
their beautiful gold for many years,
and we went TO the Stewart palace,
now the Manhattan club, where old A..
T.. Stewart lived and felt uncomforta-
BILE, and where his widow slowly died.
Now about Mr.. Hardie himself. AS
q representative of a great class he is
individually more interesting han any
thing be may say. he is a strong man.
His face is strong, and his jaw is
square. His head is big and we'll
shaped. He is intensely earnest. He has
no nonsense about him and no cant He
uses words TO express what be thinks,
not to sound we'll He dresses simply,
perhaps too simply, for there is as much
affectation in simplicity as in show.
His nose is straight and long. He has
o good eye, which looks squarely at and
into you. His chest is big. He is tenn
perate. He has read more than the or
binary ignoramus who will try to teach
him about American institutions. lie
knows what few men who try original
thouuht ever learn-he knows that he
can never hope to learn each or 70 do
much. He realizes that he is Ike a
small insect working tat the foundation
OF a coral island. he does not expect TO
raise society 80 feet into tho air in his
lifetime. He says:
''Ihis is a mechanical ago, and until
eociegy eugersea from tloe Of mechan-
ical progress not much can be hoped f0T
iii the way of social improvement. All
that can he done now is to keep a live
interest and belief IN principles of jus
tice and equality, as the monks in the
middle ages kept alive Literature, They
conla not aCpo tOpersuade the powerful
to learn even to write their names, bat
they preserved ior an age hat would ap-
p~reciato it the priceless knowledge IN
trusted to them.
That liz enough for a first look Mt Mr..
Kerr Hardte when time presses. With
me there listened TO him a judge Of the
circuit court in Kansas City, q. j.. Dob
son. His opinion may be taken al soand.'
II had thought he said, from
what / have read. that this man Was 2
ranter, but he is a thinker"
The home Of the late a. I. Stewart,
new the Manhattan club, interested Mr..
Hardie. There he met various men Of
wisdom and learning. He drank ginger
ale, while the men Of wisdom drank
Scotch whisky and soda.
one man, who is young and thought
full, asked Mr.. Hardie what he could
suggest as a social Improvement that
would be practical He quoted . lamous
American comfortably rich, who once
said that no socialist had q feasible
plan to suggest. MIR. Hardie said that
he would. If he had ~autocratic power,
organize a system by which the uaem-
plcyed would be able to make q living
by co-onorative Labor. He believed that
it would be possible for the unemployed
to have lands set apart for them TO work
on a cooperative basis. With such an
arrangement no man need want for
food, and the labor market wcQld not
be overs7ocked. He would apply this
soeialistic cooperative system only to
the superfluous and unemployed mem
bers Of society.
AS regards the progress of the social
istic ideas which he entertains, he said
they could be furthered only in one way
by the sending OF socialists To iegis,
latiye bodies to make laws. That il
done now in France and Germany. II
will soon be done ON q bigger scale II
England, Mr.. Hardie believes. He saiC
the defeat Of labor candidates by th'
labor vote was simply intended to pun
ish the Liberal party for its failure t
make good its promises.
Those who argue with Mr.. Hardi'
will always find II difficulty abou
him. He knows pretty well what he i
talking about.
After Mr.. Hardie had admired tn
marble staircase which is so beautiful
and which must have been SO hard fo
poor old Mrs. Stewart to climb, W,
went 10 Delmonico's. Mr.. Hardie hat