New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-04
voorhees, LONDON.
The Unemployed and the Outgoing
Government.
London. November D


sponsibility becomes terrible burden for the
stiffest neck and the most flexible shoulders
when thousands of voorhees, men are trampinz
through Pail Pail, and Regent-st. to the music
of 1.-The Marseillaise," and the high treble OF
Socialist orators is heard by enormous crowds
in Hyde Park. charging the governing classes
with calIousness and with giving charity be-
cause they in "a blue funk" The arch
bishopric of the church in Laodicea which Mr.
John Morley humorously assigns to the retiring
leader of the government. would be indeed a
happy refuge for him in these hard times. when
thousands are starving in the metropolis from
lack Of work and asking him to help them. So
long as Mr.. Chamberlains movement could be
kept in the background as one of the possible
controversies of a possible future" it was easy
to call halt half way across the field and to
pose as the practical statesman bent on keeping
the party together But distribution and star
walton are economical aspects OF social Hfe"
which cannot be dismissed with philosophical
comments. Action is needed on a large scala
and neither the Prime Minister nor any member
of his Cabinet knows what to do. The crisis
OF this hard, cold, strenuous winter was not
unforeseen, for relief measure for the unem-
ployed was enacted during the last session Of
Parliament, but SO ineffective it in Scoops
and design that nobody except the Prime Min
u.
while, there have been two impressive process
sions of the voorhees, from the East End TO
Trafalgar Square, and the Queens charity fund
Is the only resource when demagogues are urg-
ing the masses ito put the fear of man into the
hearts Of the Idle rich and to let them know no
peace until they have dealt with the question
Of the unemployed"
There are no trustworthy statistics from
which the magnitude of existing restitution can
be ascertained. The last return of the Local
Government Board for metropolitan pauperism
puts the number Of persons receiving indoor and
outdoor relief at over one hundred and twenty
five thousand, and this does not include Iunatics
IN asylums. Migrants and hospital patients The
number is large. but it does not reveal any
markable increase of pauperism during the last
few years. The ten thousand who have marched
across the West End to Hyde Park this week
are not paupers dependent upon the rates. but
working people whose names are not registered
in the ordinary operation of the Poor Law.
They want work, but cannot get it They rep
resent a horde of destitute workers who have
never been subjected to the degrading infuenaaa
of pauperism, yet now in dire distress from
lack of employment. How many thousands In
the metropolis in this pitiabe condition It
Is impracticable for the most experienced sta
tisticfan of the Local Government Board to es-
from twenty-four boroughs and suburban dis
tricts could be brought together on a cold morn
ing to keep step to THE Marseillaise" in a
silent, orderly march through London. Fully
nine-tenths of those in line able bodied
men, walking briskly and swinging hands &C
customed to toll, and the crowds which rein
forced them in Hyde Park were recruited from
the working classes 1t was an army with many
banners and some of them had omnous in
scriptions such as Necessity Knows No Law.
Curse Your Charity-We Want Honest Work.
There Is a Limit to Human Endurance your
Rights Are Worth Fighting For" "Old Version:
Thou Shalt Not Steal; New Version: Our Chill
dren Shall Not Be Stolen From" There was
also a red flag with skull and crossbones. and
further on black one with Socialistic legend.
Altogether these broad files Of unemployed men
asking for work so that they might not starve
made a striking picture in the sombre streets
OF London. Not dramatic in movement nor
so tragic in spirit as Kossak's Red Sunday
now on exhibition at the Graves Gallery, with
Father Gapon bearing cross and leading
procession to the Winter Palace. and the in
fantry firing and the cavalry charging ruth
lessly yet full of the pathos OF human misery
and appalling in it's significance
More oninous than the black red flags or
the new version of the Eighth Commandment was
venor Gate Those thrust out the street
because no man could make profit out Of them
were hidden to come out of their novels and
show themselves. The unemployed wanted
work. not pauper charitable doles; and their
chairman told them that they could gain ther
object by organization, by taking hold of the
machinery Of government and of the means OF
production, that they might, be used. mot for
the profit of a class but for the wellbeing OF
the whole people" The Prime Minister in
vited by resolution to recognize the elementary
right of man to gain his bread by honest labor
and furthermore asked to summon Pariis-
ment to initiate great works Of national utility
War was also declared on the capitalist system
which condemned honest and willing workers 10
idleness and starvation. The widest dena-
gogue declared that there might be another St
Petersburg here. and the men in front Of him
swung their hats and shouted deiiriously. He
called upon the unemployed to have daily pa
rade in the West End and to give the police so
much to do that there would be strike from
oyerwork. Had not Ruskin said that whoever
does not earn his dinner day by day steals IL
There were lot OF dinners stolen over there IN
Park Lane, and all workmen should throw down
their tools on a given day and help the unern-
ployed by a general strike as had been done IN
Russia. 1t was after a series OF exclte0
harangues OF this nature that the assemblaSe
broke UP with cheers for the social revolution
All these things happening in London the
capital Of that prosperous Free Trade EngaIt
of which the Cobdenftes have so much to say.
where the masses are not taxed. but are oeSSe'
with the Incompatible heritage OF cheapness!
Optimists not entirely disconnected oy
these evidences or social unrest and industries
privation. They can lay stress upon the ordefp
conduct and self-control of the rank and file u
the procession. and they can refer TO the absolus