A WAR NOTE TO THE WORKERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 8, 4 October 1907, Page 7

A WAR NOTE TO THE WORKERS.

"Call me an extremist; call me aa agitator; call me even'a-dangerous person—and -I wish to God T.were. I want to make, you rebels. The people are too dull to be extremists. I believe if you were only such agitators as I am there would to a change." That was the keynote of Mr.'Ben Tillett's wild ilrnuiicintion of the capitalist cVtißs nra\ passionate appcnV to ■'■ tho workers' to " close theiv. ranks," made in His Jfujcsty's Theatre-, last, night. Had Hie- u-orkers present -'closed' their ranks the theatro woiild'liavo". looked very empty. The chairman, however, Mr. Fitzgerald, (Iron- a happy moral trom Uui scant, attendance: Tic inferred' from the iar(;e number, of vacant seats, he said, that shilling were scarce; even ill this " irorfters' Paradise." Jii-tub next 'breath he comphuned that it was ii' slur upon .it great movement that there was one seat empty. " '.''■' Mr. Tillett declared Hint no man could become rich, except . through others who worked for him. Here, in Wellington, he said, there were close upon 2000 little babies done'to'death for the want-of proper care, knowledge, and nourishment. He drew -a: melancholy picture of the.,drab life of the constant toiler. No 'worker could bo an independent man 'under the capitalist system, becauso the capitalist owned everything. Ho. instanced the confederation of workers'-unions in England, Kurope, and America; and urged that the same policy should- bo followed in New Zealand. ...The. : timo was coining when, they would' have to close their ranks in defence of their, own interests. ■ ■ "■ '■'-.