UNIONISTS AND WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 678, 1 December 1909, Page 7

UNIONISTS AND WORKERS

~.:-;: J: BID FOR LABOUR VOTE; ■• ATTACK ON THREE DIFFICULT SEATS. (By 'Tiilce'raph—Frua. AasoclallQß-Cipytlglit.l :,'. : .-'■'■':-':':■'■■■■■'. London, November 29. By utilising,,tho fund raised /by tho "Standard" :' to proyide the , expenses'of Unionist Labour -.candidates,- threo working mpn have teen selected to contest the following seats :- Ciitheroo (sitting member, Mr. D. J. Shackle-' ton, Labour); Leicester (Mr^ , J. Ramsay Macdoriald, Labour); Swansea (Sir George Newnes, Liberal). • : . . .; .' ■'. '.' .",':■ HARD TASK OF THE UNIONIST WORKER ;■■ •-'.//■ v candidates; . ; .'..■ ■ Tho Unionist working man candidate who starts out to capture Olitheroo will have to convert a ,seaf which. has been Liberal or Labour since 1885, and. ho is faced with a Labour majorjty iri.lDOU of 8207 (12,035:3828). Mr. Ranisay llacdpnald, one, of/tho most prominent of Labour members of the House of-Commons, baa already been threatened with a Unionist candidature by New Zealand's recent: visitor, Mr. ■ J.- Foster' I'raser. • Whether Mr. Iraser: or a working man carries the Unionist support, he will have a hard task, as tho majority; in 190 C was 7181. With one exception, Leicester- has not elected a Unionist since 1885. ■:': . ■ . '~ . ;..' Swansea Town has also been Unionist only once since 1885. Tho Liberal majority of Sir George Newnes (of newspaper fame) was 1454 in, 1900. A political opponent of' Sir George Newnes remarks: "As owner" of tho 'Westminster: .Gazette' he and-his company havo rendered, invaluable) service to the Radical party, for that- journal has been worth its weight in; Gould to them." ■ . : ■ Evidently tho Unionist working men' candidates are to.'leiid.'this charge in woiker compiunities_ where Unionist fortunes have in the past dwindled to-vanishing point. •