The Mighty Atom.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 13, 2 June 1911, Page 7

The Mighty Atom.

Hf, UK with pictured is P. C. Webb, the popular president of the N.Z. Federation of Labor (gcnuineb r a n d) ; -Paddy" is regarded as true and straight by all who know hi m — the which tribute to have earned is to have lived worth while. But he is i-oro t)ian liked :

he is able anci firm

Kvery fibre of him tinges to the working-class call. He I.} out for keep?;. the gravo responsibility nowadays devolvin»; upon the per-sonal factors for tho!U;hi:~ and action in workers' ranks he is omnivorous reader and knowledge , ►seeker. Not ;ilon-e heart but head also is proletarian need—and Webb knowa it. That's why Sycl. "Bulletin" printed ■•i v addy's''" position iipon Industrial Unionism' and tried to burlesque it. Yet, as no burlesqu-e may down the .Iliniit that is riiiht. Webb won and his view holds.

Ucfor-e Senator MeDougall (N.S.W.) jrot elected to the Federal Senate it was popular sit union gatherings to refer to polling day proph-eticaiJy by .allusion to "How McDougall Topped the Score," the verses by which jtist-d-ead Thos. E : . Spencer was best known. Spencer was a Londoner who came to Australia in. 1563.

Josiali Thomas, Federal PostmasterGeneral, was once a mining manager in Mexico and could, doubtless, tell some bearable stories about Mexican Wild Cats and other ravaging animals. When he went to Broken Hill (N.S.W.) he toiled hard until the famous '92 strike, when lie travelled Australia as m-en's delegate. Alter the strike he was victimised, and had he not been elected to Parliament when he tried what appeared "a forlorn hope" he had •prepared liimself to tramp away from th-e barren Barrier. Though now Big (inn—and 'tis said he could have ihad the L.P. leadership—he has never forgotten his days of struggle nor the miners' lot. Alas, that he should be tied up in capitalistic administration.

David Jones vails piteously in Canterbury papers because ''competent ploughman" are not available at 25 bob "a. week and found. Of course, the Joneses will fare as well as the rest ''under Socialism," but wouldn't it be just splendid retribution to give the Joneses 25s and found (found! —our God !) wherewith to keep wife and childer.

John Kobertson, Secretary Wellington Dairy Workers' Union, has ■completed an organising tour of tise Taranaki district,, the result of which. lias been the forming of a strong Union of Dairy Workers throughout that province. As will be seen from another column the new Union has no delusions or misgivings as to what its attitude should be towards the Arbitration Court, and iv the circular letter sent the representatives of the employers the position is stated clearly and tersely so that the employers know what to expect. Wβ hope John will lose no time in getting the new Union affiliated with the federation of Labour, so that, when the hour of trial comes, there will be the "ever present help" of a strong rear guard of militant Industrial Unionists. Mr. Robertson was in Wellington last week end, attending the Drivers' Conference, and some of his colleagues on that body were surprised to find they had in their ranks such a strong industrialist and a'evolutionary. John learned the rudiments of his Socialism in the Wishaw 1.1,.P. in the nineties, and was a coworker of Bob President Scots Miners;' Federation and Bob Small, of Blantyre S.D.l<\ A good speaker, ready debater, and incisive logician New Zealand should hear more of him in the future.

One of the most courageous men in N.S. Wales is Comrade Harry Holland, at present in th-e Sydney Coast Hospital. Years ago, when the present JLabour leaders shed Revolutionary Socialism, Holland stuck to his principles, and poverty. Ever since he has slaved and struggled against desperate odds to keep the flag flying in Sydney, with the result that he has at last badly broken down. At first most critically ill, all comrades will be glad to learn that he is now recovering, though slowly. It will be some time before the office sees him again. Hia plaoo is being ably filled by Mrs. Montefiore.

"Man-da Lloyd" on Walter Thomas Mills: A most amazing small man, with a face that radiates goodwill, and eyes "that glitter ■with humour and intelligence. A quaint little figure on the front of a stage, a grey leonine head, startling changes of expression in the magnetic eyes, wonderful modulations in the clear American voice, a penetrating, clutching, arresting influence, a torrent of .Socialist oratory -this is Mills. You must make- the most of him in N.Z.

One of Harmsworth's halfpenny dailies recently recalled the. stealing of I\eir Hardies watch at a Socialist meeting in Winnipeg in order to work off the chestnut about it being an illustration of practical Socialism. Such .stale and flaccid humour can't do Socialism a halfocimv harms-worih! The

par referred to, however, recalls the great meeting, at which over a thotisrmd delegates from all parts of Britain were present, held in celebration of Iveir Hardies fiftieth, birthday,when the watch in question was presented to him in the name of British Socialists attached and unattached, by Bruce Glasier, tlie revolutionary song-writer. "Blochairn" remembers reading Hardies speech in reply, and to him it seemed as if an undertone of sadness ran through Keir's remarks, and the feeling grew that while ho was speaking the eyes of his old comrade saw not the cheering crowd, but, instead,

the picture of a former presentation roso before him. The scene a Lanarkshire village, a miner's home, a forfeughen collier laddie "dov'riii" at the ingleneuk in his pit-claes. His mother comes softly up behind him, a look of unspeakable pleasure lighting her eyes (born of the pleasant surprise she has in store for her "auldest bairn"), and places a silver chain over his neck and clips into his waistcoat pocket a silver watch. That was something like forty years previous, for weans gaed sune to wark in thae days, but that silver watch has been Keir Hardies companion even until now, with tho exception of twa-tiiree short intervals, when, during a strike, he had •■lippened" it to some puir collior-wife to raise the wherevvithal to buy bread for her hungry bairns. Keir had aye a "he'rt o' corn!''

The well-known Professor of National Economy, Gustav Steffen, of Stockholm, has joined the Social-Deniocratic Party of Sweden. Steffen is one of the most celebrated national economists of Scandinavia, and his name is known far beyond the boundaries of Sweden. He lived ten years in England, and has written a three-volume work, in German, on the English the first volume of which, appeared in 1901, and the third in 1905. He has recently been summoned to the University of Stockholm as Professor of National Economy.

A clergyman, no less, has been gravely exhibiting to the Royal Archaeoligical Society of Great Britain a skull which he alleged to be the authentic skull of Oliver Cromwell. _He got it from his grandfather, who in his turn got it from certain persons who were, exhibiting it in Bond Street; they' ibought it from the proprietor of a museum in Spring Gardens, w T ho had acquired it from a "needy actor," who alleged that it had come into his family from the widow of a, soldier who on his death bed had confessed to her that he had picked it up outside Westminster Hall, where it had been blown by the wind; that may seem a convincing narrative—-to a clergyman 1 We have heard of that skull before. When a patron complained to a museum keeper that it was too small for the hero, h© was told : "No doubt, but this was his skull when a boy."