Tillett's Talk.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 74, 9 August 1912, Page 4

Tillett's Talk.

A striking figure in the world of Labor is Ben Tillctt, who lias been very much in the public , eye of hit-? by reason of his active connection with t'lie great strike 'of dockers in London. Of a somewhat poetic cast of countenance, Tiltett is a "magnetic platform orator. Possessor of a powerful voice, which enables him io dominates vast gatherings, he has a rugged eloquence that carries conviction to "ins hearers. Ho lias knocked about the world a good deal, and call claim to possess a wide knowledge of Labor problems. New Zealand has made hie personal acquaintance, so has Australia, and on the, Labor movement in both countries'he left his impress. Ben hp.s been giving voice to some remarkable "flowers of speech" in London;' recently, and the wonder is that H should havo escaped the prison cell. The British Government, no doubt, would have dearly loved to havo, put him under lock and key, and, indeed, took advice on the matter, but the legal opinion was that Tillett's language did not render him liable to prosecution for incitinc: to violence. The employers, said Tillett), in one speech, wanted the Government to turn out the soldiers to shoot the strikers. "If our men are to be murdered," he declared, "I will take a gun and shoot Lord Devonport" (chairman of the Port of London Authority). Like the Socialist poet, William Morris, Ben is "tired of being mealymouthed," and there is much to be said in extenuation of hi 3 language. Even Christ, on occasions, used just as violent expressions. Frantic speech is the product of frantic thought, and frantic thought is the result of unbearable conditions. Ben is a man with his bafrk to the wall, goaded to the point of despair and utter recklessness by the vileness of life as brought into intimate relationship with him through his association with the starving dockers. Exasperated beyond endurance by the poverty and privation of the dock drudges and the callousness of the employers and the, authorities, particularly Lord Devonport, can one wonder that he was provoked to utter a prayer, asking God "to strike Devonport dead?" The "Pall Mall Gazette" says that this prayer was regrettable in the extreme. "But let us be fair," adds the "Gazette." "Lord Devonport's remarks about "forcing the- strikers to lick the dust' were so abominable and inflammatory as to explain any retort." The "Lord" person mentioned presumably prides himself upon being a most distinguished ornament of society, an aristocrat of aristocrats, a pillar cf the church, the. embodiment of all the culture in the Kingdom. What excuse can there bo for such a man —high in place, vested with power, representative of privilege—to talk about making the crowd of ignorant, starving, despairing men on strike "lick the dust." "Undoubtedly Til'ett is a monster, according to this "Lord's" ideas, but who so monstrous as he himself? Well for him that Jehovah is slow to anger, that prayer is not answered in lightning's flash, else be surely would havo been struck down in all his pride and arrogance.