Flings at Things.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 77, 30 August 1912, Page 1

Flings at Things.

The Agitator 1

That's the pestilent fellow who goes up and down in the land stirring up strife.

A Mr. John Greens —or was it Beans ? —no, our mistake, Deans—had something to say about him the ouher day.

At the annual meeting of the Canterbury S'heepowners' Union.

Said he did not think there was any general discontent among tihe farm laborers ot" New Zealand.

Oh, no 1 Impossible that there could be —they are so well treated.

The farm hands are all as contented and purring with pleasure as a sleek, well-fed pussycat basking on the hearth in the warmth of a blazing fire on a cold winter's night.

What discontent there was was caused by a few agitators.

Who were a very unsettling element. And were always fomenting trouble among tho workers.

Oh, dear —fancy that nowl

Tho Agitator 1 We like that word. It looks good, reads good, sounds good, is good.

We are all agitatorß in a great or

lesser degree.

Every citizen is an agitator —must be an 'agitator.

What he believes he will try to make others believe.

Every politician is an agitator,

Every participant in any political, social, or moral movement is an agitator.

The men of history whose names we most love to honor were agitators. The Founder of Christianity was an agitator.

Was He not arraigned on the charge of being a very unsettling element? Of fomenting trouble among the people?

Of perverting the nation? Yea;, in sooth.

The Agitator! Greatest of the Great was the revolutionary Christ.

» And his Apostles?

Were they not agitators?

What are we told that the inhabitants of Thessalonica cried concerning the Apostle Paul and his disciples? "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."

Agitators, all of them,

If we are to be anything other than mere mechanical marionettes, pressthe button puppets, or pull-the-string-and-the-figure works automata, we must be agitators.

Everyone who believes anything should agitate until he has been proved wrong or until his idea has been accepted as truth.

That's a man's simple duty. Therefore, become an agitator.

Ho, hoi Here's a go. Apropos. Dr. Gibb. A parson glib. Varied the story of tihe rib. With an anti-agitator "squib." Which went off with a noise like a penny hunger under a jam-tin. Must be a case of professional jealousy with Gibb.

Seeing that he is merely an agitator himself. J

A well-paid one at that, with a job that ensures that his paunoh is always with fat capon lined.

And is he not of the black-clothed brethren who have just imported a paid agitator from Queensland?

To stir up sectarian strife and foment religious rancour throughout all the length and breadth of this country ?

By seeking to introduce into our system of secular education the teaching of lessons from the Bible.

Aye, verily

The doctor stole the thunder of the capitalist papers wherewith to shake the roof and walls of his Wellington kirk.

No "cart-tail" orate of the Federation ever gave voice to such a torrent of wild and whirling invective.

How the paid agitator of the workers did cop it.

He was a man "who, to gain his own ends, was ready to turn the world upside down and trample underfoot every consideration of truth, honor, and justice."

Dr. Gibb. What a fibl

But -this was only a preliminary can-

When he got thoroughly into his stride in the sermouic shriek how he did "'it 'er up."

"Some of his friends (members* of Labor unions) confessed themselves thralls to a tyranny almost unendurable." "Tho oligarchy of the Labor bosses and the paid agitator." "Who were as a pestilence to tihe nation that harbored them." "The revolutionary and tlie syndicalist were equally tihe enemy of God and man." And much more to the same effect. * * * Sanest thing the parson said was that the Labor agitator had a less rosy time of it than the workers he led. For "the mischief he was engaged in fomenting must tax his energies and keep him always on the alert." Nothing much wrong in that state-, ment only the use of the word "fomenting." If Dr. Gibb had said "circumvent* '"ng" instead we'd have been in entire accord with him.

Not all beer and skittles is the agitator's life, take cut word for it.

More kicks that ha'pence at the test of times.

Those slanderers who talk of the agitator loafing and living on the 'orny'anded sons of toil know nothing of the nervous tension and physical strain of his billet.

The parson's job is the better br long shakes.

And Gibb knows it.

"The wealth of the world for th© world's workers. Amen, he\said, bui) the demand' too often was the wealth of the world for the world's shirkers."

Oh, dear, no, dear Dr. Gibb

The wealth of the world for the world's shirkers is the governing rule of the capitalistic society' that obtains to-day.

If you can say "Amen" to the demand of the wealth for the world's workers you must come in with us.

And become one of those awful agitators you have so reviled.

For that is what they are striving for with all their heart and soul and brain. They demand the wealth of the world for the worlds workers.

The shirkers get it NOW,