At Mills' Meeting.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 86, 1 November 1912, Page 2

At Mills' Meeting.

ALL ABOUT THE GENERAL

STRIKE.

SOME IMPRESSIONS AND

REFLECTIONS

This "Vagabond" strolled into Mr. Mills' meeting at the Opera House last Sunday week. What struck mc first was the sad expression on the face of the two collectors at the door. They looked so pathetically at the plates when I approached that I was forced to give them something for fear they would cry. When I got in I realised what the trouble was. Mr. Mills was speaking, but the audience was cold, deadly cold. Mr. Mills was telling the audience what splendid chances they had of becoming speakers. They could become' even as good as Mr. Mills if they would pay the fee and join his class I That part of his lecture reminded mc of a quack doctor who used to lecture in this town and as a side line sold electric belts. ,

Then Mr. Mills got down to bvfine.l,s. He spoke of the many unaora children who had been killed through the general strike. He spoke" of blood and mangled remains he had seen because of the strike; but altogether I am of opinion that there are hundreds of men in the Federation of Labor who could have put up better argument 3 against the general strike than what Mr. Mills did. He was certainly not at his best. I am afraid he saw the plate when he passed in, and it had a depressing effect.

However, Mr. Mills is right. He said before a general strike could be called it meant that workers must be organised in euch a manner that all tb« workers would strike; and when the workers were organised in such a manner there would be no need for a general strike, because. the workers would be strong enough to do away with the causes that would lead tip to a general strike. Mr. Mills is right— a general strike should not be called except as a last resort. Nobody has ever said otherwise.

After Mr. Mills had spoken for 40 minutes he sat down, and one man asked a question about a strike that had occurred in Switzerland and which had been the means of thei State taking over the railways. T thought that question was out of order and ought to have boen suppressed, because it seemed to mc to be more in favor of tlio sttrikv thaji against it. 1 felt sorry for Mr. Mills—he deserved a bigger audience. There ought to have been some working men and women at that meeting. It's a shame that only university students and Y.M.O.A. people should attend these meetings.

After the meeting closed, I strolled along to the Empress Theatre and squeezed in. Oh! what a difference. There were the horny-handed sans of toil, clapping, yelling, stamping be-, cause that man Semplo had jusi) S'/I something in favor of the Waihi and Reef ton men. Their troubles it was Sunday. Three times three they cheered, and I looked to see the .Master crack. Aye. Mr. Mills, ». strike is irr/ossible —but the men at Waihi have qme the impossible. And the collection! Ah, from a showman's point of virtw, that collection was a gold mine. From a "Tag's" Tviinf. of view, it was a fortune—THE VAG.