In Our Opinion.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 88, 22 November 1912, Page 4

In Our Opinion.

YITHEN legislators keep the law, * * Then order your Ascension robes. —Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Ttyf R. MASSEY promised, before electhat ho would give the workers a square deal. He has made,good. Isn't Auckland jail a square building? __*~^ — TfILIJAH stew 400 prophets one after•*~*noon, we're told. The prevaricators a.nd false prophets of the Dominion press must be thankful tbafc Elijah is not living now. o '' A ND they (the papers) with one ■**• accord began to shout Crucify Him, Crucify Him." History repeats itself. The guilty e ver attempt to shelter their crimes behind shrieks against tie innocent. a ' " TJTHY is it. that the scabs at Waihi * * are not prosecuted and "bound over to keep the peace" when they break out? Because their little riots are arranged at the police station and are organised and protected by scab police. 4 HERE'S something for you, Mr. Iceberg Herdman. You're a professing follower of the lowly Nazarene, is't not so? Hast ever read these words of your Master Jesus?—" Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering jn, ye hindered." /"\UR slogan and our flag were burned at Waihi. Do genuine workers glory in tearing down the grandest slogan ever given tthem-'-"Worker» of the World, Unit* ,, ? Do genuine workers trample underfoot the Rod Flag, under wbiob (sa-vs Debit) thirty million* march to emancipation?

TVEW ZEALAND politicians who are in favor of conscription are busy declaring that the "Defence Act" is working splendidly. At the earn* time, they are also declaring that if conscientious objectors were exempted the whole scheme would be defeated. Which means, if it means anything, that their first statement is false, and that most of those lads who are now drilling are only doing so under compulsion.

TN connection with Waihi, the Premier ■*■ stated last week that the Government had the fullest confidence in Police Commissioner Cullen, and had given him an absolutely free hand to do everything possible to maintain law and order. How nobly he used this "free hand" is apparent, and how well he succeeded in maintaining law and order was manifested by the unchecked vandalism and violence of the scab workers.

TT is easy enough to understand The ■*• strikers' ranks had been depleted by the jailing of the militants and by the departure of many and the passiviity of some. The pickets had been instructed to remain 'indoors and were caught separated. Joined with the I scabs were the elements of the town always against strikes—*uch as business people, clerks, civil servants, professional people. The "Union Jack" bad been wcrkedfor nil it was ..vxxtiC _The police had been sent to wreck the strike. The favorable hour had arrived for a coup d'etat. License was given to lawlessness.

A T Christchurch Mr. McHugh lauded George to the skies. Asked if it was not the Government of which Lloyd George is a member that sent the military against the strikers, and also if the same Government had not jailed Tom Mann for asking the soldiers not , to shoot the strikers, he replied that the Government was not responsible for the use of the military against the strikers, and that Tom Mann had not been prosecuted by the Government, but under the ordinary processes r>f the law. When it was pointed out that the Attorney-General had peiv sonally appeared to prosecute Tom Mnnn, the "great labor did a lightning turn, and verbally somersaulted himself out of the way.

AFTER having denounced the Waihi strikers, and after having advised the Australian workers to help the masters to starve the women and children of Waihi, and after having at Aucklnnd declared by 15) votes to 4 that the strikers were rightly in jail, and after having advocated and helped towards the forming of scab unions, the extraordinary "United" Labor Party now declares that Mr. Walsh wasn't speaking officially when he congratulated the Waihi scabs, and that he wasn't acting officially when he went to Huntly to organise the scabs there; and it also declares that the United "Labor" Party must not take part in acts of disruption—after it has done everything that it could do in the way of disruption. The explanation is that this is a death-bed repentance. The line of conduct of the "United Labor Party" has so utterly disgusted the more honest element that the official sellers-out are positively becoming alarmed. But, if Mr. Walsh's actions are to be reprobated and the "Voice of Judas" disowned, why is Mr. Walsh still permitted to remain an official of T-ho party, and why arc prominent disunionists like Mr- Sullivan allowed to occupy paid positions en the staff-of the "Vice"? Seems as if that repentance turn is a bit thin.

A CABLE message last week stated that there were rumors that the miners at Mount I>ydl, Tasmania, contemplated a strike in protest against bo» ing suspected of intended incendiarism. A quantity of c6tton waste, it is alleged, was found in the 600 ft. level of the mine, and the discovery was bejd to nave some bearing upon the origin of the fire at North Meant Lyell, The miners naturally resented, the : inputation of being i»ce»diarJ6ts, but evidently they did not strike in clearance of their character.as no word reached thit side that the rumors had materialised in fact. The charge, however, goes to show to what depths the mine-owners will sink to cover to their <ywn criminal callousn*sg in their greed for dividends. Proven wantonly disregardful of the safety of the nriners at North Mount Lyell, they seek by inference nnd probably faked evidence to fasten the blamo for the recent calamity upon their Workers, just ss in New Zealand they and their prrss puppets have charged the responsibility for the W«ihi outrage to the account of innocent men, while the dastardly perpetrators are shielded and held entirely blameless. But capitalism—the minc-owpers are but one of its tentacles —evjr fras, and will bo till its death, without .scruples. It is an iuhumau monster, soulless, heart* ]esr> —a Mood-surking vampire that must bo slain ere Man tan attain to Freedom and Brotherhood.