"Gullible" Workers and "True" Facts

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 90, 6 December 1912, Page 4

"Gullible" Workers and "True" Facts

A correspondent to the Manawatu "Daily Times," having learned that "Semplc and Co." have announced their intention of visiting the centres of the Dominion to harangue the crowds and put the facts of recent events at Waihi before t<ho people, goes to grent pains to express his willingness tr> "spring" a "tenner" nfc any time 1o assist in bringing about "such a desirable arrangement" as a counter-move by the Government or the Employers' Federation. Says he: "Surely 'Semple and Co.' have, bom allowed to do quite enough. Surely the Government will spo tlio necessity of stepping in and preventing honest but gullible workers from lioiiig led astray. If the Government <!o not take action then let the Employers' Federation take a hand in tho eniiK , . Lot them send good,, cleanspeaking men around the Dominion to

Force is a last resort, and even then

put the real true facts before workers."

Honest but gullible workers! The workers are always "honest but gullible" when they are fighting for any redson whatsoever in industrial conflicts that happen to cause somo disarrangement of the system of capitalistic .society and disturb the even, placid flow of existence of the smug and self-satis-fied ; but there is no solicitude in their welfare or tribute to their honesty and worth when their are toiling with oxlike humility and unwearying effort in the bosses' interests, when they are accepting without a murmur any miserable recompense the masters choose to bestow, when there is not a whisper of discontent to be heard in all their ranks. Then, either the workers are entirely ignored in utter contempt or they are sneered at and derided and spat upon and kicked and beaten for th<j "cattle" the employers and their fawning followers rate them as. It is amazing the interest the employers manifest in the workers when the latter threaten the privileges of the usurpers and tlie illgotten gains of the robbers, and to note how they vent their spleen on the spokesmen of the toilers, who of course arc wasters and agitators, and solely responsible for any industrial troubles that arise, though the upheavals are directly due to the spread of education, the cultivation of the thinking powers, and the awakening generally of the workers everywhere to the realisation of tha injustice of a society which gives them but scant reward for arduous toil, day after day, year after year, while others who toil not and spin not wax fat and bloated on the wealth created by the workers.

Enough on that point. Let's get to another phrase of the quotation that's worth a comment. "Real, true facts 1" What think ye of that ? Facts are stubborn things, of course; but whit i≤ a "true fact?" Facts are facts —any time, every time, and all the time. Facts are realities; and if any statements presented as facts are not facts, regarding either Waihi or any other matter, they are falsehoods. They cannot bo "untrue facts," and the citizen who is game to come forward and give an address on the untrue facts of anything will be- certain of an interested and lively hearing.