THE RED FLAG.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 8, Issue 461, 28 March 1919, Page 1

THE RED FLAG.

Written specially for " The Times "

I am afraid the world at large scarcely comprehends the manifold trials and worries of the honest social reformer, and it is with the hope of eliciting a little public aym pathy for a much-misunderstood and often cruelly-maligned class that I have determined to address the wide circle of intelligent readers reached by your invaluable journal true that work of any kind- evan the labour of making black marks upon paper - is c >ntr*ry to the most sacred principles of what I may fairly term my religi.m, but even the best of us revolutionaries has at times to sacrifice his principles for the good ofthecau-e But I must plunge at once into my tale without fur-her preface. Practically the whole of my life has been spent in the service of humanity. I do not mean that I have toiled with my hands, for no man with a soaring soul would so far degrade himself. But my tongue has worked unceasingly in the service of my poor down-trodden fellowman. At an early age I became a professed and enthusiastic Anarchist, but I soon saw that the methodslpf that cult were too slow to bring about the millennium in my time. There was a certain amount of excitement and pleasure to be got from the assassination of kinrjs and presidents, but governments pursued their ruthless way despite our efforts, and the happy period when every man would be a law unto himself, and help himself unhindered to his neighbour's goods unless that neighbour was so unreasonable as to wooden him out with a club, seemed as far away as ever. Then, to push on a bit faster, I joined the I.W.W's They seemed a much more promising crowd at first. Their wholesale their infernal machines in ships, and their incendiary fires, provod them to be people of rare imagination and fire-souled lavishness of design Their lofty natures spurned the pettifogging spirits of the Anarchists, who used to take off their victims one by one with the niggling parsimony of retail traders, and often even took precautions to prevent innocent outsiders being killed. I threw myself heart and soul into the I W.W. movement to uplift human ity from the drudgery of daily toil by the wholesale destruction of em ployers and their goods. But the ultimate goal ot freedom and happiness appeared to be still a long way off The cursed minions of the law made the path a difficult and thorny one to tread. Then suddenly in the East rose the Sun of Liberty. The genius of the Russian nation evolved the glorious doctrine of Bolshevism, and I grasped it at once as the manna my soul was yearning for. To destroy at one stroke all the hated upper and middle classes, to wipe out for over the cursed education and intelligence that has been the bano of the world, and to holp oneself freely to all the goods that industry and economy had enabled these letches and bloodsucker to amimulate, seemed to me the culmination of all my most fervid dreams.

Fired by zeal for the enfranchisement of my fellow-creatures, I resolved to introduce The Revolution iri'o New Zealand. Full of the

."'u,tg>< that is conferred by con--i i .usloss of the justice of oue's •vus«, I rt-solved to first fly the red 111g of revolt in Fiauhlin that slavish constituency which for the list twenty five years has groaned bineath the inle of that worst of re-a-nonaries, Farmer Bill. " Sutely," •aid I to myself, "one has but to poii t the way t> these down-trodden serf •, and they will rise and over throw the foundations of society." The first man I mot was a surfaceman He was leaning gracefully on a !• Eg handled shovel, watching a n.ub of cattle that- was being driven down tho road. "Brother," said I, " uhy do you woik ? " "To get twelve bob a day," was his reply. ' And are you, a. humau being with

a soul, ready to be trodden underfoot for twelve bob a day ? " Well, I don't know that I'm exactly trodden under foot. You see, there's generally someone to stop and have a chat with, and when there isn't I like to have something to do. The ratepayers give me good wage?, and I does a bit of work for them now and then. So far as I can see its a very good arrangement. " Will you not joio,' in our revolution," said I, " aojfr do away for ever with this cursKi wage system. " I will not," said he, " at any rate not till after I lose my job." A little further down the road a farmer was energetically hoeing up blackerries along his fence. " You aie slaving,'' said I, " for the benefit of the blood sucking 1 upper and middle classes Your interetts and those of the workers are indentical Will you not help us to rise and throw off the yoke." "Are you a Farmers' Union organiser?" h a asked ''l am not," was my digß(£«d reply. ■' lam an Anarchist, a labour agitator, and a Bolshevik. Join in our glorious revolution. Yon will be freed from the domination of the money lenders and the middleman, and we will equally divide among us the fruits of our labour." " It sounds all right," jaid he, " I have a nice piece of land, twenty cows, and a few other things to share up. What have you got ?" I had some pawn tickets in my waistcoat pocket, and the hope of collecting somethingfor my last article to the '• Maoriland Worker," all forms of property no but I hesitated to mention them. " Well," said he, with a grin, " some day when you lrtve time make out a list of what you've got to divide up, and then we'll talkabout revolution."

So far things were nit very encouraging, but. I was not downhearted. I knew the Public Works Department was constructing a rail way in the neighbourhood, and to it I bent my step*. A score of men were standing about, some of thorn | with tools in their hands Every j now and then one would lift a shovel- j ful of clay into a cart, or another : would give a stroke or two with a ! pick. It grieved me to :ho heart to | see these serfs of a soul-less Gov/ rn ; ment department wearing out the j best days of their lives in ceaseless j toil. "How much longer," said 1,1 " are you going to allow yourselves; to be driven by brutal foreman uud ; overseers '? " Steady, old man," I said one of the empty handed ones, j "Half of us are overseers, sou'.| names please. " Well." siid I"It | you are not ready to overthrow the | existing tyranny will you not em-j barrass the Government by going; slow " " Now you're talking, old chap," said one ot them. " It' you have ary wrinkle about go ; r>g slow , that we don't know, tro* it out Bu' j you' : l find it hard to teach the Public j Works men anything now at that ! game." I did not seem to be getting on | very fast in thecountiy so I roturned j to the town Iso >n bad an interest- i ed crowd around me, and was ad j dressing them with fluency and, veheme.-.ce upon the instant necessity I of a Bolshevik revolution in New j Zealand, when a heavy hand was laid on my shoulder. Turning I saw i the burly form of a man in blue.: He curtly told mo I was going too! far, and that 1 had battel gei out of j the t<>wn before I got into trouble. All my instincts urged m" t)d fy this hireling of the law, but a moment's reflection showed ujo that] the revolution w.oi!d sutler if I got | into gaol. So I gut otr Mr.. Ed it or, I amgo ; ng to alter my j pUi*S#eir: pa'gn. I am going into Parliament, for it h only members of Parliament who are allowed freedom of speech. I shall contost the Franklin seat wi'h the l J nmo Minister, and from my place in the House of Representatives shall be ablo to foment the revolution in seem ity During the ehction campaign I shall tie using your advertising columns freely, and although I am fully aware tint y-ut have . r ir'hly right j to charge " the iio >plo " for the us ! of them, I intend to so far bow to { the ptesent disgraceful order ofi things as to give you an < rder j against niv salary m a iS' l '-* Xatla 1 j legislator in p lyinent. I