THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3562, 26 August 1920, Page 6

THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

LABOUR LEADER'S TROUBLES. **l woiM rather be a tick in a sheepskin than attain to the proud eminence of a Leader of Labour in •these tormented days," writes Mr. A. M. Thompson., one of the founders of the London Clarion (a Socialist week--3y.) "Let the leader make a mark, and ©very distinguished swain will shoot at it. At Southampton a large part of the time of the' Transport Workers' Conference was occupied by Ernest Bevjn's defence of his strenuous activities against critics whose humdrum passivities had been husHled by ■them. It was an unfortunate dis 7 ipensation of Providence that no man can' think or. achieve bodily without provoking trouble, and from what I could see of Mr. Ernest' Bevin (the doctor's advocate) I gather that he was' born to it. Even more anxious at this • moment must be the lot of Mr. J. H. Thomas. But what can Mr. Thomas do? He cannot cure a generation of wrong in a week. He is not a Lloyd George to make a sudden Heaven upon Earth out of Whitechapel and Ancoats. He has accepted ,an 'fit .'terms which ensures a substantial improvement in the raliwaymen's condition, but he has been convinced that no further •rise can be obtained at present without, the risk of upsetting the whole fabric of British industry. He dares to say so, and the malcontents call 'Judas Iscariot.' "