THE LONDON SOCIALISTS. Proposal to Morch in the Lord Mayor's Show. An Address to the Poor of London.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 179, 20 November 1886, Page 4

THE LONDON SOCIALISTS. Proposal to Morch in the Lord Mayor's Show. An Address to the Poor of London.

The Democratic Federation of London has issued a manifesto in which ifceays : — " The unemployed are certain to experience distress still more sovere than that experienced in 18S5. Honest workmen and their families are doomed to a hopeless struggle with starvation during the coming winter. The wealthy classes are responsible for the awful netrlect of the poor. Our rulers could not but fear for themselves if they could see the misery which their selfish apathy inflicts upon the producers of wealth. Show them your despair and their danger. Leave your slums and follow the Lord Mayor's show in November, silently and solemnly, in order to convince the rich, as they are driven to their banquet, that the most munificent charity on their part can never plaster ovor the cancer which their mad greed ot wealth has planted in the heart of our civilisation. " The " Times " of October 19, commenting on the request of the Chief Commissioner of Police to the Social Democratic Federation not to follow out its proposal to have the workingmen of London follow the Lord Mayor's Show for the purpose of exhibiting side by side the aristocracy and poverty of the metropolis, says: "The head of the police is not a spiritual or moral adviser When he speaks to those plainly meditating mischief ho should compel and not entreat them to yield obedience. Ifc i& quite possible that the Socialists may be enabled to boast that they prevonted the annual Lord Mayor's Show. The outlook is very disagreeable. They offer the public the alternative of the risk of setious disturbance or .the sacrifice of the ancient pageant." Champion, a Socialistic leader, in an interview this afternoon with an Associated Press reporter, declared that tho Democratic Federation would not abandon its intended counter demonstration to the Lord Mayor's Show, unless tho Governaient promised to instituto an inquiry into the condition and ueeds of the London poor and unemployed, similar to the inquiry made last winter after the riots. Champion says that if the police is=mo nn order prohibiting the demonstration, the leaders will stay at home, but tho people will be sure to mako a demonetra tion anyhow, " and,'" he asked, " who will bo able to control them ?" According to tho " St. Jamos's Gazette " of October 11, enthusiastic Socialists declare that thousands of men regularly drill in London, and they boast they are able to put 10,000 armed men into the ptreets. Moderate Socialists fear that enthusiastic and sedulous secret teaching is telling dangerously in the East End, where there is much poverty and ruffianism.