VICTOR GRAYSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 297, 10 December 1908, Page 4

VICTOR GRAYSON.

To the Editor. Sir, —Your -Monday's issue of "The \ews'' coutained a statement conc'.'rnng Victor Grayson, Socialist J1.1'., ill he House of Commons, which is emin■nlly calculated to iill the minds ol' ,'our readers with scorn and contempt it his daring to transgress the time-hoji-nircd white bearded "customs of the House'' by challenging tliein to deal' witli the question of unemployed English men and women. Your readers will also be led to believe that he has neglected his duties as a member. Has iie though 1 Since when '* 1 have no doubt there are a few would gladly that he was nil your published account implied. lam not among them. .1

range myself ill the opposition, aud step in to remove the leprosy of slander thoughtlessly flung at so brave anil true a man. Your report said "that even liis colleagues entirely disclaim this Nouthful fanatic and speak of liiui with great bitterness." This is an error, he lias no colleagues in the House, lie is a lonely socialist sent by socialists—not "Labourites"—to carry the torch of lile night of his election he publicly Truth into the house of hypoericy. On declared :"1 am proud to go to l'arliaaient as the representative of the starving children of England." It takes a man—a man with a heart to make | such a declaration. It takes a man „rave and true to faithfully cany out such a purpose. Grayson was educated for the Ministry, but he grew sad as i lie looked around his England—and i here is no greater lover of his coun-try-ami perceived the grinning skull T poverty with its eyeless sockets leering like a devil in the midst of

plenty. He saw faces wan and palelittle' faces, pinched and starved, with appealing eyes and out-stretched hands. The sight struck liim like, a cold blast of wind, and right royally he responded, [lis ministry was decided, and that mount Clod smiled and gave England's lowly babes a voice in the Hoi,fee of '.'ominous. And already that voice has bwa heard around Ihe world and will ~e heard again, aud again, and yet again, until the foul brutal murder of Knglish babies has ceased. Neglected bis duties, lias lie'.' lie may have failed I to bow to the uiace as frei|Hentlyi as Labour members. 1 do not know, but 1 do know that lie has never ceased to carry the gospij to the sunken masses of England, lie has appeared unto them like a star in the midnight of I' their despair. He knows that the hope of England—of every country—lies siot in Parliament, but in the people. As the rising tide is indicated by the fig- > ures on the past set ill the sea, so the material and mural condition of a people is indicated by the rising tide of their intellectual developme-.it. (iraysou is aware of this. He uses Parliament to show the people its apathy and importance, the while he carries to them the knowledge more precious than gold. That Grayson advised workless hungry people to stc-vl is not phenomenal. The late Cardinal Manning and others have urged the same. The pertinent question is— What are tliey to do in such circufni-' ntanccs? Food there is in plenty. Are they to die like cowards—or Englishmen? However.. Sir, President Taft has supplied the answer to this unhapp} question. During the recent campaign he was asked at a meeting ''What should a man do who was out of worli -mil starving." The ingenious reply ol this modern Isolonmn was "God knows'; , - 1 am, etc., d. CHIIISTOI'HEH

(If our correspondent thinks that <uch hysterical conduct as (Irayson was gniUy of ill the House, of Commons tends to advance the interests of the unfortunate poor of the Old Land he is greatly mistaken, ill' Christopher calls him a "lonely socialist." It is 110 wonder. The British electors are evidently possessed of discrimination. One redHag (irayson is evidently enough for them.—Ed.)