KEIR HARDIE'S UTOPIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 212, 16 December 1910, Page 7

KEIR HARDIE'S UTOPIA.

n To the Editor, t ®' r ' reil ders of your article eng tiled "Keir Hardies Utopia" will obtain I a plioto of the man they will recognise e ' in the features a thoughtful, kindly, rcj. served, shrewd Scotsman. When he went 0 through New Zealand a couple of years r ago that is what he appeared to be. I t saw him sit apart in the corner of his s railway carriage thoughtfully puffing at a a well-burned briar, quietly observant, | and of a canny humor and quick insight. w I have talked with men who spent much = time in his company. They all agree in describing him as I have said. At Palg merston North he drove oft' an insolent j pressman, and. turned to play with a wee 5 girlie. So do all "self-advertisers," do they not? I recall Bardie's past—his work at the age of 8 in a coal-pit; his j tutors the untutored colliers, his learnj ing .not of books but of 10 years of the l_ harsh realities of mining life; he gradur ates in the difficult school of trade-union , officialdom; by sheer merit he wins his way to leadership in national and international parties. Then why is Hardie j pilloried daily in the Press ? Why a butt ' for the spite, and witticism, and calumny of the high and mighty personages of the Empire? Why do the cables toss fragments of his speeches round the whole | globe? Why do smart editors of Liberal and Tory dailies, even in far-away Tara- ' naki, waste their genius in setting up II effigies of him,.and pelting it withjour- ! nalistic garbage? The reason is not far ' to S'cCK, but to understand it requires some little .knowledge of the industrial ; history of last century. Up to thirty or ' foll ty years ago there was no concerted ] Labor movement in Great Britain. The workers were all at sixes and sevens. [ Loyal class spirit was non-existent, much ' as in New Zealand to-day. The workers | voted Liberal, Tory, Radical, Free-trade [ or Protection promiscuously, and not un- ; commonly at the behests of t'heir particular masters. The upper classes were 1 blissfully content with their bottom dogs, ' and generously patted their heads in encouragement. 'But within the last twenty ' years or so a change, significant of revoP lution, has taken place. Confronted on ' every hand by the opposing interests and ! rights of another class, comprising the l L employers, landlords and financiers, controlling all means of labor, the workers themselves were welded into a class having common wrongs, hardships, sympathies and ideals. They carried their > class notions into politics, and voted J Labor. The gentlemen of England were ! shocked to find a solid body of forty arti- ! sans, common workmen, thrust on to the floor of the House of Commons. But they had not reached that goal by mere good fortune. Innumerable faithful men had battled' mightily in poverty, scorn and hardship for that result, and of these men the best known., and perhaps the most influential, is Keir Hardie. He personifies the present and past of the independent Labor movement. The battle , of tihe working class, however, has only ' just begun. In the struggle the other side employ every weapon at their com- | mand, and not tihe least of these is the Press. Day and night armies of smart [ editors rack their brains for subtle phrase and fair-seeming argument in defence of . property, to sow discord, to discredit and defame working-class leaders. Hardie naturally receives a big share of their attention. That is his best title to honor. ? But he personally is not the object of attack; the cause which he represents, the active working-class moving on to | emancipation, is the real object for their ' hatred, satire and calumny which the ■ 1 superior persons level at his head. The fmbhings of the Pall Mall Gazette, etc., i are little: parts of a larger campaign that 1 involves the whole national life. And ' of course little Liberal editors of Taranaki follow the big Liberal editors of London, and pass on the froth and humbug to us. The proper evidence as to what Hardie is, aid believes; and says, is his own work—his articles, books and pamphlets. . Everything else is tainted by partisan feeling. Who ever judges the man himself, and not according to your caricature of him, will appreciate your article as utterly false; indeed, I mi<*ht say utterly absurd, for you make Hardie . to be a sort of prize villain in melodrama—every man in no man, a poseur and a mountebank, yet a dangerous revolutionist; a harmless Utopian, yet a sort of Napoleon, "wiho would wade through the best blood of his race to achieve his end," the first Presidency of ■the British Republic. One can only smile at this sort of piffle. To me there appear three clear facts that speak volumes for Hardie: (!) The manifold attentions his opponents lavish upon him; if cfie man were a mountebank they would damn him by silence or faint praise. (2) The honor and respect shown to him by his constituents, who ihave been loyal through year after year- of rumor, salumny and abuse; by the million of trades-unionists who freely entrust him ] !with the leadership of the'party; and by , the multitude of friends who thronged ] the Albert Hall, London, to welcome him ; two years ago. (3) The honor and re- J verence which he received from the popu- ' lace, of every country in- Europe, perhaps ! beyond any other living Briton.—l am, etc -> RUDIS. [ Kudis covers the same ground, •though in more violent and ill-balanced language, as traversed by a correspondent in a recent issue. We have little to add to the reply we gave on that occasion. We would mention just one or two more facts in connection with this [ much-discussed personage, and leave the subject. At a time when disaffection was'rife among the natives of India and there had been several outrages committed of an almost unparalleled nature, Mr. Keir Hardie toured through the country making to the natives i upeecnes encouraging them in their opposition to British rule, and practically inciting them to rebellion. When the Egyptian Nationalists met in Geneva just after BoutTos Pasha, the Premier, | J!' as ' m . uc ' el ' c d— a e °ld-blooded murder | 'the Nationalists were responsible for and « 'gloried in Mr. Keir Bardie was present, i : and espoused their cause to the utmost | of lus ability, and, incidentally, traduc- j j iHg his own country and his own people. Again, at a time when the natives of Natal were believed to be on, the ver<*e ) of a great uprising, and when the white men and .women on the farms in Natal did not know what massacre each > might bring, Mr. Keir Hardie wrote to a , Ailu m Glasgow, commiserating Avi'th i him in the "slavery and oppression of Ins countrymen by the colonists of Na- ' tal/' And "Rudis" calls Iveir Hardie a 1 patriot, the most honored and reverenced of any living Briton! We believe most people would consider him a revolutionary, a dangerous firebrand.—Ed.]