A SOCIAL REVOLUTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3194, 20 May 1909, Page 3

A SOCIAL REVOLUTION.

"KING" PATAUD DEFIES THE STATE. - Another momentous step was taken in Paris on Sunday (writes a London under date April Bth) in the direction of what all the newspapers, irrespective of political colour, agree in designating the "social revolution." A monster meeting of some 10,000 persons, the biggest and most significant of its kind since the foundation of the* Third Republic, has been held in the Hippodrome, which was chosen beacuse it is the largest place available in Paris fur meeting of this kind. The gathering was convened by "King'' Pataud, in the name of the Electricians' Trade Union and allied associations. Its purpose was declared to be to establish and proclaim solidarity as between the ordinary trades unions and bodies of employees of th'e State, the Departments, and municipalities, to repudiate the Civil Service feill, which the Prime Minister will shortly submit to Parliament/and to announce that the servants of the State claim and mean to exercise the right to strike against the State —a rLht which ordinary workmen exercise against private employers. The Hippodrome was packed to its utmost capacity with the crowds of workmen wearing their baggy trousers and red sashes, the labourers of every class, Civil servants of all kind*, telegraph operators, elementary teachers, postmen, mechanics, prison warders, workmen in the State match.and tobacco factories, and even men eraployed in the arsenals. Tha speakers received deatening applause when they declared themselves anti-mili-tarist and enemies of the bourgois Republic. M. Yvetot, the secretary of the General Confederation of Labour, was enthusiastically cheered when he denounced the Prime Minister as "another murderer like Thiers." Again there arose a tempest of applause when the secretary of tlte mason's' fede: ation defended the strikers in the Department of the Oise, who lately sacked an employer's residence. "The destroyers," said the orator, "did quite right in inflicting an exploiter who had enriched himself by the sweat of their brows." A few weeks ago the War Minister cashiered certain officers who had attended a church service whe-e the Republican Government was indirectly assailed. On Sunday thousands of Civil servants listened to powerful denunciations hurled against Milliters of State, and evidently approved what was said.' "King" Pataud, who was in his element, cried, "We shall know what to do if any of us are'dismissed or made to suffer for this. If Clemenceau sends us off to New Caledonia, or to the West Indies, why, there are many Pataud?; here to fill my place." It is acarcely an exaggeration to say that "King" Pataud is omnipotent. Perhaps it might be more correct to say that he incarnates the mind and temperament of that vast restless body of men more completely than any other leader. He is a born orator. He is imperturbable, humourous, and fearless, and says what he has to say without regard for friends or foes. He will be heard of in the days to come. The motion of the day, i affirming that Civil servants have > the right to strike equally with members of trade unions in general, and that no legislation can prevent the exercise of such right, was voted I unanimously.