THE CRIME OF LABOR.
TRUE to its character the monopolist section of the New Zealand Press has set about jeering the Labor representatives in the new Parliament. Mr Earnshaw is described as a “brazen image" because he is criminal enough to have learnt a trade. Another man is vile enough to be a blacksmith, and one wicked wretch is a bootmaker, Had these men tha good fortune to run overdrafts, and have got themselves into predicaments in which they would have been fearful of offending the money rings, they would have been truckled to as political giants, but as their proficiency at a trade ensures them a manly independence, with freedom of thought unaffected by the dreaded thumb of the bank, they are to be made the butt of ail the miserable groundlings who have not a soul they can call their own. It matters not that a man shall have honorably done his part in whatever path it has been his lot to travel : the dignity of labor is but a mockery to these toadies of cliquism. To their minds there can be no greater liar than the man who said, “A man’s a man for a’ that.” ' A brassfinisher I a blacksmith ! a bootmaker I—beware lest the touch of their hand pollute thy garments—so these hirelings teach us, and with such thoughts would they instil the minds of the young New Zealanders who must ere long come to the rescue of their country. John Bright was denounced as a blatant demagogue ; Mr Earnshaw is so far only wicked enough to be a “ brazen image ” I We can imagine with what a pitying eye Mr Earnshaw looks down on the despicable crew who thus cast their jibes at him, sustained as he is by the knowledge that if he may not make a brilliant statesman he will at least faithfully do what little he can from a spirit of patriotism, untormented by the pressure of Bank managers. His days and nights will not be harassed by memories of the frowns met with in the parlors of money-lending institutions. All honor, say we, to these men who come to the front in spite of the sneers of more polished but less manly men. If they are lacking in polish, and are careless as to whether a ‘ choker ’ or turn-down collar happens to be the fashion, they may yet be endowed with much common-sense and also be possessed of the honesty and backbone to uphold the right in face of the whole army of pigmies by whose tiny arrows they are assailed, To Mr Earnshaw and his friends we would say, though yop may throw oft your coats to earn your bread, see that you are still MEN, and you will retain the respect of all men and women' whose good opinion is worth having. To all working men we would say mark those men and journals who have tried to turn your brethren into ridicule, not because the latter have been tried and found wanting, but because they happen to workmen ; and above all, be careful to discriminate in this matter, singling out the individual offenders, without making the grave mistake of setting class against class.
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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 543, 11 December 1890, Page 2
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536THE CRIME OF LABOR. Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 543, 11 December 1890, Page 2
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