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. 3.7. W ...:...:. ,...A...
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What conditions .w'ei'e the unfortunate menliving under? Twelve bob ’, ‘
.week, working all day and into the night, Some milesmen gotten or
eleven bob a week, and they were living in hovels in,.West Clare-'the
place where they shot, landlords for the farmers years ago.’ In ‘Vest
Clare the nienithought they ought to have something better, and they
paid their own railway ‘fares and came up to Dublin to make anlappeal,
but they were scouted and told to get back‘again.'; And when they? went,
backeincensed at the feeling that they were not going tosbe met by the
employers-they came out on strike. The Nationalist local Press, con-
trolled by the politicians, deliberately obscured the issue; and in every
column of every paper it was stated that an English Union was inter-
fering with and destroying an Irish industry. , Those men were left ate
the mercy of the capitalist class, backed up by their agents and'apolo- 7
gists. The priest went into the cottage and told one man to rblackleg
it-to go back to work and not be foolish, and one or two of them went
back.. Some of the men were driven out of the country, some to the
workhouse, and some to the asylum-and this in the twentieth century!
The member for ‘Vest Clare sat mute in Dublin and in the House of
Commons, the same as the cowardly politicians are sitting mute now
‘throughout this country, and who daren‘t face the men tliey’re supposed ’
to speak for. They destroyed these men’s homes and broke their
women’s hearts, and for what reason? As Mr. Murphy said, this was a
lesson that would teach the Dublin tram-men not to go out on strike.
I say here that if an Irish Union, with the same capacity as the Railway
, Union, had been controlling the Great Southern Railway strike, I know
what the result would have been. They would never have beaten the
men. .. ,
AGITATORS MUST BE WIPED OUT.
i The priest was appealed to; the politician was appealed to; the
members of the Irish Party. were appealed to; but the result of all was
that there was to be no assistance for the men; and the Board of Trade
was appealed to to send some one from England, and they refused to
do so. Thus the men were left at the mercy of the capitalist classes,
who were backed up by other agencies. They were told not to mind
their fellow-men, but to go into work and blackleg upon them. In that’
. way one or two broke away. The County Council met, and, controlled by
gentlemen of the type of Mr. P. J. O’Neill, said these men were agitators
pe-they must be wiped out and destroyed. . They were thus thrown on the
roadside, driven out of the country, to the workhouse, the asylum, or
to the broad fields of the Western Continent. They were dealt with as
no human beings were ever dealt with before. , e
INTIMIDATION. "
Turning again to the Tramway‘ question. Mr. Larkin referred to‘
the meeting of men addressed in the Antient Concert Rooms bvlhlurphy
before the strike took place. The cleverest methods, he said, were
employed in convening that meeting. 'Mr. Murphy got his unfortunatg
, dupes into the hall. For any capitalist or clever man to go to his
unfortunate dupes, said Mr. Larkin, and get them into a hall and pay
them a day’s wages and give them drink and food to take part in a
packed assembly to sign away their rights-these men.were brought
down in cars, and two hundred policemen were lined up, and every man
had to go inside the hall, and if he did not he was a marked man and
he was sacked on the following day. And they say there was novinljmi-
.dationehere Mr. Iiarkin produced a rough baton from aparcel, and
showing it to the Court, said: There is no intimidation in Ireland.
No! But every man in a particular company before the Iock-out was
supplied with one of these,.and afterwards each man. got a. gun but the
cowardly hounds were afraid to use them.‘ And these are the inen who
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