Page:Melbourne Riots (Andrade, 1892).djvu/47

Rh Or work at a tyrant's call! The gold of the idler has bought the whole world: The worker has nothing at all.

—For Labor, etc.

Then hail to the day when the worker shall say: “The world 'neath my feet is mine, “The wealth in your hands is the fruit of my toil; “Restore it—it is not thine; “The coal and the metals I bring from the mine, “The Engines I make with my brain, “The homes I have built, and the clothing I weave “Are all part of Labor's domain!”

—For Labor, etc.

And here's a health to all who toil In this and every land; Whoe'er they be, where'er they roam, We stretch a friendly hand. We know no race, nor creed, nor clan: We fear not Russ or Turk: The only one whom Labor fears Are they who will not work.

—For Labor, etc.

When the audience had finished singing, the chairman reminded them of his previous announcements, and called on Harry Holdfast to give his promised address on the all important question, “How You and I Can Emancipate the Workers.”

When the deafening applause, that followed on the chairman's remarks had subsided, Harry proceeded as follows:—

“I intend to-night, friends, to convey to you the thoughts that I have evolved during fifteen years' confinement in your jail. During the whole of that time I have never ceased to think of the unhappy conditions of those outside it, and to work out some method by which I could end those conditions if I ever became liberated. At last I have matured my plans, and to-night I shall lay them before you before I carry them out (applause). Understand, I am going to ask you to help me, and I want every one of you here to lend me a hand; but if you don't—if not one of you assist me, I shall go on carrying it out all the same, and seeking the assistance of more willing co-operators (applause). I will presume that you have realized already that government will do nothing for you, that philanthropy can't afford to do anything for you, and that you need expect no wealth or power outside of your own selves to emancipate you; but that you are resolved on working out your own salvation (hear, hear). I will also presume that you have seen through the fallacious methods of your trades unions, which never alter the false relations existing between employer and employee, but allow them to continue—set the worker to fighting his master instead of dispensing with his master; and which accomplish nothing but futile strikes which always in the end succeed in striking the strikers while the master waits his time and then puts on the screw tighter when defeated labor comes begging for the right to toil. It is