Try as I will, and as I have been trying, to avoid | personal polemical journalism in this paper, the | Fates are opposed to me. The letters which are left | unanswered repeat themselves: the forbearance which | "runs away" rather than fight gets itself interpreted | as weakness. What is a peaceful editor to do? | Obviously, he must bucklet to. Kismet.
|Three letters call for answer. Here's to it.
|I. Criticism and Cliqueism.
| To take the first letter of the three: it was
| placed in my hands on the eve of my departure for
| Broken Hill. I pigeon-holed it for consideration upon
| return. Then I sought out its writer and told him it
| wasn't fair or correct, and left him, after review,
| to decide whether it should appear or not. He
| eliminated one flagrant mis-statement, and asked for
| the letter's insertion. It ought not to be published,
| in my judgement
Mr Wedermann's letter is a compound of ignorance | and inference. The direct statements are not true: | the indirect statements are paltry imaginings. | Claimed to be a "reply" to Mr Curtin's article on |
I wish to say that Mr Curtin's article found a | place in this paper because it was well-written, said | that which needed saying, and was directed against | apostasy and treachery. If it was intended for Mr | Wedermann, neither Mr Curtin nor myself knew it. And | as the article said nary a word against criticism, | and as all concerned favour criticism, I wonder by | what strange ethical process Mr Wedermann justifies | his implication that criticism was and is held to be | objectionable. Nor do I see the sequence and | appropriateness in the references to "billets" and | "hypocrites." For the love of heaven, man, say what | you mean, plainly and to the point.
|No one will deny Mr Wedermann's membership right | in respect to officials, only Mr Wedermann ought to | know that at the time of the Broken Hill lock-out Mr | Mann was not one of HIS officials. And what does he | mean by his slur about our "god"? Has he ever heard a | member acclaim Tom Mann as "God"? Does he know that | his language is the language of the enemies of the | Socialist Party, and that membership of the party | ought to be a more honourable thing than marionetting | for the mudslingers?
|As to Tom Mann's "official report," how does Mr | Wedermann know anything about it, and knowing | nothing, why does he allege concealment? Mr Mann's | "official report" to the unionists of Broken Hill | mentioned all about "that remarkable interview." Our | correspondent wants facts. The facts are that every | unionist at Broken Hill and Port Pirie knows all the | particulars of that interview, just as every unionist | at Pirie knew it was taking place, sanctioned it, and | afterwards endorsed it. Mr Wedermann seems to think | he was Mr Mann's employer, forgetting in his haste | that Mr Mann was answerable to the combined unions | alone.
|Facts kept away from US! Was ever industrial | trouble in this wide world so fully ventilated? This | paper was under no obligation to print anything re | the lock-out, but it printed more than any other | weekly paper in Australia!
|
|
Noting the sneers in regard to leadership at "our | Socialist leaders," those who "call themselves | leaders," one "who likes to be considered a leader," | and so on, one wonders how Mr Wedermann knows such a | lot of what's in other's minds, and why he should | find disparagement of his own Socialist kith so | pleasurable. His is a "stinking fish" epistle of a | verity. I do not think those he hints at anxious to | be leaders: I am certain we cannot do without | leadership, and I see nothing mean or derogatory in | aspiring to it, or in it per se.
|Concerning the charge of cliqueism, its existence | or otherwise is merely a matter of opinion. The | charge seems to be inseparable from associated | activity. I have met the charge in nearly all | organisations: I have usually found the "cliques" the | workers. Certain it is that cliqueism in the sense | suggested by our correspondent is no where in | evidence in the government of the Socialist party, | than the which there is not in Australasia a more | democratically controlled organisation. Of no union, | no society, no party is so much chronicled and | announced as of our own doings. The fullest | information is set forth in these pages week by week; | at the weekly executive meetings every item of | receipt and expenditure is read and reviewed; at the | monthly general meetings full reports are presented, | and free questioning invited. It is not fair to | assert that boss-ship is manifested or desired. But | as much independence of thought and conduct for | officials as for members, and no official the | plaything or slave of members, and a fruitful co- | operation throughout, are as much the right as the | need. Consequently until Mr Wedermann edits this | paper, and while the membership approves, the present | editor will be guided by his own trained judgement in | respect to the paper's contents.
|For the benefit of many critics, I would, however, | like to add that comments, like speeches, are the | product and reward of time and thought, and limited | always by prevailing circumstances. When this paper | has a staff equal in number to the |
asks
| Mr Wedermann. Echo answers "Where." Of a surety they
| are there where they were, if ever they were.
That's a miserable little lie regarding Harry
| Holland and Tom Mann. It was the former who advocated
| "downing tools," and it was the Socialist party which
| sent resolutions throughout the Commonwealth urging
| the course. Unfortunately, none of the unions
| favoured the course, and inevitably it dropped. But
| it's Tom Mann noticeably who is now concentrating his
| talent upon perfecting industrial warfare. It is this
| paper
cries Mr
| Wedermann