OCR Text |
Show KIER HARDIE PASSES AWAY London, Sept. 2G. Kier Hardie, the labor leader, died of pneumonia this morning in a nursing home in Glasgow, Glas-gow, the city he loved more than any other. Pie was a product of the masses, and by tho masses ho was Idolized. Born of humblo parents In Scotland August 15, 1S56, he went into the' mines at the age of 7 to help with the pittance he received to support his family. For seventeen years ho remained re-mained in the pit, seldem seeing sunlight, sun-light, but managing to read and study. His evenings he spent in trying try-ing to improvo his own and the conditions con-ditions of hitt fellow miners. Kler Hardie's ability soon became recognized among the miners, and at an early age ho became a labor leader, lead-er, advanced Democrat and Socialist He became president of the Ayrshire (Miners' union In 18S2, and about the same time entered the journalistic I field. It was but a step from that Into politics. He became a candidate for the Mid-Lanarkshlro seat in parliament parlia-ment In 1886, but was defeated. He won the seat for Southwest Ham in 1892. He soon became a power in politics I and wns feared by the aristocrats as j much as he was beloved 'by tho mass- I es. Many times indignities were im- I posed on him and ho was frequently I arrested on trumped charges. He waa fl chairman of tho Independent Labor fl party from 1893 to 1900, and led tho fl Labor party In the houBo of commons fl from 1906 until 1908. In 1900 ho was! ..in, jjjim elected to represent Mcrthyr-Tydfll. It was to Kler 'Hardie that credit was duo for tho organization of the Independent labor movement in Groat Britain. He launched and edited two labor papers, and their Influence soon spread throughout the nation. With the same enthusiasm he worked out labor problems ho advocated temperance temper-ance and later espoused suffrage. Ho rebelled against the unjust treatment of the militants in England, and characterized char-acterized as Britain's shame the forcibly forci-bly feeding of Mrs. Pankhurst and Kier Hardie's fame as a speaker had spread throughout the world, and in August 1912, he visited tho United States, delivering speeches in the interest in-terest of the Socialist party in New York, Boston, Chicago and other cities On the occasion of his speech in Now York, Kier Hartlie was introduced intro-duced by the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Aked, pastor of the Rockefeller church. |