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Show I C"; English Labor Leader Who Advocates Vio- lence in Formation of Gigantic Union to Embrace Wo r 1 d utf Workers Defends Views andSaysWork-ingmen andSaysWork-ingmen Eventually "Z Will Embrace Syndicalism. Syndi-calism. BY WILLIAM BUTLER FLYNN. SA strongo story Is that of Tom Mann, the English labor leader, syn dicalist, agitator and bitter enemy j of what ho calls the governing class jy of the present day. His rise to be virtually the head of the greatest labor union known, t i the International Transport Work ers' Federation, la the result of a fire In a mine, which drove him to - the factories. Had It not been for this fire, from which he barely escaped with his life, Tom Mann. In all probability, now would be digging coal hundreds H of feet below the surface of the earth, with no thoughts except of jii his work. Instead of being the Btur- P dy. fighting man that he Is. he prob ably would be stoop shouldered and ... worn with years of Incessant toil with the pick, his spirit broken and ', his health ruined by the closo con- flnement under ground. 5 It happened when he was but 14 years old, this fire, and already ho hnd been In the mine four years, working as a breaker boy. In two years more he would have graduated ?f to the rank of helper, and then he p would have become a full-fledged miner. 00 Tom Mann was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, to years " ago, tho son of a colliery clerk. Fol lowing the custom In thoso days for the children of the lower classes ff he was allowed to run loose until big enough to work. Then he was L caught and turned over to a farmer. He was 8 years old then. He worked on the farm two vears, doing do-ing all the usual chores of a farmer's farm-er's boy. and he believes It was the hardest period of his life Cut ho finally got relief, for when ho reached the ago of 10 his father dc-glf dc-glf elded that he was too strong to . waste on Idle farming and brought ! him to the mine. ' Bronzed and strong, for n boy, after the farm work, ho went down I the shaft for the first time, and then, for four years, every day ho did tho same thing, working ten hours day, sometimes more, except when the mine was closed for repairs. It Wasn't very pleasant, and he used to sl.i-grr home Ht night with his hands cut and torn from the rough shale, and his body black and bluw with the blows dealt hlin !y some of tho miners who were not catlsflcd ith hla work But It was all h" he knew, and he was as well sntls-fieed sntls-fieed as tho son of a millionaire Is with his own golden spoon. Came tho fire. Younc Mann was in the workings when tho first explosions ex-plosions came. Before he realized what was thn trouble he found himself him-self In the center of a screaming, flying pack of frenzied men, all mak- Ing for the shaft, where the cage, holding nine men. was being worked as fast as the engineer above could manage. In 1SS9 tho London dock workers work-ers struck, in one of the worst riots known up to that time. John Burns, a famous labor leader, and young Mann, were Inevitably drawn into the trouble, and when tne strike was settled, Mann found himself committed lnovltaMy to tho cause of tho workers. Immediately Imme-diately he set about organizing the International Transport Workers' Federation. Since that time he has traveled In every European countsy except Italy. Portugal. Russia. Greece, and the Balkans, and has organized the-trnnsport the-trnnsport worker-. Ho has been arrested and expelled from Qer- man) and France, and served lime In an English Jail. Is Sentimental Uthough :i Fighter. In spite of his lighting nature Mann has a sentimental side. Fre-iiuontly Fre-iiuontly ho visits the mine where ho worked when a little boy and stands there for hours at a time thinking of "my men," as he calls tho workers. work-ers. Mann is determined in his ideas and dogged In his advocation of them. Ho never will yield a point, and has the courage of his convictions convic-tions as in lj years he has steadily stead-ily advocated the same course of action, the eventual control of tho entire world by the working class, everything being made subservient i their wishes. He is an avowed enemy of the present system of government, oven Hie democracy of England, Canada and the United States being ununited un-united to a proper government of. by and for the people, to his mind. He. however, has fallen into the common mistake nf the Socialists and Syndicalists, for while ho advocates advo-cates a change along certain lines, and would overturn tho existing governments In a radical manner, lie cannot say where his principles will lead the world, and cannot offer of-fer a substitute for the governments. govern-ments. He believes that all that Is necessary neces-sary Is the change, and that after that comes all things automatically will readjust themselves. To gain his point he says he would resort to anything. "Tho end Justl-lles Justl-lles the means," sums up his syndicalist syndi-calist philosophy. Where peaceful measures can obtain what the workers want." declares de-clares Mann to tho unions he addresses, ad-dresses, "then by all means let peaceful measures prevail. But - F1VK R08ES OF TOM MAW. where peace falls and there must be war, let it come, and In whatever form is most likely to defeat tho capitalist class." Mann points to Ireland as an example ex-ample of direct notion. He says that the countless concessions which the Irish Pave regained for their nation from England in the last century have been the result of direct action only, and that If the Irish had not taken up arms, had not openly rebelled re-belled through the entire country and fought against the slavery to which they were subjected that England never would have granted them anything His cream Is of one vast, united labor federation, which shall own and control the entire world. Tlu-re shall be no governments, and the unions shall settle their disputes among themselves, man to man. union to union. If fights, een battles, bat-tles, be necessary, he says. ;et them come, but by all means let the workers work-ers do Just as they please. Slann believes the establishment of any centralized form of government govern-ment tends to form a governing class, and fears that If such a government gov-ernment were given worker In hJs Utopia, tho unions eventually would lse their power and be.'omc as bud-1 bud-1 off as they now are. lie Intense' J admires the militant suffragettes, and declares that they are giving the English Government Just what the government needs. He is an intimate friend of Emmeline and Ohrislobal Pankhurst. and when Dr. Pankhurst was alive often visited at their house. He tells a ston of ChristobaJ's actions when she was a Utile girl which sheds a little lieht on that young woman's wM career of today. Miss l'ank hurst Props Snake Down His Back. "When 1 was playing with ""hrls-tobal ""hrls-tobal one day." he said, "she slipped around behind me and 1 felt something some-thing cold and clammy wriggling II down my back. I was frightened jfl nearly to death, and I made one LH wild dash for my room. H " n disrobing I discovered a gar- M 6en snake, whJ h that young lady H had dropped down between my neck and collar. I don't remember If she H waj spanked- but I believe that was ifl her punishment. She was 14 years H Mann Is a typical Englishman. jM He is stubborn :in'' determined'. He niakes his hearer remember the old LH Englishmen who left the Warwick-shire Warwick-shire marshes to follow K J:.-hard i 'ieur de Ixon to the Holy Land, or the archers-who made up the army jH of the Black Prime in France, or , IH the stern Roundheads who fought I H behind Cromwell. They may not al- I ways have been right, but they be- lleved they Wer and wen! ahead I firm in the conviction that with that f -fci"'- belief they would never fall. Time Jaaaaai alone will tell If Mann will succeed Jbbbbbb! His reception in the United States. vfliaaaal Tvhile enthusiastic, has been marked iWaaaaal by a decided aversion to his Ideas ,LH about lob-nv. ind In St. Louis the Saaaaaa labor union lenders harshly de- nuunccd his utterances. ''vmm?'M'LtT ' -aaaaaaaaS. J |