Life Of John Burns

F JOHN BURNS, the English social, ist, who is visiting America at present, ' the New York World says: It was in 1889 that Mr. i Burns referred to American worümen as "boasters and bluffers," because they did not re spond with cash to help sustain the great strike of the London dockmeu of that year. This characterization created some feeling at the time among the American leaders, tmt it has obviously been forgotten. The gTowth of John Burns toward prominence in the ranks of labor reformers, or, as many are pleased toterm them, "human emancipa tors," has been so phenomenal, and j he is to-day so universally accepted as the champion of all labor champions, that there will be little disposition to look backward for criticism of his past condnct or utterances. No long-er ago than the early of the present year Mr. Uurns at that time, and now member of paiiiament, agitated in the house of commons the adoption of a bilí to put a gag upon what he called "statesmanship by prosecuting agency." He had found at that time nothing is more inconvenient to an up-to-date statesman than to be confronted with the immature and violent statements of his earlier years. It must be admitted, however, that, considering the wonderfully rapid rise which John Burns has made in the world, he has but few bogies of the past with which to be menaced. His life has been and is thoroughly consistent in the main. He h;i ;, to be sure, as one step in 1 i progress toward fame as an emancipator followed another, improved suoh occasions by bettering his temporal condition and physical surroundings. He has not feit that it was necessary to live immediately among the toilers in a cheap teneinent to be of them, but the pregnant question may be asked, What succes&ful ref ormer ever did consider it necessary? In 1885 he became prominent as socialistic candidate for the representation of West Nottingham in the London county council. He was at that time 27 years old and was an engineer by trade. He had been born in the populous and typically "labor" district of Battersea, and had only been absent f rom "old Lunnon" for a eouple of years, during which he sought to better his worldly condition by serving as foreman engineer in a mechanical enterprise on the coast of África. He returned to Lorulon íull of strength and vigor, together with some pronounced ideas on socialism, which he had gathered by contact with French and Germán socialists. He was ahvays a fluent speaker and a man of eornmanding appearance, with a strong personality. Hewasalso, fortuj nately. addieted to no bad habits. The following description of John Burns, printed reluctantly by an organ of the tory press after the conspicuous part he played in the London riots of 1886, holdsgood of hhn to-day: "He is a ! burly, square-faced, muscular man of middlo height. He has coa! black hair, mnstiiche and beard, keen black eyes, high cheek bones, and an intelli gent forehead. He looks every inch what he is - a man of stem and resolute stuff, strong in will and physique. i He has a voice of enormous power and, j standing on Nelson column, can make it ring through Trafalgar square. He is a vigorous and fearless speaker, and unquestionably conscientious and sincere." For the part he took in those riots of 3 880 he was buffeted by the pólice and arrested. Just three years later all London saw 100,000 dock laborers marehing, imposingly but peaeefully, from the east end to the city and back, with the pólice clearing a way for them asthough it had been a lord mayor's procession. It was a pageant dcsigned to show the strength of organized labor in London, and John Burns was the head of it. The pólice saluted Burns and the people of the greatest city on the globe were easy in mind- in spite of the fact that the public demonstration was in connection with a g-igantic strike still in progress- at the consciousness that over the councils of the unernployed such a man as John Burns presided. Since this demonstraron of 18S9 the upward progress of the engineer socialist and statesman has been constant. Not only has he been honored with a place in the British parliament, but he has twice been asked to fill a cabinet position. Gladstone recognized his genius and power for good, and talnng him by the hand on one occasloi. said: "We have both been hard workers, Mr. Burns, and I hope you. may live many years to put your principáis into practice." It is as a "municipal reformer" that Mr. Burns is best knowi in London, but what he and those associated with him have accomplished in that direction would scarcely be, il described in detail, appreeiated by the people of New York,for entirely diffen ent are the conditions obtaining here and there. It is with the broader and more general views of the man thal public opinión in this country wil] have to do. He has beer. characterized as representing all stages, from the mildest form of socialism to the most rampant species of anarchy. That hi public utterances will have great and unusual weight with the workingmen of this country is inevitable. It is as suring, therefore, to be able to an nounce that with such movements aa were representedby the Coxey crusada of last spring Mr. Burns is not in sympathy. He has declared himself as not professing to believe in any immediate general revolution or overturning of the existing order of things. In this he differs essentially from the socialists of France or Germany, whatever may have been his earlier views on the subject. He places his faith solely upon trades unions, and advocates gradual steps toward ascendancj by the laboring classes in the privilege of governmental rule.