On Friday week a Labor demonstration, at which some thousands
of men attended, was held in the Market Square at Johannesburg. Resolutions were passed in favour of the ordinary measures in a Labour programme—adult suffrage, an eight-hour day, and the payment of Members—and a motion was carried affirming the white workers' uncompromising opposition to Chinese labour. So far we have no quarrel with the Transvaal Labour Party. The stronger and the better organised white labour is in the Colony the more we shall be pleased, for it is a valuable counteractive to other influences. But we greatly regret certain signs that the Transvaal Labour Party is prepared to.play the part of a Hal o' the Wynd in politics, fighting only for its own sectional interests. Mr. Ware, a member of the Town Council, made a speech in which he declared that his party would form no alliances, would rather be ruled by the Boers than by the magnates, and missed Mr. Kruger. If the last sentence means any- thing, it shows how little they realise the true facts of the case. We agree with Lord Milner that the Kruger regime was the true golden era for capitalism, and that the war was fought far more on behalf of the humble citizens than of the magnates. To regret a regime where they had no chance of obtaining rights, and to be prepared to make terms with a party who represent the antithesis of ordinary democratic ideals, is a course which will discredit them with serious people and cut at the root of their own vital interests.
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