The Worker January 1916
Source: The Worker, No. 2, 15, January 1916, p. 4, by A.H.;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
The “Daily Rake and Muck” has excelled even itself, and that is a decided achievement, as any one who knows the record of the Harmsworth Ha'pennyworth will readily confess. Having recovered his equilibrium after the New Year festivities, the brain-fevered individual who is responsible for adding a daily chapter to the Gospel, according to Ananias, planned a huge journalistic scoop, and the result was Monday’s mendacious outburst, “The Germans on the Clyde.” Of course, his arguments are unanswerable. Everybody knows that anyone who has the temerity to doubt the credentials of Lloyd George as the working man’s best friend, or who dares to suggest that compulsion spells conscription, is financed by German gold! Everybody knows that anyone who dares to class the Minister of Munitions in the category of “the fallen angels,” has been bribed by enemy spies, who are lurking in every conceivable corner seeking whom they may devour! If we had any doubt about it, that doubt is removed by the courageous confirmation of the “Daily Rake and Muck.” Knowing the absolute and unquestioning faith which the Clyde worker places upon every statement appearing in the organ of Liberalism in Scotland, it would be idle to seek to undermine his child-like simplicity. Now that the “D.R. & M” has rendered such signal service to the cause of truth by exposing the game of the Clyde malcontents, the fact that two convictions under the Defence of the Realm Act are already recorded against its fair name will be at once forgotten and forgiven. Along with Davey’s Trade Union Congress “Classic,” “The Germans on the Clyde will rank as a masterpiece. That its publication should syncronise with the birth of The Worker is probably not so much of a coincidence after all, when one reflects upon the possibilities of the situation! With visions of a dwindling circulation the Head of the Harmsworth Ha'pennyworth is naturally concerned about his own place in the sun, and the yellowish tint which is the trademark of the Northcliffe Press is reflected upon his countenance as he thinks of the limitless supply of German gold which is being diverted from its course into the pockets of the increasingly wealthy writers who will compose the staff of The Worker when the “Rake” is buried in the dust from which it came, and to which it should long ago have returned.
What I set out to say, however, was that as a “Press hireling,” whose pitiable privilege it is to push the pen to please the palates of the patriotic Prussian profit-mongers, I respectfully doff my hat to the Clyde workers. To me – and I know I am expressing the sentiments of thousands outside of the ranks of the munition workers – they are the very salt of the earth in these days of heathen darkness when the message of Parliament, Press, Pulpit and Pew is the Gospel of unadulterated hate. The vile wretches who are seeking to slander you through the editorial columns of capitalist organs are writing with the smug satisfaction and self-confidence of men who assured themselves that they were secured from military service before they attested.
Welcome to The Worker! “Guid gear’s in wee buik.” As trades unionists your first duty is to “keep the home fires burning.”
A.H.
Printed by the Socialist Labour Press, 50 Renfrew Street, Glasgow.