Obituaries Australia

The death of Mr. Ben Tillett at the age of 83 years removes from the International Labor stage an historic and colorful figure.

It was way back in 1889 that Tillet came into the front line in Labor leaderhip. In that year the English Dockers' Union, of which he became secretary and organiser, challenged the slavish conditions under which they had to toil and severely subsist.

It was a violent struggle that was fought with bitterness by the dock employers on the one hand and their enslaved employees on the other.

So appalling were the conditions of these men, however, that they brought to the side of the dockers many influential elements in Britain and the greatest of all trade union struggles of the eighteenth century ended with victory after defeat seemed inevitable.

Two other leading figures in that hectic struggle were Cardinal Manning and Tom Mann, both of whom are dead. Tom Mann became the leading figure in the lockout in Broken Hill in 1909.

And Ben Tlllett's pleading eloquence held one of Broken Hill's greatest gatherings when on June 5, 1908, he laid the foundation stone of our own Trades Hall.

Ben Tillett was trade union leader and Labor politician for decades. His name will live in the history of the trades union movement for the part he played and punch he gave in the great struggles that in Britain in the years 1888 to the end of that century meant so much to the trades union movement which he continued to serve for many more years.

Ben Tillett was an able speaker and organiser. He lived to a great age for one who used up so much energy in a life that was packed with struggles, troubles, and excitement.

He has gone from the stage, leaving memories of his part in the movement when it was weak and struggling for a footing— struggling for recognition and power.