| Summary |
MS 3222 mainly comprises handbills, leaflets and broadsides relating to anti-conscription and other specific issues in the socialist and labour movements. There is a small amount of correspondence, which includes letters from Tom Mann, Thomas Walsh and Adela Pankhurst Walsh, H.G. Holland, Henry E. Boote, Bernard O'Dowd, F.J. Riley, W.G. Higgs, Donald E. Fraser, William Webster, Maurice Blackburn and W. Maloney (1 box, 1 fol. box).
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| Biography/History |
Journalist, pacifist and socialist. Robert Samuel Ross was born in Sydney in 1873 and moved to Brisbane in 1885. Educated at state schools, he was apprenticed as a compositor. He married Ethel Slaughter in 1900 and in 1903 moved to Broken Hill as editor of the Barrier truth. Active in the union movement as a public speaker and writer, in 1908 Ross became secretary of the Victorian Socialist Party and editor of its journal The socialist. He was a prolific contributor to labour journals and in 1915-1924 had his own magazine, Ross’s monthly of protest, personality and progress. He was active in the left wing of the Australian Labor Party and in 1930-1931 was vice-president of the Victorian branch. Respected for his integrity, Ross became in 1925 a member of the Council of the University of Melbourne, in 1928 a trustee of the Public Library and in 1930 a commissioner of the State Savings Bank. Ross died in Melbourne in September 1931.
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