LABOUR WORLD.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17666, 19 January 1923, Page 10

LABOUR WORLD.

TROUBLE IN ARKANSAS. ALLEGED SABOTAGE BY STEIKEES. 'B-? CABLE i-TEiiS A33OUATIOX—COrTSIOHT.) v AUST2ALrAK AI.D N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 13th. S.JS p.in.) NEW YORK.. January 17. The Governor or" Arkansas ordered a company of troops v> restore order at Harrison, but the Sheriff telegraphed, asking tor the recall of the sddiers, declaring that ho was able- to restore order. Meanwhile, two striker? were quickly convicted of arson and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. They confessed to the burning of two railroad bridges. T'hie sheriff spirited thtm. away. In another town a so-called Citizens' Committee examined the strikers and their friends. A daughter of an alleged strike sympathiser fired upon a crowd which was leading her father to the Court, but no one- was injured. She was arrested. Many strikers left the town in fear of their lives.

The Mayor of Harrison, who supplied a bond for a striker charged with sabotage, was threatened with a whipping and ordered to resign, but he refused. The strikers have appealed to the Governor for protection, declaring that their lives are not safe.

The State Senate approved a resolution ordering an investigation. The Citizens' Committee has asked ike Federal Court to call a. special sitting of the Grand Jury to investigate tho alleged sabotage. [A previous message said: At Harrison, Arkansas, angered by recent safoqtage in connexion with a local railway strike, a mob of citizens descended on the home of a striker named) McGregor, who fled amid a hail of. bullets. Later, McGregor's body was found hanging to a trestle The mob seized another man, who had supplied bail for strikers charged with sabotage, and whipped him.] AMERICAN MINE WORKERS. MOSCOW INTEENATIONAL CONDEMNED. (Eeceived January 18th, 11.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 17.

The United Mine Workers of America have announced a policy condemning the Moscow Inflernatinoal and its attempt to destroy tho American legitimate Labour movement, and substitute therefor the principles of Bolshevism. "Impatient resentment against social wrongs may prompt wild attempts at the abolition of Capitalism, but it remains for the Trade Union movement to continue its own work." A PAEDON EOE JAMES LAEEIN. (Eeceived January 18th, 11.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 17. A telegram from Albany says tho Governor of New York State, the Hon. A. Smith, has pardoned Jim Larkin, who was convicted in 1920 on a charge of criminal anarchy by having advocated the dictatorship of the proletariat. Tho Governor said tho pardon was granted, not because he subscribed to Larkin's views, but because those views did not constitute or advocate anarchy, but merely a new and radically different form of organised government. [James Larkin was prominently connected with tho Irish transport workers' strike before the war. He also took part in the Easter rebellion in Dublin in 1916.]

NEW SOUTH WALES MINERS. THE WAGE QTTESTION.. (AUSTRALIAN AHD If.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) SYT>NEY, January 13. The Coal Tribunal refused tho application by Mr Baddeley for the dismissal of the owners' claims for a reduction in the wages of miners. [Sir Baddeley, president of tho Coal Miners' Union, at a meeting of the Coal Tribunal, threatened a miners' general btriko unless the proprietors placed complete information respecting their profits before the Tribunal.] Later. At the meeting of the Coal Tribunal, to-day the employers' representatives claimed that the export trade had been killed by stoppages and strikes in the mines. It was mentioned that there had been 1,700 strikes in the coal industry during the past twelve months. Unless there was a reduction of wages in the western district tho mines would havo to close.

The miners' representatives, replying to the owners' arguments for a reduction in wages, said there were far too many people employed in the coal industry. One thousand local miners were idle, and the employers were continually bringing in new men, including new British arrivals.