The " Blackleg."

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1908, Page 10

The " Blackleg."

■ ■«»■ j Some of the speakers at the Trades I Union Congress were furiously angry beI cause several thousands of poor wretches I of Englishmen have gone to Hamburg, j Bremen, Antwerp, and other Continental ports within the past year to help in breaking strikes. The strikers at Antwerp have been signifying their disapproval in tho usual manner. They look at the matter from their own point of view, and for this one can hardly blame them. But the British orators ougnt to know something about the facts of the- caso. They might then moderate their perfervid condemnation of the "blacklegs." > I have been a "blackleg" myself. A few days after Eastev last year, I found myself in Liverpool without a- copper in my pocket. I had tramped the streets ''for two nights, snatching a few hours' rest on the' 1 cold stones of the. dock road. J had been without fpod for over thirty hours. Several days before I had sold my good clothe 3 for a few shillings and some old rags. A fellow-unfortunate, with whom I had shared my laat remnant of tobacco, came up to mo early in the morning. He \vas keenly excited. The dolorous fraternity who sleep along the dock road are seldom excited about anything. "Comß along, maje, 1 * hi» said^'Thty're goin' Ao sign on, men. foi' Hamburg. Thirty-five bob a week; an' all .found." ' Of course I went. I had heard about' the strike, Even if I" had U^n tho most Convinced believer in^ the -doctrines of trade unionism, I would still havo gone. An empty stomach has- no conscience. You can hardly ■ expect a hungry, homeless man to display ail the virtues of the Christian martyr./ ' When wo got to the place, they wero "signing, on" we had to wait for hours in the pouring rain.' Then hundreds of us fqught like fiends to get in through the door when it was opened. Once inside, and through the ordeal pf engagement, wo had to gjve\ up a week's advance of > pay to the shipping master. What did w& cave? were now sure of food and shelter fdr a few weeks.. A day's waiting, then by train to Grimsby, and ship to Hamburg. I have expferianced, the Tough side of life for some years, but I never saw anything like the fight for food aboard that ship! " The arrangemnts were bad. Wo all scrambled together at the galley — four hundred q£\ us in two narrow alleyways— and -the stuff was handed out;, i.,lalehed at furiously, and fought over. Remember, we had been starving. One fellow took a platdful belonging to another nian— this was after ,fche, scramble v iiad ended. Bo'th/prompt-lyjM-Qpped jgity i ought for fifteen minutes. 1 Wa formed a ring for thorn. One man lay unconscious in a pool of blood at tho finish. , F<?od was an important question with »{.'', No one can ■ understand how important food is until he has gone withoiifc it" for jx time. ' Something over a year afterwards I was again in Liverpool. : There was another strike at Hamburg, and by a curious combination of circumstances I was placed in the position this time of assisting to engage many hundreds of English "blacklegs." Day after, day my old mates, who had worked. d6"w'n in the hold with me a year before, , passed by me; and I heard their stories. "Do you renxeifaber young Matty Doyle?" one of them asked me. "Hg had some selise. Got "back from Hamburg with £9, and went straight off to Canada. I had a letter from him tho other day. He's doin' fine. Savin' money., S&nt over for his young brother lart month. Germany did all right for him!" i "And how have you been getting on, mate?" "Oh, I've been stayin' in Liverpool an' gettm' odd jobs now and then. Sleeping along the dock road the last fo\v nights. I haven't had a good meal for a week. Well, I'll get plenty in Hamburg. They do iced you all right there." Another young fellow, whom I know well, was rejected by the, examining doctor. ' He was obviously unfit for hard woi'k. Months before. I had stood with him in a ring of men inside a wharfshed at Liverpool, to bo picked out for 4 day's work by a stevedore. We were both passed over. " Never, mind, I said to him, consol'nSly> for ho was almost in tears. "Thank God, we aifin't maiied!" "But I am»" h& repliod, "and I've got two kids." He was dying of consumption, due in part to sleeping on the dock road with an empty stomach. The "kids" and %vife \vere with the tatter's mother. What hdpo was there for him? The brutal stevedore had told him that he could not lift a s^ck of flour— that M was dying. ' ■ • Another lad, to mv perso-.al know-, ledge, had been sleeping out and begging his food for over- nine months at » stretch I could repeat ense after case, but it is needless. If the President 'of the Trades Union Congress had sat with me m that Liverpool office, and helped to engage "blacklegs" they might perhaps have arrived at a more intimate knowledge of fcho unemployed problem than they appear to possess at present. They would understand why British working men — many of them good workers — aro glad to earn Continental money, oven under the penalty of becoming pariahs among their kind. The moral and international aspects of the question do not particularly worry me, I have simply stated a few facts that may assist other people's judgment. ■^-"Blackleg," in tho Daily Mail.