KINGS IN CORDUROYS.

Mataura Ensign, 13 August 1909, Page 3

KINGS IN CORDUROYS.

WORKMEN WHO LED STRIKES. It, was on March 8, 101)7, that Franco had hor first experience or' tho power of "King" Pataud. On that night all Paris was suddenly plunged into darkness by a sudden and utterly unexpected strike of the electric-light workers. The post-offko work was so hindorod that next clay the mails were late all over the country, anil many newspapers tailed altogether to appear. Tho loss was enormous. It was put at two and a-half millions of francs, lu tho past two years Pataud, tlio man who organised this sudden strike, had cemented his power. He is tin. head of tho committee known as "The Secret Twelve/' and boasts that to-day ho can at a word plunge tho whole of Franco into the horrors of a national strike, and he has already proved what ho can do by the recent postal and telegraph strike. Pataud's career in some respects brings strongly to mind that of the notorious Sam Parks. Parks was originally an obscure Irish emigrant who went to the United States and became a railway brakesman. Thanks to a powerful pair of fists and a talent for organisation he became head of the Ironworkers' Union of Chicago. His first act was to order a strike for increased wages. The strike was successful, and Parks was sent for to Now York, whore he soon had all tho ironworkers out. They did not go back till their wages were raised from ten to eighteen shillings a day. Parks became Czar of the New York labor market. His income reached a fabulous sum, and for nine long years he remained dictator. He kept a gang of prize-fight-ers to hammer into submission anyone who op)u>sed his will. But there is a limit to this sort of thing. Tho employers at last, combined to Tesist him. He was put on trial for extortion and sent to the big convict prison at Sing •Sing. There fire years ago ho died. About the worst thing that can happen to a nation is n general railway strike. The worst railway strike of receiil years was that wliioli in Mar, 190.'!, naral.vsed Victoria, Australia. ' The leader was a man named Watson, and by his orders every enginedriver, guard, conductor and signalman went off duty. Business in Melbourne was paralysed, and within forty-eight hours many shops were shut and food had doubled in price. Hut Watson bad an opponent as clever as himself in the shape of the Minister of Railways, the Hon. T. Rent. Mr lient at once sent for the students and professors of the. Engineering Collego at Carlton and set them all-to driving engines. The strikers retaliated by piling great guui-lroo logs across the rails and placing bombs in the engines, but Bent was a match for them. He raised in a few hours a vast system of patrols. War to the knife lasted for a week. Then the strikers caved in.

The most amazing strike which tho twentieth century has yet seen was Chat of the. wine-growers in tho South of France. On tlic plea that the fiovernment had failed to st<i|> adulteration which was ruining their business no fewer than twelve hundred municipalities refused to pay taxea. The leading spirit of this amazing revolt, was Mareellin Albert, whom the strikers named "the redeemer." His intluenee at one time was something amazing, and it is one. of the strangest incidents in strike history how Albert's power vanished. After the battle with troops in which a number of rioters were killed the man's nerve suddenly failed and ho ran for I protection to M. Clctnenccau. Tlie Minister with amazing good sense, took no steps to punish hint.