BRITISH STRIKES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 216, 19 September 1911, Page 2

BRITISH STRIKES.

HOW THE MOB RULED LONDON

SOME CONTRASTS

An interesting impression of the condition of London on August 11, when the last mail left, appeared in the Daily Mail, from the pen of Mr Charles E. Hands: —

1 wer-t about London yesterday, wrote Mr Hands, and was reminded by the aspect of the town' and the attitude of the strikers not so much of the so-called great, dock strike in London in 1889 as of another strike —that in St. Petersburg six years ago, which was organised for political purposes, and ended by the sabring of the strikers on the, memorable Red Sunday that reddened the w>w in front of the Winter Palace.

The contrast between what I saw yesterday and what I recall of the dockers' strike of two and twenty years ago was startling. Public sympathy then was almost entirely ■on the side of the men. They were striking for their "tanner1' an hour, and in the opinion of most people- it

1 was a reasonable demand that ougkt ito be conceded. The point at issue i which prolonged the strike was not Sso much the "tanner" itself as the refusal of the dock companies to recognise the men's unions or to treat with their leaders. There, # again, for the most part public opinion was ion the side of the men. The stnk- ! ers, hungry, ragged, miserable as they i marched" through the City and the j East End were a shuddering revelation io most people of the horrors of East End poverty. People of all j classes cheered tthem as they went by and handed contributions of gold, silver, and copwer, according to their means to the broad-shouldered, bearded man in a straw hat who marched at their head with a satchel slung over his shoulder. T. ha* waf the present President of the Local GovernmentJßoard. Their cause was lust and reasonable, and their leader —"Jack" Burns, as he was then called—had honesty stamped upon his countenance. He voiced and explained and argued the case for the "tanner" with convincing clearness and sincerity, and no one doubted that every halfpenny that _ went into the satchel-bag he jingled would be faithfully applied to the relief of the men's necessities and the furtherance of their legitimate cause. STRANGE SILENT CITY. There was a:strange and frightening silence in the city yesterday. Few omnibuses were running and vans and lorries were almost entirely absent. On Tower Hill, where ordinarily it is almost impossible to hear oneself speak for the rattle of horses' hoofs and heavy waggon wheels over granite blocks, scarcely a sound was td be heard but the speaker's voice and the murmuring talk of the crowd. All the movement and rattle of the distribution of commodities had died away. The threat had been made good and the trade of London had been paralysed. In the Minories a ragged procession of men, women, and children following a carmen's banner jeered hoarsely at a passing motor-fear and at the people looking out from work-room windows. In the districts off the Commercial Road , and the Mile End Road groups 9? sullen men lourged at street ;corners. About the dock entrances pickets; were waiting, but as no work- "was, being done or attempted neither they_ nor the dock policemen on guard within the grates had anything to do. Within St. Katharine's Dock three yellow: ice waggons were standing horseless.; They had been loaded with ice in the morning, when an endeavor to, bring them out had been frustrated by the strikers in the presence of'the police. Since seven o'clock in tho morniug they' had been standing in the sunshine, and the ice had dripped away uselessly in tho hoat that demanded ife employment Tho Tower Bridge had ceased its function of 'carrying merchandise across the river. Under its shadow Jay a pleasure steamer, the Koh-i----noor, unable to make its journey for lack of coal. Not far away another pleasure steamer, the Royal Sovereign, lay idle from- the same cause. Across the river an angry mob Avas gathered about the gates of Courage's Brewery to block any attempt to bring out the drays. I was unable to discover any' labor leader here. Apparently the mob gathered there found delight in the thought that they inflicting upon London a deprivation pf beer. Another mob in a neighboring street were blockading a mineral water factory. These manifestations wore part of the carters' strike, I was informed, but among the mob there were few who ha d the appearance of carters. NEW STRIKE MOTIVE. The strike is full of incomprehensible and contradictory features. The Port <of London Authority's workmen, who are regularly employed at good .wages' with • pensions: in prospect, have been s ordered to strike by their leaders, but do not want to strike. But they are prevented from working by thtv compulsion of gangs of- loafers. The supposed purpose of a strike is to better the standard of the laborers' life, to regularise liis employment, and to raise his pay. But the&e men of the regular staff of tho Port Authority are ordered out apparently because the improved conditions of their employment make them disinclined to strike. The object of the strike order in their case is not to improve thedr iot, ; but to injure the .community, to '"paralyse" the trade of London. Overlooking Tower Hill is the office of the* lightermen's trade union. Here the strike leaders sit and order strikes which they are unable to stop or to control. Their orders to strike are enforced/ by the violence of the street-corner mobs. By the force of that violence they can hinder the distribution of commodities. Here men, smoking rank tobacco, talk smugly of their sincere regret that it should be necessary for the general gcod to throttle the food supply of London. To this office the soat of government has been transferred from Westminster. All day and down' the stairs pass suppliants for the favor of being permitted to transport through the public streets the necessaries of London's daily life. They go away disappointed for the most part. The "government" regrets that it cannot permit anything in the nature of business to be carried on. It has decreed that from to-day no fresh permits for the transport of food or materials shall be issued. It is easier for them to refuse permits than to make them effective. The mob they have aroused can be relied upon to overturn waggons and pull willing drivers from their seat®, but not to honor the passports they issue unless ;the poiice enforce them. The other Government is not governing. The police finger their batons, hut except in cases, of actual violence have no orders to interfere. The petitioners come lobbying to the seat of authority like- the burgesses of a captured city to the office of tho provost-marshal of a conquering in- ; vader. Tho recognised responsible • Labor leaders of the skilled trades , have no place in. this outbreak that !is dominated by the mob. Mr Henderson, Mr ShacHeton, and Mr Ramsay Macdoriald have no seat at the board of government. They could j have no authority with-a mob that is i defiance to 'all authority.