STRIKE SCENES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13671, 9 April 1908, Page 7

STRIKE SCENES.

'HORRORS OF INDTJ.SI'RIAL WAR. DISTRESS IN SHIPBUILDING ; 'JTRADK j . f The struggle in connection with the r shipbuilding ind.usfcrsf. ip,ti^r«a^«BT^tain I supplies isome shocking illustrations of the horrors of industrial war. The '■ trouble arose through a Serious, shqrtngs of orders. The employers/ finding that work wSs 1 fecaft^ana-'that profits were decreasing, proceeded; to rpthice the number of the hands. Then they demanded that the remaining etnployc>os. should accopt. reductions in wages, and when tho men refuspp to agree a. general lock-out was .comnwoccsd, many of the yards being closed jlown altoget!ieV. Starvation faced .hundreds ,• of ta mi lies at once. '* '/ "Thousands ofrifeut, wplrien and children are literally 'starving* ih'SuudcrKnd to-day," wrote a correspondent of the Daily -Express on IFoDruary 171 "Many families are livhtg'on. the pciiniqa earned by children who sell papers and matches in tlie streets. Last night 1 was taken into a ono^pomed home; whore some of the furniture, had been sold, all the little articles lia.wncd.,J<he. week's 'relief food eaten, 'and no food lemained. In ono biro attic a man and wife sat with a bit of bread for Sunday. In another one-robined. home- a •woman lay in bed 'with her week-old baby. The husband sat by the fire with, lour little ones round ,him. TJiero was not a scrap of any kind of food in the place. For three. days 'afti^r the baby was born tlie mother hajd only tea and, (hits of bread. which he^ neighbours gave k her. There was one bed for tho man •and 4r jfe and tfive children, lit another one-roomed home a man and- wife and eight children -were packed. They were Jiving. on, 'the tickets*— -three shillings' ■w'o.rtbv of food- a' week, in most oases? on*Jy»,two tieketsfare nivnU tO a family — stwo shillings' worth- of food for.jsevea days. What do ..they paY In another home a r weeping Woman held in her arms a dying chikl. The workles# father liad boon scni> to yaol for tho crime, of theft. The rejlt of the? little family sat, round 'the fire, iritofttly' add' sorrowfully watching the youngest dte." - ■ " " ' It was estimated that there were at least 10,000 men out of employment in Sunderland »»loure r *Bd the-.-trouble extended to tho whole nos:lin€uis,t. coast. Authority was v asipring. ' ,tho, iven,,«o vitally concerned 1 that their position was. the result of unavoidable natural conditions, but' "the assurance" could bring no comfort, to", $hpii' t btarving bodies and broken jjgftrtst _