THE RENT STRIKE

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160794, 30 October 1920, Page 2

THE RENT STRIKE

' 300,000 MEN DEMONSTRATE. PROTEST MEETINGS. The one-day strike which had been announced in Scotland as a protest against increases sanctioned by the Rent Act, duly took place (says an English paper), but although over 300,000 people ceased work, enthusiasm for the cause was less than had been anticipated. Many meetings were held, and resolutions were passed refusing to pay the increases. In Glasgow also all the people stayed away from work to attend the demonstrations, and the Clyde shipyards, engineering shops, and other large establishments in the surrounding industrial districts were closed, and car services were suspended. Generally, however, the movement is reported to have fallen far short of the organisers' hopes, and in most places there appeared little enthusiasm. Industrial Edinburgh was practically at a standstill, although a number of trades had decided not to participate in the stoppage. Tramway and ’bus employees were among the strikers, but some of the branches of the railwaymen’s union, which had passed a strike resolution, thought better of it, and on the railways business was as usual. One or two extraordinary situations arose out of the affair. One prominent striker recently purchased a house, of which he was unable to obtain thS occupancy. He has, however, raised the tenant’s rent. The striker stated that ho was demonstrating against the Rent Act as a whole. Another member of the strike movement is a director of the leading cooperative society in the Eaat_. of Scotland, which possesses a large amount of tenement property in Edinburgh, In the raising of rents the directors have taken full advantage of the Act; nevertheless, this director was a notable participant in the demonstration. Throughout Midlothian, Haddingtonshire, and the Yale of Leven large numbers of workers attended similar demonstrations.