The Great Challenge

How it Came About. Not until late last week was it clear "what caused the strike" (TIME, May 10) in the sense that the assassination at Serajevo may be said to have "caused" the World War.

It appears that when the Government coal subsidy expired a fortnight ago, the Coal Owners' Mining Association pasted up notices which, in legal sense, were no more than offers of employment to miners at a reduced wage scale. The Coal Miners' Federation interpreted these "offers" as "lockout notices"--presumably on the theory that, since the miners had announced that they would not work for less than the wage in force under the subsidy, they were automatically "locked out" by the offer of a lesser wage. On this basis, the Miners' Federation ordered the "coal strike," as distinguished from the "general strike."

Meanwhile the British Trade Union Council announced plans for a "general strike," to take effect unless the owners "withdrew" their so-called "lockout" notices--the purport of the Council's manifesto being, of course, a threat to strike unless employment was offered to miners at a higher rate.

At this point the emotional tension was rising, and both workers and employers were exasperated by the attempts of their adversaries to put an interpretation on the "notices" which would win public sympathy to themselves. For the moment, however, Premier Baldwin was still so hopeful of a peaceable settlement that he personally wrote out a memorandum of suggested peace terms, and left it with the Labor leaders while he conferred in a nearby room with his Cabinet.

Into the Cabinet session was brought news that the printers employed by the Daily Mail had struck rather than print an anti-labor editorial (TIME, May 10), thus attacking a "right" which most Englishmen consider fundamental: "freedom of the press." The Cabinet decided, on the basis of such evidence as was at its disposal (naturally an unguessable quantity to outsiders), that this attack upon the freedom of the press had been made at the instigation or with the approval of the Trade Union Council. Upon this premise, a further decision was made and announced: that negotiations would not be resumed with the Labor leaders until they withdrew their general strike program.

The Cabinet then left its council room. The door was locked. When members of the Trade Union Council subsequently sought admission, "the lights were out and no one was within," according to the statement of J. H. Thomas, conservative and well-to-do Labor leader. Rebuffed, the Trade Union Council proceeded with the "general strike," denied that it had ordered the Daily Mail strike.

Muddling Through. So complete was the paralysis of the English press as a result of the general strike, that many London firms with branches in the U. S. were kept informed of what was happening in England by cablegrams from Manhattan summarizing the newspaper accounts published in the U. S.

The British Government issued an official four-page daily, the British Gazette, priced at a penny, and distributed at the rate of nearly a million copies daily. In the first issue of the Gazette, the public read:

"Constitutional Government is being attacked. Let all good citizens whose livelihood and labor have thus been put in peril bear with fortitude and patience the hardships with which they have been so suddenly confronted. Stand behind the Government, who are doing their part, confident that you will cooperate in the measures they have undertaken to preserve the liberties and privileges of the people of these islands.

"The laws of England are the people's birthright. The laws are in your keeping. You have made Parliament their guardian. The general strike is a challenge to Parliament, and is the road to anarchy and ruin.

[Signed] STANLEY BALDWIN."

Meanwhile the London Times ap peared as a mere leaflet, and other British newspapers did the same, or shut down entirely, or imported by airplane from Paris special edi tions published there in English.

With the virtual suspension of cross-channel boat service, the air plane became indeed virtually the only means of transport to or from the Continent. Even Edward of Wales, who possesses a very strong antipathy to air travel, returned from Biarritz by air, with two huge Admiralty seaplanes guarding the airplane in which he traveled, lounged, took his meals.

The great transatlantic liners were forced, in several instances, to embark and disembark their passengers at English ports solely with the aid of clerical employes of the steamship companies, who left their bookkeeping and ticket selling to do the work of longshoremen. The rail service be tween Southampton and London was so nearly suspended that transatlantic passengers made this 80-mile run in charabancs and busses.

Elsewhere, the rail service was sketchily maintained by volunteer crews. For example, John Armstrong Drexel,* son and heir of the late Philadelphia millionaire Anthony J. Drexel, donned overalls, drove the engine of "The Flying Scotsman," "crack train" between London and Edinburgh.

But the Government relied for the distribution of food and the mails upon the "O. M. S." (Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies) (TIME, Oct. 6), a sort "volunteer work-army" created months ago against just this emergency by such leading Conservatives as Lord Jellicoe,&3134; and directed by Postmaster General Sir William Mitchell-Thomson** in London, assisted by ten O. M. S. district commissioners at strategic points throughout the British Isles.

Thousands of motors cars and trucks were placed at the disposal of the O. M. S. by their owners and, in London, Hyde Park became a gigantic trucking and distribution centre. Since sufficient gasoline was on hand last week to last three months, it appeared that, barring violence, the O. M. S. would effectively prevent famine.

Violence. While "riots" were reported to have taken place at London, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Dundee, Glasgow and elsewhere, the astonishingly peaceable nature of these disturbances was well shown by a Government announcement late in the first week that so far only one man had been killed in the entire British Isles as a direct result of the strike. But as the second week opened, four railway trains operated by O. M. S. crews were derailed or wrecked near Berwick, Cambridge, Newcastle and Edinburgh respectively and seven deaths resulted. Later, a policeman was stabbed and another hit on the head with a hammer, at London, while ugly riots occurred at Edinburgh.

Such violence as had taken place was confined to the throwing of stones at the 2,000-odd trains which were run daily by volunteers; and to forcible interference with the running of some hundreds of the several hundred thousand supply trucks. No trains were wrecked by the strikers, and the overturning and wrecking of trucks by mobs was generally conducted in an almost orderly fashion, very few truck drivers or passengers being molested or beaten.

The Government wisely kept its armed forces in the background, except at strategic points, and there displayed them in overwhelming force and full war regalia. Late in the week for example three battalions, equipped with 16 armored cars and accompanied by several machine gun detachments, convoyed a two-mile-long procession of 104 trucks loaded with flour from the Victoria Docks, on the Thames, to the great Hyde Park distribution centre, eleven miles distant. Naturally there was no occasion for the firing of a single shot.

Justice. The ordinary machinery of British justice continued to grind. No attempt was made to arrest Labor leaders as such, but when Shapurji Saklatvala, only Communist M. P., famed because debarred last fall from the U. S. (TIME, Sept. 28, NATIONAL AFFAIRS), went to Hyde Park and made an unquestionably seditious speech, he was arrested and sentenced to serve two months in prison or give bond that he would keep the peace. He good-naturedly chose prison, saying to the magistrate: "I submit cheerfully to the position in which I stand, since it is mistakenly intended for the public good."

Politics. Debate in the House of Commons served to elucidate the immediate causes of the strike, to provide a forum. The Baldwin Government continued adamant in its position that peace negotiations could not be resumed until the Trade Union Council revoked its general strike order. The Laborites under Mr. Macdonald did their best to gain sympathy for the strikers by trying to show that it was the Government itself which had precipitated the strike by breaking off negotiations after the Daily Mail incident in a high-handed or panicky manner.

Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Thomas both declared that the Trade Union Council had accepted Mr. Baldwin's compromise plan and were trying to get the Coal Miners' Federation to accept it when the Cabinet "locked its door and turned out the lamp of justice." Premier Baldwin replied that he was "honestly not quite sure" whether or not the Trade Union Council had accepted his plan; but that anyhow the Daily Mail strike had "completely changed the whole situation." The Laborites vowed that they had known nothing of the Mail incident at the time, etc., etc.

From this heated but futile de bate, many M. P.'s turned with relief to an ice-calm* exposition of the strikers' position under British law, set forth dispassionately by Sir John Simon, a renowned legal authority, who, as one of the few remaining Liberals, stands politically midway between the contending forces. He said:

"When this disturbance is over and Parliament resumes its normal functions, it will be very necessary to appreciate that this general strike is not a strike at all. The resolution of the Trade Union Congress to call everybody out, regardless of contracts made by workmen, is not a lawful one.

"Every railwayman, for example, who went on strike in disregard of his contract is personally liable to be sued in the County Court for damages. Every trade union leader who advised or promoted this course of action is liable to damages to the uttermost farthing/- of his personal possessions. I feel it my duty, at whatever cost, to make that plain. . . .

"The day will come after the struggle is ended in the only way it can be ended, when an irritated, resentful and suffering public opinion will proclaim that we ought to make an immense invasion and inroad on the legitimate rights of organized labor. Should that reaction come, it will be the duty of Liberals to preserve and secure the legal rights of organized labor."

During the week, the Government maintained perfect control over its majority in the Commons. And great was its encouragement when the returns from a by-election for the Buckrose division of Yorkshire, showed that Major A. N. Brathwaite (Conservative) had won, receiving 12,089 votes, as opposed to 10,537 cast for Sir Harry Verney (Liberal) and only 2,191 for H. C. Laycock (Laborite).

The Strikers. The sensation of the week was the rejection by the British Trade Union Council of a "strike fund" check for 250,000 gold rubles ($125,000) despatched to it by the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions. At Amsterdam, however, the Netherlands Trade Union Congress voted 60,000 gulden ($24,250) for the same purpose, with every prospect of its being most gratefully accepted, and in France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Mexico, labor organizations manifested their sympathy for the British strikers by commendatory votes, scattered strikes, monetary contributions, or by taking steps to hamper essential exports to Britain. Unquestionably there was a faint manifestation of the much touted "world solidarity of labor," except from the U. S.

The British Trade Union Council directed its activities last week chiefly to strengthening the morale of the strikers, starting machinery for issuing "strike pay" to the five or six million men who had stopped work, and combating the Government's anti-strike propaganda. As an example of this last phase of activity, heated words were penned and printed upon both sides as to how many London subway trains were actually in operation. Government publicity gave the impression that the service approached normal, Labor publicity that it approached paralysis, and Londoners who experienced for themselves came to various conclusions.

Aristocracy. Edward of Wales and his brother Albert of York seated themselves in the Peers' Gallery of the House of Commons early in the week and heard George Buchanan (Laborite M. P.) remark pointedly: "I'm a Republican and I'd like to see the British throne abolished tomorrow!" Later two men were quietly arrested, convicted and sent to prison for having in their possession subversive literature which contained the statement: "The smiling Prince, it is understood, will be called out on strike by the Amalgamated Society of Foundation Stone Layers."

No other "demonstrations" against Royalty were reported, and the King's most widely bruited act was to cancel the two "Courts" which were to have inaugurated the "London season" in a few days. Numerous wives of potent U. S. magnates expressed vexation as they laid away court finery.

The aristocracy in general rallied to plebeian tasks, as in Wartime. The Duchess of Westminster, onetime actress, drove a truck from which she sold newspapers. The Viscountess Massareene piloted a vegetable lorry. The Duchess of Sutherland, Baroness Rollo, et al, similarly busied themselves.

Responsibility. As the tenth day of the general strike dawned, the following outstanding Britons seemed weighted with paramount responsibility:

Arthur Pugh, for many years a steelworker, now chairman of the Trade Union Council, represented the focus of the entire general strike. His chief strike lieutenants, outside his personal Tsardom (steel), were: A. J. Cook (Coal); J. H. Thomas (Railways); Ben Tillet (Docks).

Premier Baldwin and his Cabiinet represented the Government's phalanx against former Premier Macdonald and J. H. Thomas (Labor) and Lloyd George (Liberal). Mr. George heckled the Government at every turn, but ap peared to have become a relatively impotent political busybody.

The Archbishop of Canterbury proposed a quite impractical settlement on "Christian" lines, which the Government radio station refused to broadcast. Upon him devolved the responsibility of attempting to prevent the Church of England from being dragged into the acrimonious dispute which followed this action.

Sir Herbert Samuels, who chair-maned the Royal Coal Commission (TIME, May 10 et ante) made every effort to arrange a truce, last week, on the basis of his Commission's recommendation, and preserved jealously the high impartiality which alone may permit him to become an important factor in the settlement of the strike.

In the House of Commons, tense responsibility showed itself in increasingly acrimonious debate. Eventually such fighting Conservatives as Chancellor Churchill were denounced by Laborites in terms little short of insult, abuse.

The Lords, realizing that they could best uphold the constitutional solidarity of the state by refraining from an expression of Tory anti-strike sentiments, met for only a few minutes, last week, but accepted the suggestion of the Marquis of Salisbury that they should meet each Monday.

All men knew that but a three days' supply of bread was actually on hand in London. Though more bread could and would be brought, the knowledge that a three-day leeway was all the city possessed in the event of an embattled siege, hung like a sword over responsible heads in every quarter of the struggle.

* In 1910, seven months after he had flown for the first time, he set a world's altitude record: 6,750 ft. As a wartime aviator he dropped over a ton of bombs upon the German ammunition depot at Bruges, Belgium. He ia now a partner in the London brokerage firm of William P. Bonbright & Co.

/- John Rushworth Jellicoe was born in 1859, joined the British Navy 13 years later. Sir John Jellicoe commanded the British Grand Fleet (1914-1916), and while personally worshiped by British tars, was considered by some experts to have let the German fleet slip through his fingers at the battle of Jutland (1916). Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa became Admiral of the Fleet in 1919. In 1920 he was sent as Governor General and Commander-in-Chief to New Zealand, returning in 1924, to be created, in 1925 Viscount Brocas of Southampton and Earl Jellicoe.

** He was dubbed "Dictator of Britain" after receiving last week the title "Chief Civil Service Commissioner" under the Emergency Power Act of 1920, which was recently invoked by the King (TIME, May to give the Government power to deal with the situation.

* This figure was ridiculed by strike protagonists, who claimed that it represented "the number of trains run multiplied by the number of stations through which they passed." The strikers also claimed that in several instances O. M. S. engineers blew the cylinder heads off their locomotives by turning on too much steam when attempting to start them.

* Sir John, when roused, is not to bo trifled with. In 1917, at the age of 44, he doffed the stay-at-home security of a cabinet minister (Attorney General, 1913-15; Secretary of State for Home Affairs, 1915-16), and, hopping into a major's uniform, rushed off to serve with the British Royal Air Force in France until the War ended. His prestige is almost equally high among all parties and kinds of Britishers.

* A farthing equals one-fourth of an English penny or half a U. S. cent.