Suicide Strike

A thousand feet under the Mecsek hills near Pecs, 1,200 miners picked wearily last week at the poor coal that is Hungary's best. On the railroad sidings above were 15,000 unsold carloads of their low-grade handiwork. The mine owner, Danube Steam Navigation Co., largely British-owned, had done its best to spread work, a few hours a day per man. But that came to only $2 a week. These Magyar miners and their families were starving. It had come to the point last week where their mouths watered at sight of the fat little pit ponies, sweating in the lamplight. Up from the mine they suddenly sent an ultimatum: either the owners raise their pay to $3.50 a week or they would have one good dinner on the ponies and then smash the ventilators. Death by suffocation they preferred to death by slow starvation. The owners replied: "Come out first; argue afterward." The men replied by returning all food and water sent them. Fire broke out in the mines. The Pecs Fire Department rushed in, hosed it out. The miners insisted the firemen stay down below. After three days, Hungary's bull-necked Premier Julius Goemboes sent five trade unionists down into the pit to say: "Come up within 30 minutes." Thereupon the miners added the trade unionists to their collection of hostages. Finally, after five days of the strike, the owners agreed to raise the miners' wages. Back to daylight were hauled the workers --famished, half-mad, near death.

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