Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-11
Striving to Stir Up an Uprising Among the
Thousands Clamoring For Bread or
the Right to Work.
STONEcHs TOO EMPTY TO FIGHT.
A Couple Of Hundred Hunger-Pinchsd unfortunstes
Succeed in Causing Large-sized Scare
Among the Police.
TIE SITUATION Is MOST DESPERATE
BY CABLE TO THE p1sPATcH.1

LONDON, Jan. 1O-L Copyright THE
rigorous weather still continues, and the
distress among the working classes, caused
BY seven weeks of frost and snow, has as
Eumed terrible proportions. In London
alone, it is believed, there are nearly 2Oo,-
600 men without work, and every city in
the kingdom reports proportionate num-
Der. Most of the local authorities have
lsmentably failed in their duty toward the
suffering poor, and private charity. al
though given everywhere in generous m sas-
ure, has proved sadly inadequate, owing to
the tremendous magnitude OF the evil. The
Socialist agitators never had more prom
Using material for their purposes, and they
tent.
The Government has received informa-
tiOn which proves that agitators have for
weeks past been busily engaged among the
poor people, inciting them to violence.
Starving men are told of abundance, wealth
and luxury in the West End, and are
urged to seize forcibly that which they
would never obtain by quIescent suffering.
The Governing Powers Alarmed.
The agitators have not so far met with
much success, partly on account OF the in
herent orderliuess of the British workmen,
and partly because there is not one among
these sinister mentors who has had the
courage to risk broken slC1, by heading
the westward march. But the powers that
be are undeniably alarmed and are quietly
taking elaborate precautions for the preser-
vation of the public peace
They have never quite recovered from the
panic into which they were thrown few
years ago, when a mob marched from Traf-
slgar square along the West End thorough
fares, smashing and Iooting for full hour
almost without hindrance. Such an oppor-
tunity is not likely to be given again to the
revolutionists.
At the present moment soldiers and police
men could be massed in great force at any
threatened point, within five minutes of the
hrst alarm, and a knowledge Of this fact ex-
plains the cowardice of the agitators. This
afternoon the alarm reached police head
quarters that a mob was marching upon
Northumberland avenue and Pail Mall.
with the avowed intention of looting the big
hotels and the aristocratic clubs
No Stomach for Fight.
The warning was Immediately sent to ST.
Georges Barracks, hard by Trafalgar
square, and the police reserves were sum-
mcned by telegraph from all parts of the
metropolis. A mob of about 200 tattered
hunger-pinched men actually did march
along the Thames embankment, but their
stomachs were too empty for fight. They
advanced as far as the Savoy Hotel, and
there, catching sight of a strong body of DO
lice, promptly followed the example Of their
leader, well-known revolutionary spouter.
and bolted into space
Chief Commissioner Bradford is much
gratihed at this incident. as he claims that
it gave proof of the efficacy OF his plans.
But your correspondent has ascertained that.
IN order thus to ensure the safety of central
London, the wealthy resident suburbs must,
upon every similar alarm, be almost denuded
OF police. If Londoners generally should
become aware Of this there would be wide
spread alarm and probably panic, and it is
beyond doubt that if the reTolutionists pos
sessed courage aud generalship they could
do incalculable damage before troops or DO
lice could reach them.
They Don't Intend to Starve.
This afternoon there have been scores of
meetings OF the unemployed, and careful
organization is proved by the presence at
each OF at least one Socialist orator. Flags
and revolutionary emblems were plenty.
and each meeting gathered round a banner
bearing this inscription:
I'VE demand the right to labor, and don't
intend TO starve."
The distress in some provincial towLs is
said TO be greater than in London, and not
inirequently aggravated by peculiar local
circumstances. At Newcastle-on-Tyne, for
instance, there are said to be flour miles of
underground dwellings, with dripping wet
walls, places into which the light never
comes except when filtered through a dark
medium, in which live workingmen and
their families" If the British working
men made Of their troubles a political
question, they would doubtless obtain
prompt and generous help, judged by what
is occurring in Ireland