Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-01
REDS AND YELL0WS
The First Are Union and the
Others Are SCabs
IN FRENCH COAL MINES
BOTH BRANCHES ARE FULLY Or
CANNED AND ARMED.
A Curious Development of the Great
General Strike-Interests
Involved.
IN FRENCH COAL MINES
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.


500 strikers howled out threats and curses
at them. This was all they did, for each
"scab" was protected by three soldiers,
who accompanied them in groups to their
homes in the nearby villages of Haveluy
and Walters
The same night the strikers patrols"
passed through Haveluy and Walters. There
were no soldiers present to protect the
"scabs"-or, as l shall call them hence
forth, the "yellows''-in their houses. The
patrols cried out their principles, cursed all
false brothers and heaved broken bricks
and stones and clods of dirt through vel
low windows
Behind these windows a strange sight
might have been seen, had not the cottages
been darkened. Each was barricaded and
contained a little garrison of six or eight
determined ''yellows' armed with
modelled army rifles and revolvers. When
the strikers patrols had passed, they slept,
to be fresh for their work next morning
The coal companies allow them for the
sleeping time they may thus lose protect
ing themselves and the rights of individuals
to work at will.
Valenciennes-like Haveluy and Walters
and all the towns of this regions placard
ed with announcements of two very differ
ent characters. These are:
"a The strikers proclamations and
C2l The proclamations of the "yeIlows."
These proclamations-and the facts that
stand behind them-show a very strange
development of the great general strike
that has been so much threatened and
feared in France for two years past. Here
we are, at last, in the midst of it; yet the
coal company of Amin, for example, where
the strike is supposed to be typcally sue
cessful, reports 2,2S3 yellow workers to
s,33S strikers. In other mines the proper
ton Of ''yellows' is still greater. From
the Pas-de-Calais region, and from the
mines of central France the same news
81 ami n
and armed; their central syndicate in Paris
is as active as that of the strikers, and new
recruits. ready to work, hasten to enroll
themselves from out the unemployed of
every section.
This is the latest phase of the great labor
union question in the land of France-the
land Of new ideas, where things originate
and are tried for the rest of the world.
Yellowtsm. may come to solve or COM
picate with bloody strife, the already
complicated labor union problem. yellow
ism means the organization of all "scabs'
that Is, Independent individual workmen-
against the labor unions of country
Where Fellows Rule.
In both the coal regions of the north and
the center Of France. the yellows are parti-
cularly strong. Here, around about Va
lenciennes, their ''syndicats" Cor local
unions) are as highly organized as are
those Of the striking labor unions They
are directed by energetic men. who have
not feared to placard the whole region with
proclamations and arguments against the
general strike, and urgi:-g the miners to
employ force, II necessary, to assert their
right to labor at their individual pleasure
In Valenciennes they have weekly paper
devoted to their cause; and It Is said to
nave a paid circulation of 609O copies week
ly.
Moreover, the news now runs dele
gates from this region to a congress of vel
lows held last week in Paris have returned
N In Tvith In.V,,
sist the strikers. should the soldiers for
political or other reasons, be called from
their protection or prove insufficient. With
regard to this latter possibility, an express
sion from the lips Of NJ. Bexant local sec
rotary of the strikers federation Is now
running through Valenciennes and has been
telegraphed to Paris. Questioned about the
danger OF bloodshed should the strikers
meet the troops, he said publicly:
I'VE fear nothing"
Nevertheless" replied his questfoner
the situation may become grave. The
troops were obliged to charge again yester-
day"
az think that the soldiers will not do us
any HARM, said the local secretary of the
strikers significantly. eff they do they
VIII oblige US to do harm to them"
Meanwhile. We are assured by a reaction
airy paper, devoted to the interests of the
yellows, that the delegates of the north to
the recent congress Of yellows brought back
with them from Paris $40 army revolvers
and 5000 cartridges.
The history of this arming of both reds"
ana observation-disclosures and non-strikers-
Is most extraordinary, though it dates back
only since last autumn, trifle over a year
ago.
At that time the 5000 miners of Mont
ceau, an important mining town of the cen
ter of France, were already divided into
two camps. There were those who wanted
TO continue working and those who wanted
to prevent them At first their only weap-
ons were sticks and stones Then a Paris
paper or the red socialist propaganda Of
fered a novel premium to It's readers. For
every fifteen copies OF the paper bought it
offered a remodeled Gras or Chassepot
rife.
The striking miners of Montceau saw in
these rifles new means to persuade their
non-striking brethren. They began to send
for them IN quantity.
The non-striking miners. instead of he,np
intimidated by these preparations, also be-
gan ordering rifles. which the red socialist
paper supplied them with fine impartialfty.
Historic Weapons.
There were any quantity of these old
Gras and Chassepot rifles condemned by the
war department and sold at auction for a
few francs each to spectators. These lat
ter had ''remodeled" them, suppressing the
rife thread and modifying the cartridge;
but this did not prevent their being able to
send bullet through thick plank at $50
yards The socialist committee of ST Ell
enne-one of the mining centers prominent
in the present general strike-began buying
them at wholesale this time from the orig
inal spectators. They were initiated by
the yellows organizations of St. Etienne
and Montceau, and soon the reds and yell
lows of both the north and the Pas de
Calais regions had begun taking IN sup
plies.
Before the government had taken any no.
tice of this extraordinary traffic 1000 rifles
had been admittedly hidden away by the
men OF Montceau alone, while the clandes-
tine arsenals OF ST. Etienne and Carmaux
were said to contain as many more. Here
in the north both sides boast that they are
fully armed. One thing is certain the sup
ply of Gras and Chassepot rifles has been
practically inexhaustible. the government
having in the past three years auctioned off
100000 Of these obsolete models, dating from
the Franco-Prussian war
Here in the north the weekly paper of the
yellows is now engaged I'm recalling how the
yellows originated in this conflict of Mont
ceau. What happened in the Montceau re-
gion viii happen here at Valenciennes; so
that, they say in these articles and In street
placards, IL the yellow organizations come
TO be swelled by recruits from all parts of
France and Belgium. the loss will be due
to the striking miners own fault.
Before the Montceau strike of 1893 the
miners OF that region lived TRANQUILITY and
IN relative prosperity. 1t is plentiful dis
trict living expenses being notably low;
for example, % per cent lower than at ST
Etienne. The average pay was 81 per day.
and the company had erected for its men