The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-03
ICopyright 1903 by p. S. Ridsdale for
Samuel <Gompers.)
Paris, July 13. 1909.


might do something at sightseeing,
walking hour with men in the thick of
the trade Union and other social
movements. The boys
found that I could give them midnight
interviews; consequently, they kept me
up several nights until the small hours
promised dawn, describing Trade
Union methods in our American Fed
Grafton of Labor. Sunday, our party
left London for Paris-I stopped over
a day at Calais. here in Paris, our
French friends, lively, cheerful, gen.
erous and intelligent have over
whelmed me with kindly attentions.
Certainly, it is a curious spectacle
that annual Fourth of July reception
at Ambassador Whitelaw Reid's man
sim in London This year on Mon
day, the fifth, the occasion brought
together a crowd of the most elegant
ly attired people / ever saw. At least
four-fifths of the callers were Ameri-
can women. The scarcity of men, as
we'll as the fact that nearly all of them
were LondoniZed in dress-"top' hat
and black frock coat, and the rest of
it suggested the thought that pa has
about enOugh cash this year to send
ma" and the girls abroad, but he is
staying in America to watch the mar
kets. 1t was a restless, gay, chatty
assembly; it's individual members
quite uniformly knowing how to
pose to advantage for the general ad-
niration. Everybody arrived on
wheels" at the palatial quarter; a
line of knee-breeched men servants in
iicated the way through The pillared
gestibule and court. the broad marble
staircases; at the landing, broad and
deep, stood the tired Ambassador and
Mrs. Reid, shaking hands With each
caller as his or her name was audibly
by an attendant; beyond
there, halls with polished floors, walls
with rare paintings and vases, ceilings
marvels of gilt and moulding; thence
after a dress parade, the endless lines
of people descended to the conserva-
tories and the large marquise on the
lawn, to partake of as good a collation.
as the season and the court caterer
could supply. The attendance mum
bered several thousands. Dorchester
house as Ambassador Reid's residence
in Hyde Park is called is one Of the
show places in London. It is said his
rent for it is S55, 600 a year, more than
three times the salary paid him ann
ually by the Government Of the United
States. What a variety of sentiments
hippancy, philosophy, must have ami
mated the multitude there fore
gathered! Mr.. Reid has mounted the
ladder high, but I dare say that when
he dreams that he is again the coun-
try newspaper reporter of fifty years
ago he is just as happy as in his
present waking hour.
On the second of July, when the
meeting of unemployed men was being
held in George Square, Glasgow, al
a hundred and fifty Of them, leav4.
the body of those in attendance, tried
to rush" the entrances to the Munich
pal buildings where the special dis
tress committee were in a Wrangle
over the situation-"At one time"
says a dispatch, lit appeared that a
serious riot was imminent, groups of
unemployed gathering around the var
ious doors and ~clamoring for admit
lance" Checked in their rush (by the
police) they masse0 themselves on the
staircase, and stirring scenes ensued.
One orator in the square declared to
the crowd that they were ours it they
allowed their wives and children to
StarVe." Far from Fourth of July en-
thusiasm was the sentiment of that
mass of hungry human beings. The
spectacle or even it's description would
be enough one might believe, to move
every man coming to know of it IN
studying why it is that society to day
sees so sad a disparity in the distri-
button of wealth. to do his share to-
ward It's elimination.
Nothing that has occurred in Eng
IAN during my stay has SO much
stirred me up as the fact that
~'batCheS" Of miners III Durham cOun-
ty IN the north of England We're taken
to prison in default of paying fines in
various sums for having been absent
from work for one day-April 18th.
One item in the newspaper ran thus,
Thirty minors We're yesterday taken
to Iail and were accompanied to the
train by hundreds of the villagers.
Later on. the miners who went to jail
last Friday arrived home after their
imprisonment for the same %offense,
and were received with enthusiasm.
There are still forty miners to go to
ja1l.' Il appears that there is a spec
Il az Parliament forbidding work.