The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23
HOW LONDON CAN
 BE BOTTLED UP Strike Showed How Help
 less the City Is BIG ART COLLECTION Famous German Will Produce Re- markable Play in London
 During the Coming
 Christmas Season
By PHILLIP EVERETT

and teamsters, gave the people of Eng I land an object lesson, showing them that
 in spite of all their wealth they are ab- solutely dependent on other countries for their food. ... - k When the strike had lasted only a little over a week and the ports of Hull and Grimsby had been closed to the imports of bacon, eggs, butter and grain from the Scandinavian countries. the people of the whole northern part of the country began to feel the bangs of starvation. | Warnings of the strike had. been many and in shipping and industrial circles it must have been known that it was coming but nobody paid any attention to it. Like the nobility of France during the years that preceded the great revo- lutien,sthe people of England refused to see the threatening clouds; one thing | only was of importance, the crowning of king, who is nothing but mere figure head. and when finally the storm burst it found the large cities of North Eng land absolutely unprepared. No food supplies of any kind were on hand; the great warehouses contained provisions Of | all kinds only for a few days and, when | the daily arrival of steamers from abroad was suddenly interrupted, the people of | England found themselves In the same | situation as the inhabitants of Paris of 1871 after siege of many months. The | leaders of the strike were certainly very | considerate, for had they chosen they might have ruined the whole coronation. | The events of the last few weeks have | shown that the strikers might have bot | tied up the city of London completely and | the king and all his guests would have had a very bad time of it, if indeed it would not have been necessary to post 1 pone the whole show. Probably the strike leaders were wise In not bringing l about what the snobs would have con- | sidered a national calamity, especially as | they won the fight without having to l put on the screws very tight.
 | Now the strike has been settled, but | it's effects are apt to prove very serious, l for it has shown the masses the enor- nous power they wield when they stand shoulder to shoulder determined to make a fight for living wages and humane treatment. The organization of labor | will from now on progress rapidly in England and the high and mighty have every reason to look forward, with fear and apprehension, for events that are to come are throwing their shadows before | them.
 Probably nothing Is filling the hearts | of the upper classes with greater anxiety l than the fact that the general fermenta- l tion has spread to the British navy. In a Portsmouth paper the other day read an astounding letter which shows l the direction of the rising breeze. The writer, who is serving in the navy, de- mands for the men of the lower deck more wages, better food, better messing arrangements. more liberty. less class distinctions; that all important offences be | tried by a jury in civil court, that small offences be punished only by stoppage of wages temporarily, wholesale reduction of the powers of officers and numerous | other reforms that are long overdue" The writer, who spent considerable time togetherwith American bluejackets. says | he was surprised to hear how well these were fed and treated on board Uncle
 Sams men of war, and he does not see why Brttania should not treat her sail- OTIS, .'who form the sole guarantee of | her national existence with equal con- sideraton and asserts that if this were the case the admiralty would find no diff fcuty in manning all the vessels of the navy.
 Openly advocating the formation of a | "Royal Naval Industrial Union'' for | lighting purposes he concludes as fol- lows:
 Let us try to recognize that there is war between the fore part of the ship and the. after part Under the present arrangements we are helpless and hope less The board of admiralty intend to | keep their sons and relatives. who occupy the after part of the ship invested with | all the privilege and power it is possible to give them: in fact, at Dartmouth col lege the cadets are actually taught to despise the men on the lower deck, and have it ingrafted in their minds from birth that they are a special brand of humanity, and. are born to rule.
 Ut is about time we had a change, as l it is obvious there can be no reform on the lower deck without in some way restricting the power of officers. This the admiralty will not do, and therefore it is only by organizing every man in | the service, irrespective of rating that we can hope to force their hand.'' | If the admiralty isY wise it will do well I not to treat symptom like this letter | lightly. The bluejackets have seen what the brethren on board the merchant ves- sells have done to the big concerns like the Cunard. the White Star and the Will son lines and being hired men themselves they see no reason why they should not be able to enforce their own demands at time like the present, when the | whole Tory press asserts that England may need her navy at any moment 7 L Having amassed snug fortune from the tips of princes and American mill l lionaires whose confidential guide and adviser he has often been during the last 13 years, Mir. Rost. the chief porter of the Carlton hotel. has retired from his posi- ton and entered upon a commercial !, career.
 The fortune he has earned from his tips alone. for he received no salary, he has invested in land inst south of Lon don. which he intends to develop as real estate agents at New York and other American cities develop American suburbs.
 When l saw him yesterday in his new
 offices almost opposite the Carlton he
 said:
 ! esI made fortune at the Carlton. and have boucht land. What better invest ment could have made?
 'Iondon now has i7,o0a,OO0 people. She can't help growne. In few years she will be 10,0O6OOo There is only one Lon I don and only one England. It is the Icenfer of ainance. The English make the [world work for them. They invest their moneS abroad. and 1t comes hack ir i'm I tcrests at 10 and 1o per cent When other rarts of the world prosper the people in London draw the proceeds.