The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-19
No Cops Or Troops
 In English Strike Success Assured For Nation Wide Strike For Minimum Wage Says English Labor
 Leader


 Does the chance of worldwide
 strike bring back unpleasant memor-
 ies Of 1904 when the black nuggets
 were parcelled out by the bucket and
 a doctors certificate of sickness in
 the family was the open sesame for Q
 full wagon load? Probably you are
 thinking that things are pretty bad
 right now in England.
 That isn't what Harry Phillips, first
 trustee of the Deck-Workers' Nnion
 of Great Britain, thinks. When any
 one says to him Things are pretty
 bad in your country just now, MT.
 Phillips" he answers. ''No, sir, not at is not bad.'' He gives his reasons
 and pretty good ones, too Think of it, he says, in The Sur vey Nearly half a million men on strike in England, and not an extra policeman needed nor a soldier called
 .'paraded. for food. You will for
 give me for being proud of my
 friends among the English miners
 AS for the strike itself he believes
 .'It was the only way It is the
 birth-patn of a new and finer era in
 the industrial life of England. Out
 of this suffering there will come great industrial peace. Think of the evolution in dignity of this strike and the old bitter sectional strikes of twenty years ago. This strike win be settled during the next: fourteen days. The old strike lasted three and six months with hunger and want and l riot and death, and ruin to local trade.
 Now, there is quite good dealing today. Masters meet men and smile back and the men say:
 !" You're beaten sir,. Minimum wage must carry"
 Does this sound over-confdent or ev- oYa Ma ha ie hut Mp lips remembers that only last sum mer, after his union had blocked the inlets of London's food supply, victory
 perched on the banners of the men. He was one of the conciliation com
 mittee which brought about the set | clement of the Dockers' strike. He feels that the Labor leaders and mill owners in Lawrence needed pointers on how to run and settle a strike peaceably.
 ''The minimum wage? Are you not stunned and surprised.'' he asks, tat the moderation of the demands of these 500,000 men who have the coun- try in their hands? It is because of their moderation that the whole coun- try is on their side. They are not out for motor-cars and automobiles and opera boxes, Riverside houses and gor-
 geous gowns for their wives and daughters. They are simply out for
 minimum living wage-a wage that shall never be less than sufficient for living out the full-orbed all-around life of man and woman and child
 which God Almighty and the true greatness of nation demand that they shall live.
 "A minimum wage does not mean a
 wage just above the starvation line. It means wage that shall keep a man free from worry and care for
 next weeks rent and food. A wage rs.sn which a man may enter into and live out for the attributes of his
 manhood. That is the principle the coal miners of England are out for, and that is the principle every man and woman of every creed and faith must support and which every real
 patriot must give. his verdict for.
 Why? Because you can never have 8
 great nation while 50 per cent. of it's population are half vitalized and ur- : oesrtupeu .That@and f speak as one who knows every coal field in my country is the principle at the back of this English coal strike. Also there Is the new find dignity of the whole business mo longer a small local state or dis trict strike. but one splendidly organ ized, both from the standpoint of cap ital and of labor: two magnificent dig nified armies so powerful that the peo-
 pie Of England say to their govern ment:
 "You must control this. and not permit long drawn out war. You ara the government. We elected you to govern us. Either govern or quit ''And the English government will