Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-03-13

ployed are stood off at the will of the
employers. In all workshops and fac
toaries where work is done for the
army wages have been tremendously
reduced and the time of working in
creased by 20 to so per cent. Further
in all state works deductions are
made from the Workmen's wages for
the Red Cross Society. N
All social legislation is tied up
while the government takes every OPP
portunity to nullify the necessary pro-
tective laws which were achieved in
Parliament after a great deal of trou-
be. So early as September 9th. last
year, the Labor Council held a full
sitting to protest against the sabotage
of the ruling classes in regard to
social laws.
How much the activity of the or
CARNATIONS is hindered by the war is
shown by the fact that from all the
800 groups affiliated to our Centre we
only receive eight letters. Comrades
inland are severely treated. Their
meeting rooms are closed or turned in
to stables and magazines. Military
and police officials, who imagine
themselves lords of the situation, vie
with each other in worrying the work
ing population. The gendarmes drive
voorhees, men and women from the
streets and coffee houses, and also
those sitting at home, to work in the
shops which provide for the army, or
to the railway stations, and even into
private businesses. Nearly all COM
rades who are not with the army are
so forced to work Is to 20 hours day
without wages. Their recompense
consists of loaf of bread per day
and military bullying. The police
show activity which is worthy of the
worst days of slavery. They arrest
unemployed, even those who are not
fit to work and compel them to work
for employers in the building trades
and transport. A protest made late
and the free" workers are being re-
placed by convicts. So is the work of
the German sugar factory in Belgrade,
done by 200 convicts. In order to
show their patriotism they have furn-
ished a hospital for the wounded in
their workers dwellings, but the work
ers' families have been thrown out
into the streets.
While the mass of the people hun
ger and cry for bread the factory en-
ployers are displacing women and
children, who were preferred pervious-
ly, by convicts. The greed of the
employing class is exposed in the com
mentaries Of the middle class papers
on the first appearance of the Turkish
and Albanian prisoners of war who
were greeted as cheap working power.
In the field the Servian workers
must pour out their blood and make
prisoners so that at home the last bit
of work, or the last chance of earn
ing, shall be taken from their women
and children. What a mockery of
the patriotic enthusiasm of certain or.
ders!
It is hoped later to present a war
balance sheet of the trades unions. AT
present it can only be mentioned that
many Of the cleverest comrades have
fallen in battle. In Belgrade lately a
leading trade unionist was buried and
a patriotic priest took the opportunity
of delivering panegyric on the honor
of dying for the fatherland. Despite
IA strong military escort a trade un.
ionist gave a farewell speech at the
graveside in which he expressed the
opinions of his comrades and depre-
Gated seudo-patriotism. Many Of the