Evening star., 1918-02-03
POLITICAL STRIKE
FIRST IN GERMANY
Dutch Correspondent Ridi-
cules idea Labor Disturb
ances Are Not Serious.
IRON FIST AWAKENS MASS
Canlegram to Tho Sunday Star and
New York World. COPYRIGHT, 1918.

Cablegram to Tho Sunday Star and
new YORK World. CoDyrtght, 1913.
LONDON. February 2.-The Daily
News Carrier. under Rotterdam date
OF Friday. prints the following:
"A feeling Of intense bitterness has been
aroused by the proclamation Of the su-
per1or commander OF the markets. His
document. posted throughout Berlin,
seems to have come like a revelation to
the masses. It swept away all the illu-
sions nourished by the reichstas resolu-
lions and revealed again the unchanged
ngure of Prussian miitarism with saber
drawn ready to strike at first hint Of
rebellion.
Let tho population be in no doubt
says the commander. I will suppress
with every means at my disposal every
attempt to disturb order. warn every
eaethen eathsr,na not m to take part in any public
not De possible to discriminate between
seers' eAeA
AL Rights Set Aside.
Then follows an announcement Of the
sett1ng up OF special courts-martial to
Deg1n work Saturday. In effect, it abol-
lsnes all usages Of civil law, all rights
OF private citizenship >and substitutes
completely unfettered military control.
Despite the military threat, a large
number OF workers attempted to hold q
meeting In the suburb Of CharlotteburR
inere followed riots of which. so far.
on!y tne omctal accounts are to hand
encounters between the strikers and the
police. '''-1 INC
'At Hamburg. too, the military au-
tnorities, says this dispatch. "have
come out into the open with a proc
resume work will be called up for mill
tary service. Whether this threat can
be put into effect is. however. very
doubtful, as. according to the latest
news from that port. the strikers num-
per 10000, their ranks being extended
from the shtpbuilding yards to all the
industries.
Here. too, sharpened martial law
mas oeen proclaimed. as also at Bremen,
lin itself th9 movement is growing.
though the censorship is trying to hide
the fact. 1t is indicated, for instance
py the fact that 1t has extended to
positors.
Strikes Are Political.
That the strikes have a political
origin cannot be doubted after reading
the accounts published of the events
- - - N0y WHICH were held
up by the censor until yesterday. These
snow that the leaders in all their
conditions, but on the necessity Of i'm
mediate peace on lines formulated by
the Russians at Brest-Litovsk, linking
this up with demands for immediate
removal of all military control over
Industries.
The idea promulgated in certain
quarters in the English press that the
strikes had been instigated or encour-
aged by the German government with
the ideas of leading the entente coun-
tries to think there was political un-
rest In Germany, when such is not real
ly the case. may be dismissed This is
a political strike breaking out quite
spontaneously among the workers
themselves. 1t is the first political
strike since the beginning of the Ger
man empire.
True. in the spring of last year there
was strike, but that was exclusively
a protest against bread reduction and
in contrast to it now not a single de-
mand of political character was then
formulated"