New-York tribune., 1919-08-01
Police
Strike Against
Ban ON Strike
Continued from page l

sought with the Premier on the night
of the S0th and again on the morn
ing Of the 31at by deputation of
your executive committee elected for
that purpose, who waited for a reply.
Even this procedure has been ignored.
therefore, you are driven to the final
argument-'you must act, or lose your
freedom forever"
Recognition Is Demanded
The appeal then announces that all
the members of the union are to with
draw their services Immediately, such
withdrawal to remain effective until
the gross injustices imposed by the
provisions of the police bill is remedied,
and full and frank recognition of the
union conceded"
The appeal concludes: "The members
OF your executive committee have al
ready withdrawn their services and are
prepared to sacrifice all for the cause" "
This appeal is signed by j. H. Hayes,
general secretary.
The decision of the police has di-
rected attention anew to the general
industrial unrest in Great britain,
which has been seething ever since the
armistice and which seems at the pres
ent hour to have reached point which
menaces the commerce of the country
with at least temporary disaster.
The strikes of the past month have
been serious enough, but they are
merely symptomatic of an epidemic of
Dissatisfaction which appears to prevail
throughput the ranks Of organized
labor. Half a million Lancashire cot
ton operatives we're idle for more than
three weeks. Two hundred thousand
Yorkshire miners have been on strike
since July 20. The Liverpool dockers
have paralyzed shipping there for two
weeks, holding up hundreds of ships of
all sizes. The bakers have decided to
strike on Saturday.
Direct Action Threatened
The worst movement of all from the
government standpoint is the threat of
direct action" by the triple alliance of
railwaymen. miners and transport
workers. These powerful unions are
taking secret ballot to decide whether
they Shall use the weapon of a general
strike to enforce their political pro-
gramme of the naturalization of mines
and railways, and to end conscription
and withdrawal and to end conscription
in Russian affairs.
IN these circumstances words of rev
olutlon and Bolshevism crop up in the
newspapers and are used by conserva-
tive men to describe the present move
ment. Some of the newspapers arc
asking where the money comes rom
to finance all the propaganda 1eing
put forth.
The government regards the police
strike as the most dangerous feature
of the prevalent unrest. 1t may ,rove
critical test Of the labor campaign.
The Home Secretary, E. Short, has
declared that the government is firm
and will consider no compromise or
yielding to the policemen's demands
to have the status of an ordinary labor
union.
Lord Askwith, formerly Sir George
Ranken Askwith, who has had more ex-
perience than any man in England in
settling labor disptes, has denounced
the Premier bitterly as responsible for
the present conditions by his policy of
"political interference in industrial
business"
Lord Askwith, who has been chief
industrial commissioner since 1911
says: "The Premier has impressed
every trade, sometimes the employers,
more often the employed. with the
belief that they only had to push hard
enough to receive their demands from
the bottomless purse Of the nation"
Minister of Pensions Hodge said in
Parliament to-night: at looks as if
we are approaching general election
The proposed bakers strike is
threatened to enforce the demands of