Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1919-11-08
LABOR UNREST in MERRIE ENGLAND.

THE w W. of today had his counterpart in the troub-
led days of the 14th century in "Memie England"
when British aborng classes were in stubborn revolt
against feuda system which chained them serfs to
the land owners and astocracy and bound the small far
mer viean to the noble.
Victorious campaigns of the Black Prince in France
had been followed by hulnliating disasters The black
plague had decmaed the land Oppressive taxation by
profgate king had pauperzed the realm. The drafts
of the prolonged had made labor scarce and the en-
poyers bid against each other for toers Despite severe
penalties and restriction laws serfs fled from their mas
te to find lucrative work elsewhere or roam the forests
las free hooters.
The fugitive serf enjoyed prosperity above that of
the toer bound to slave the estate of his BIRTH pros
perty hitherto unknown to the lahorer His desertion
Mortified the nobility who in free labor the ruin of
aborer WE'LL that men who had no land to live on
but their hands, dsdained to live penny ale or bacon
and called for fresh flesh fish, fried baked and that
hot and hotter for chilling of their nav"
England was seething with political and social unrest
produced by misgovernment, injustice and slavery and
the runaway serf became wandering apostle of dscon-
tent He is described in the chronicles of the time as the
"waster that will not work but wander about that will
eat bread but the finest wheat drink but of the
best and brownest ae He greveth him against God and
gludgeth against reason and then culseth ne the king
and all his council after such law to allow aborers to
glieve.'
That the miserable serf of Merre England had good
grounds to greve is revealed in the preaching of John
Ball. dubbed he mad priest Of Kent" against the system
OF social injustice Which until then had passed as the
divine order Ball the first Engishman to assert the
natural rights and equality of man, as follows:
folk
they it? WHY hold
sea2 all from Adam Eve how they
eohd in and
n whc They
bread water
fine labor the
rama n o.
nenh hold their state"
The peasant revolt III England eliminated in Wat
Tylers rebellion when hordes of people marched upon
London burning and sacking the palaces of nobility on
their way and then quietly dispersed when the boy King
Richard IL promised them freedom and amnesty. They
soon learned how worthless kings word was for their
charters of freedom cancelled and 1000 of their
leaders adorned gbbets ghastly monuments of mon
archs perfidy But terrible were the measures of re-
preston and violent the reaction among land owners
serfage thing of the past Fear of another rebel
lion caused it to die lingering DEATH and the work of
freeing the serfs went quietly forward
The I. w W. of Merrie England were the product of
unusfiable economic and political conditions. They
had rights under the law. Mans inhumanty to man
made them little than beasts of the field But the
w w of today whose rights are constitutionally Sc
cured who receives high pay for short hours wars upon
society because he has to work at aand would elevate
Drawn by the simple expedient of delapitatng BRAINS
seeking thereby to the luxury and leisure of the
idle rich whose profligate existence is
as worthless to society as his own.