The Washington herald., 1919-11-09
HIGH WAGES CONTENT BRITISH
CAPITAL Is SATISFIED
Better Feeling Follows Railway Tie-U Eng.
land Resumes Production Toilers Intent
Upon Keeping What They Have Gained
BY JOHN LLOYD BALDERsToN.

BY JOHN LLOYD BALDERsTON.
London, Oct. 21-There is a message
tof hopo for the United States, torn by
llabor dissensions. in the victory over
themselves won by classes In Great
Britain who a few days ago seemed
ready to hurry their country into civil
war. The railway strike was the first
move in a struggle that many sober
men thought would plunge England
amid chaos and starvation.
1t Is not so much the terms of the
settlement that matters as the spirit
shown by both sides. 1t Is now clear
that the great bulk of workingmen are
not out for a social revolution; it is
equally manifest that employers do
not intend to try to drive wages down
before the cost of living has fallen.
Satisfaction Universal.
Never since a decade before the war
has there been so little bitterness. so
much genuine good feeling. as now
just after an industrial conflict that
had been dreaded for half a genera
ton. The great railway strike. that
was to break down society, has in
stead welded the classes together.
Labor. all but the small extremist
ton Is ready to admit its right to a
continuance of the higher standard of
living achieved during the war. When
the government agreed to guarantee
existing wages on the railways for a
year ahead, it was understood on both
sides that no attempt would be made
TO reduce the wages of other organ
ICED workers during that period.
Capital on the other hand, Is i'm
measurably relieved to find that
labor Is not out for red ruin and
the breaking up of laws. that the
Bolsheviks and anarchists are in a
negligible minority. that the mood
of labor is not aggressive but de-
fenstve. Labor wants to defend
what 1t has won in the last five
years. not to overthrow society.
And on this new basis the COM
munity is getting together and 60
ing back to work. In this story 1
shall set down the Fundamental
questions that were at issue in the
strike. in which all labor was in
terested. rather than attempt to
deal at length with the specific
problems OF the raiIwaymen.
Strikers May he Justined.
One point the American reader
must never forget in considering
analogies between British and
American labor conditions. Before
the war the average earnings of
ell railway workers here were s675
a week; many adult men who had
served many years got s4.50. Dur
ing the war, to meet an increase in
living costs averaging 120 per cent.
the railwaymen got an additioaal
war wage of $S.25, so that their
present average earnings are SIS a
week.
Now a pound in England will buy
little if any more food. coal and
shelter than s5 at home. and the
main issue in the recent railway
strike was whether the railwayman
should retain his SIS a week. or
should have his wages cut. Most
Americans will feel as 1 do. that on
this issue the strikers were right:
and we can feel this without nec-
essarily sympathizing with demands
by our own aristocratic railroad
workers whose wages in terms of
what they will buy are certainly
twice and probably three times as
great as those of their English
brethren.
1t is not only to railwaymen that
these reflections apply. British
labor has not attained the stand
ards of living reached by American
workers. but it has gained ground
during the war. 1t is fighting to
hold what 1t has won. and the great
salient fact of the situation here.
that brings hope and belief in the
future, is that the bulk of the Brit
ish people appear to agree that the
workers should have better food
and clothes and housing than in the
old worlG before 1914.
storm Clouds Gone.
The railway strike, that many sober
judges thought would draw all organ
ize labor into its vortex and pro-
woke a social revolution. was fought
on the issue of whether wages were
TO come down and whether the gov
ernment was to enforce STANDARDIZED
tion." so that a man on whatever
railway in whatever part of the coun-
try should get the same wages as any
other man doing the same work. AS
the same issue Is awe III all tne obheI
key industries, the compromise by
which the government agreed TO
maintain the present wages for a
year from next month, and to en-
force Standardization, has dissipated
for the present the Industrial storm
cloud.
During the war the government
forbade workers in key industries s
ct fharafnra
sary to provide compulsory arbitra-
ton to decide wage disputes. and
boards. as the cost of
living continued to advance. conced-
ed awards to the men. not as per-