The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-17
A DAIRY OF THE ENGLISH
 RAILWAY STRIKE
By W. P. CROZIER

1l6 EISl-Sn EG41Wdy 1S l4AS | first instance on great scale of the tactics with which Labor has all through the year threatened the gov ernment and the community at large. It has come abruptly, as the Labor leaders meant that it should.
 These are the impressions which | were made day by day on an English Liberal who, while sympathetic to the aims of Labor in both the eco nome and political fields, disapproves of a lightning strike" of this kind as a revolutionary method fatal to the idea of an ordag-y and ordered society. The Eve of the Strtke-September
 26th.
 The strike begins at twelve tonight. It Is surprise offensive' with a vengeance. The honday-makers are streaming back hurriedly by the thousands from the seaside. The af- ternoon and evening trains are pack ed with those who must get away before the paralysis begins Tele- graphs and telephones are crowded with the messages of those who fore see that tonight's mails will not get through.
 The general feeling Is not so much of fear as of uncertainty. We are back in the days of late July and early August, 1914. Just as for years men had talked often but without serious perturbation of a great world war, so since the armistice we have talked here of direct action and the general strike, prophesying it's ap- proach, yet scarcely believing our own prophecies. Now it is actually beginning on the railways, which are the arteries of the nations life.
 Is it beginning of the much talked of and much dreaded Social Revolu- tion?
 There are questions that we can neither answer nor guide the events that will provide the answer. Again we are reminded of 1914. A move ment of this size takes charge of it's own future. It moves by it's own weight.
 Everything that the railwaymen say may be granted outright, and yet the form which the strike has taken the sudden ultimatum, the lightning attack on the community-is unjustt- fa1e.
 This is an exact parallel to that mode of making sudden and violent war which the world is striving to abolish by means of the Covenant and the League of Nations. The vio- lent, aggressive Power plans war al leisure and declares it suddenly in or der that 1t may take it's opponent at a disadvantage.
 The Covenant ordains breathing space, a respite, of some months dur ing which negotiations and inquiry may take place and the public con science be invoked to avert violence The rai1waymen and the state had an interval of more than three months in which to compose their differences But the railwaymen have refused the breathing space. They have launched the war suddenly, hoping to forestan the preparations of their opponents and to overwhelm them by the vio- lence of unexpected onslaught. Their leaders profess to believe in the idea of the League but their practice is that of men who put their faith in force
 Tho First Day-Septenlber 27th. The strike Is almost complete. The railways are idle except for an oc- 1 casional train run by non-union men which goes almost empty, because no one thought 1t would be running. 1 Strict rationing is in force again. In a struggle like this, food is the ! cn1e1 essential when 1ood runs short, there will be violence Keep i the supplies of milk and bread going and the government may pull through | without grave disorder. Coal is the 1 next essential, impossible to move in any quantity except by rail. There 1 is talk of miners sympathetic | strike but that need frighten no one. ! The miners can get up much or ] as little coal as they choose; it can i not be delivered to the rnanu- i factories
 The war of manifestoes has begun. l MT George, as ever, is busy raising i steam" MT J. H. Thomas has re- torted with a speech appealing to his i pacific record; protesting against the ] tactlessness of certain ministers; de- claring that the Prime Minister, If left to himself; would have brought about a peaceful settlement; and as- l SertlnS with oyer-emphasis that he himself did not want to fight but Ii l he does he will fight as hard as any one So rhetoric answers rhetoric. The charge which MT. Thomas has 1 to answer is simply this-why did he hurl "A hours .ultfmatum at the country when he had three months ! for sett1em ent?
 All this is chf1d's play. We are fl
 
 of discomfort It is partly economic Partly 1t is political and is largely due to the bitter dislike of the gov. ernInents Russian policy. For months it has been ready to explode.
 The best that we have to hope fol is that the railwaymen may grad uaf1y recognize in increasing number, that they have been misled in strik ing without reasonable notice.
 The Second Day-September 18th.
 The mobilizing of the opposing ar mics grows. The government is nov
 ing troops about the country and f appealing for volunteers to help il organizing various services. The conflict is hardening and as hardens the task of the concfliato and the peacemaker becomes nor difficult The premier's manifesto ha | not helped. When half g. million mel come out on strike as one man it
 absurd to suggest that they are tn 1 tools of a few anarchists or Bolshe vists. The charge only exasperate
 them.
 These are signs that the governmen will atfeYnnf f0 fIJru p11h1fo oripio n