The Connecticut labor news., 1924-07-05
STRUGGLE IN RUHR
 OVER 8-HOUR DAY
 BRINGS DEEP SCARS

ably by the men. When the Ruhr miner.
 were compelled to accept the eight-hou1
 shit and the nine or ten hour day they l stipulated that the agreement should lapse
 on May l this year. The magnates, nc
 doubt thinking that 1t would be as eas, l to renew it as 1t had been to enforce it ! made this apparently slight concession. But when May 1 arrived the men down 1 Ill the mines stopped work at the end oi the seventh hour and those above ground
 at the end of the 9th. After some fu-
 tile negotiations and threats of a general
 strike the magnates retaliated by pro-
 claiming lockout of all who would not
 agree to work an eight-hour shift The
 lockout began on May 5. There was com
 plete solidarity among the men. Every
 mine in the Ruhr was idle.
 That they should have held out for nearly four weeks astonished the Ger man public; indeed, even now it is diff hcult to understand how 1t was possible The men never received penny of strike pay. What little money their unions had and what little was contributed by
 friendly unions was spent on food, which was distributed at relief stations
 Sympathy with the miners was wide spread-a most unusual thing in Ger many. Many midd1e-c1ass families in the Ruhr admitted miners children to their tables for daily meal. A number of charitable organizations, including Bri- tish and American Quakers, helped to re- 1ieve the worst distress. Considerable sums were subscribed by the Russian trade unions, and these were used to set up forty or fifty soup kitchens in various parts of the Ruhr.
 But even all this unprecedented char ity was utterly inadequate, for the num- Der of men locked out approached half a million. Symptoms of extreme dis tress and starvation soon began to show The children in the streets began to look as pale and wretched as they used to in the days of the blockade
 1 have visited number of miners homes near Essen The misery and des- titution that were crowded in bare, mar row rooms was altogether horrifying. A plate of vegetable soup from one of the public kitchens and a little milk from the Quakers was the daily meal of in numerable men, women and children.
 Some of the families I have visited have sold all they possessed so as to buy a little extra food, and now they live in tenements bare of everything even of a bedstead, the parents and chil- dren sleeping on rags and straw. One little child had died overnight-when the mother lifted the piece of soiled rag cloth with which it was covered it seem ed just like heap of skin and bone.
 No words could describe the intense hatred felt for the small groups of in dustria1 magnates who caused the lock out to be proclaimed. The spirit of pas sive resistance, so strong year ago, has vanished completely. One miner after another told me that he would willingly work for the French if they agreed to the seven-hour shift.
 Hostility toward the German Govern ment is very great. Berlin IS frequently to as "das Auslano," as though it were a foreign town. The men, are fully conscious that the issue is vital, and that whatever they lose will be lost to all German labor Some take an even wider view and say: This struggle for the eight-hour day is struggle for the Convention, which will re- main meaningless as long as Germany does not sign it.'
 The magnates also realize the signif- lcance of the conflict. The gist of all | they said about it, and of all that has | been written about 1t in their press, is: | This must be the final decisive blow now or never is the time to break the power of the trade unions for genera ions to come"
 These-and the accumulated grievances ,f many months-are some of the req sons why the struggle has been waged with such tenacity and determination.
 And yet 1t has decided nothing. The osses of the Ruhr coal mining industry Ire enormous, and the state of the min ng population Is so desperate that both tides shrink from continuing the struggle. The issue has been postponed-both sides Ire aware of 1t, both sides have given n with the most grudging reluctance and 10th sides are convinced that the present ,eace is only an ar1nistice
 The terms arrived at by Government rbitrat1on are as follows:
 The seven-hour shift (under-ground) Il
 Italian deputies give Mussolini vote f confidence {