Evening star., 1926-08-08

general strike in Britain, after
having filled the world with
i it's echoes during the first two
weeks of May, has served to
cover more or less completely the less
impressive but hardly less important
later phases of the coal strike. which
is rapidly becoming one of the great
est disasters in all postwar British
history. Having been, for time,
! more or less ignored both in British
and foreign comment, this strike is
once more taking first place as an
international as we'll as a national
phenomenon.
The reason is simple. When the
general strike collapsed with a crash
which attracted almost universal COM
ment there was general belief that
Britain had rounded a cape in it's
economic and political history, and
that battle, which had to be fought
having been precipitated and COM
pleted, very far-reaching change
would follow.
The world concluded. partly misled
by British comment itself. that with
the end of the strike the relations
between British capital and labor
would now be put upon a new basis.
Labor. to be sure. had lost the battle
it had surrendered with a complete
ness which was hardly to he mistaken
but there was sound reason for be-
lieving that this surrender had been
made with the tacit understanding
that thereafter adjustments were to
he made which would make the yield
ing advantageous to the losers as well
as to the winners.
Tactical Blunder Made.
1t was felt, in fact, that ShrOuCh
tactical laundering labor itself had
permitted it's fight. the fight over
questions affecting the coal miners, to
take the form and have the character
of revolution aimed at the govern
ment. But within and without the
British Isles it was perceived that the
coal miners themselves had a case
and a good case. And once the un-
fortunate general strike were termi-
mated and labor had renounced this
bad way of presenting a good case,
the very government itself would see
justice done.
Above and beyond all else it was
realized widely that the British situa-
tion depended upon the discovery of
some means of cooperation between
labor and capital. and that no success
full escape from the cotemporary de-
preston was conceivable while for
domestic class warfare. In the pres
ence of a greatly restricted capacity
for consumption of British products
abroad, of a stimulated competition
due to imitation in several nations
and to the American challenge based
upon mass production and an enor-
nous domestic market, the mainte-
nance of British economic prosperity
manfestly depended upon such an
organization and reorganization of
industry as permitted and even in
sured the closest kind Of cooperation
between laborer and owner.
Unfortunately it Is now clear that
no such set of adjustments as might
have been expected followed or seems
likely to follow the collapse of the
general strike. For three months
now the most important single in
dustry in Britain. that of coal mining,
has been para lyZed by strike which
has resolved itself into a grim battle
of endurance. the miners slowly pass.
ing to the stage of starvation, the
owners and operators refusing any
necessary concession. and one by one
the wheels of British industry slow
ing down and stopping altogether.
Class War Intensified.
This is in itself patiently supreme
disaster, but it is almost a lesser dis
aster than that which results from
the fact that day by day and hour by
hour the sense of class bitterness is
intensifying. All British labor, al
though it has abandoned the general
strike and is nominally CARRYING on
its occupations. is actually following
the coal strike with the closest atten-
tion and is convinced that this is to
be the decisive battle for labor
If you had the spectacle of a be-
leaguered city, enduring a siege in
which surrender would mean destruc.
tion. and if you had within the city
civil war, the refusal of one very
large class to fight. to work. to do
anything to assist in the defense of
the city, YOU would have q parallel
for the British situation. l do not
mean to suggest that those who re-
fuse to work or fight are without
warrant. that they are to he regarded
as traitors. Certainly they have their
grievances and the responsibility for
the situation is at most hardly more
theirs than their employers
Yet the solid fact is that in her
hour of greatest need at the moment
when she is undergoing a strain GER
tainly as great economically as that
which the Germans imposed militar-
lily during the war, Britain is facing
a form OF civil war. What is hap
pening? Germany and the United
States are replacing Britain in the
coal markets of the world. France,
Germany and the United States are
replacing Britain in the iron and steel
markets. British shipping is creep
ing down and 1t is earning money
now by carrying foreign Goals to
0cfI Ia
ships are now going empty abroad to
bring home foreign products.
Unemployment on Rise.
Before the coal strike and the pre-
liminary general strike unempIovment
in Britain had dipped below the mil.
lion mark. Now, with the coal strikers
excluded, it is approaching the two
million mark. and no one can say
what fantastic totals 1t will reach in
a few weeks If the strike goes on and
more and more factories and furnaces
are obliged to quit.
Yet the political fact begins to over.
bear the economic. The salvation OF
Britain lies before all else in the com.
plete and unconditional cooperation
of all Britons. There is no salvation
ever thinkable unless the state of war
between labor and capital is abolished.
The enemy outside the gates is so for
midable that he can be defeated only
by the combined and united efforts of
all within. But not only is present CO.
operation lacking. but future unity is
daily becoming less likely.
When the general strike collapsed
the world said. influenced largely by
British comment. that the general
strike as weapon had failed, that ii
would not be tried again. Every one
was impressed with the enormous self
restraint, good nature, orderliness of
the strikers. Labor seemed, after all,
to be almost more sensitive to re.
proach for any illegality than the gov