The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-06-19
BIZ FLoRENcE PARKER.

BY FLORENCE PARKER.
MRS. BROWN was one Of the most
AVA terrible examples of what even
"a purely industrial dispute" can do
to the mind of a simple British ma
iron. One shudders to think what
will occur to her were the dispute at
any time to take a more wide reach
ing character.
She had married Brown when she
was young and she had borne him
three children willingly and one
slightly more grudgingly, tho in fair
ness to Mrs. Brown one must admit
that the grudge was largely caused by
the financial insecurity which haunts
even the higher-paid rank of the Brit
ish workers.
Brown had always been keen man
for his trade union and she had early
realized the economic significance of
trade union activity.
But the war had been the first real
step in the downfall of Mrs. Brown.
IN the country lived the sister of
Maggie Brown and on her farm dur
ing those memorable years from 1914
to 1918 had worked a young German
prisoner who had fallen in love with,
and later married, Mrs. Browns niece.
But even before this Mrs. Brown had
not believed in the war, nor in the
righteous cause which Britain claimed
as hers alone.
The air raids had not had the proper
effect on her, either, for instead of
cursiDg the Germans as any nice
minded British woman was expected
to, Mrs. Brown rallied against vague
them" never stopping to define
"them" more closely, but quite con-
WINGED that their" nationality was
not limited to the frontiers of Ger
many. In fact, Mrs. Brown had an
inquiring mind and one which, tho
slow to work, was not easily side
tracked. Having doubted the just
ness of the war, and having been
skeptical about god from childhood,
she was, as can easily be seen, a ripe
subject for the sinister influence of
the general strike.
At the beginning Mrs. Brown found
herself active on the social section of
the strike committee. But this did
not satisfy her very long and in a
very short time she haunted the pub
lie meetings, dragging to them apa-
thetic neighbors and spending her
meal times distributing handbills an
nolncing such meetings.
The children were galvanized into
political activity and shamelessly ex-
plotted at strike concerts long after
the hour when they should have been
in bed. Brown, busy on his strike bull
letin, received from his always devot-
ed little wife, a new and invigorating
amount of support and encourage
nent.
For Mrs. Brown, hitherto merely
skeptical and suspicious minded
found in the general strike, its work
ings, its progress and its potential
ties, an answer to most of her discon-
tent and much of her skepticism. In
short, Mrs. Brown became political
fanatic. Had she not borne so excel
lent a character in the neighborhood
where she had dwelt for the past IS
years, there is not the shadow of a
doubt but that she would have been
described as a Bolshevik, and an "agi-
tator" at that!
She changed her baker because he
did not share her views about the
strike; she refused to pay her usual
Sunday evening visit to Browns
mother because that worthy individ-
ual thought that the general strike
was going too far. She even accused
the local branch of the Women's Co
operative Guild Of disloyalty to their
class, for she considered all criticism
Of the progress and conduct of the
strike as sabotage.
She got mixed up with all sorts Of
dangerous people, too. For example
she used to go round with the young
woman who distributed the daily