The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-07-17


Scotland Yard, Admiralty, and many
other government buildings is Black
friars bridge. At one end of the bridge
the city proper ends the great
building that houses the administra-
ton Offices of Lever, the soap mon
arch. This building was used as a
concentration point by the government
during the strike. A feet of motor
vehicles were parked in front of 1t
ready to shoot across the bridge which
separates the heart of the giant city
from the teeming multitudes of work
ers and slum proletarians.
At the other end of the bridge is a
big warehouse. During the first few
days it was deserted except for pick
cts with badges who stood guard
around it. Those pickets were mem
bers Of the Transport Workers Union.
Only those who had what they consid-
cred legitimate business passed.
Between this point and a square
known as the Elephant and the Cas-
tie" there are number of union head
quarters, chiefly of the printing trades.
Practically everybody you met in this
section of the city was a staunch sup
porter of the general strike. At times
the streets were black with people for
blocks, but only on rare occasions was
there any resort to blows.
On the first day of the general strike
a few trans had the temerity to in
wade the Elephant district. They were
taken away in charred bits. Police
swarmed into the square on horse and
foot. It was reported that a police
man struck woman with club, kill
ing her. 1t was also reported that the
same policeman passed out of the pic
ture a few minutes afterwards. One
heard such stories in that section, pro-
vided satisfactory introduction took
place. And those stories were not fur
lively told with a criminal air. Trade
unionists anywhere are not squeamish
and the British have only to watch
the technique of their masters for sug-
gestions as to what's what in a quar-
rel.
Those tales of bloodshed and death
could not be verified officially, since
the government imposed heavy penal
ties on anybody caught telling the
truth, excepting people of the type of
the Archbishop of Canterbury or
Lloyd, who might go temporarily ins
sane and make an accidental stab at
veracity. But any worker caught re-
vealing information of the true state
of affairs which showed the workers
standing to their guns, or of disaffec-
ton in the army and naval ratings,
was given a swift ride to the peniten-
tiary.
GENERAL Communists were arrest
~ ed and Jailed for publishing what
was generally believed to be true, that
the Welsh and Irish regiments refused
to entrain for strike duty in Scotland.
Indeed, some of the recently recruited
metropolitan policemen, who are point
ed to with pride by the penniless pen
gums of the British middle class, were
rather cold to the government propa-
ganda. l asked constable who was
stationed at the main door of the
Morning Post building for information
as to how could secure copy of the
British Gazette, while that rag was
humming off the presses. He regard
ed me with suspicion and asked me If
l was from the press. very wisely
-as | thought-told him the truth.
was not. This increased his sus-
picion rather than allayed 1t. Why
was interested in the Gazette? Like
a typical Yankee, l asked him why
not? Was not everybody interested?
And was hungry for news. Sticking