The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-06
LONDON LETTER
FROM TOM Mann
TO u. S. LABOR
Talk and Trouble of
British Labor Told
By TOM MANN.

Years greetings to all our American
comrades from the workers Of Eng
land. May the workers in both coun-
tries become increasingly class con-
scious in 1926, whether we be Of the
ancient British the Anglo-saxon, the
Teutonic, or Latin peoples or indeed
Of any other origin, may we demon.
strate our capacity to learn the great
lessons of life and apply them.
internationally considered the para
mount question that has occupied at
tention in this country the past few
days has been Mosul
Once more the posing as worlds
adviser has brot more territory under
British control. The country with the
we'll known name Mesopotamia, now
under the name Of Irak, is under Brit
ish domination and the adjacent coun-
try of Mosul is to be administered by
Britain also with the approval of the
league of nations.
The real attraction to British capt.
talism is the fact that there is oil in
this region on a large scale and this
is the chief explanation of Britain's
concern for this area. Already more
than e200,OOO,OOO 1.-TWO hundred mill
lions of pounds) have been spent by
the British government in this area
and the lives Of many sacrificed.
The Locarno pact has been celebrat,
ed in many quarters, it is in fact q
pact against Soviet Russia, a combine
ton of capitalist governments TO
shrewdly foster a policy detrimental
to Russia and to isolate and boycott
her and ultimately fall upon her and
destroy her. Small hope they have.
The next world war will much more
likely find several other countries
ready to throw capitalism to the dogs
and run the countries with workers
governments.
The Housing Of the People.
There is a shortage of a million
houses in Britain at present. The
people have a decided preference for
brick houses and many are under con-
struction, but very few in comparison
to the urgency of the demand, and
several engineering firms have made
specimen steel houses which they
strongly advise should be adopted.
The government has devided to sup.
port the building of steel houses altho
an enormous majority of the workers
when consulted are opposed to the
steel houses on the grounds Of dis
comfort, inadequacy and unsightli-
ness. The attraction to the govern.
ment is apparently that very little
skilled labor will be required to erect
such structures and metal workers
will get the bulk Of the work and very
few building workers will be employ
ed
1t is the avowed intention Of the
building trades workers to insist up
on rates of wages being paid on the
steel houses being the same as paid
to the members Of the Building Trades
Union; failing this they will deter
minedly oppose their construction.
The Railwaymens Award.
The award Of the national wages
board in the matter of railwaymen's
wages is causing increasing dissatis-
faction among railway employees.
Again the readiness OF the union Of
ficials to advise acceptance of bosses
terms is creating serious dissatisfac-
ton and many branches Of the union
are turning down the award. This
may result in the rejection Of the
award and renewal Of the struggle.
The engineers unions (machinists)
are still collaborating with the bosses,
utterly lacking in the necessary mill
fancy TO conduct a fight for decent
conditions. The talk at present among
these is that of How to get the S-hour
day" generally operated. What is
really urgently needed is a substan-
tial reduction OF working hours in the
industry to the standard already en-
dorsed by the Trade Union Congress.
! /. e., the 44-hour week.