The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-08-07
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS
. !:


attitude in the face of great danger
from without was recently the subject
Of favorable comment in this column,
which pointed out that the little coun-
try's stand was undoubtedly largely
due to her organized workers, who
from the first have voiced their de-
termination to defend their country to
the utmost.
Though the Swiss unions have been
passing through difficult times since
the outbreak of the war and for years
before. because Of the worldwide de-
preston, they have maintained their
strength remarkably well. Reports
show that unions affiliated with the
central organization had an aggregate
membership Of 212,6O2 at the end of
1910, decrease of AT per cent COM
pared with the previous year. But
despite the consequences of war and
mobilization, membership was 10 per
cent higher than in the crisis year of
1880.
Building and woodworkers' union
were hardest hit, on account of the
sharp decline in building activity.
Only minor losses were suffered by
the metal and watchworkers' union
railwaymen, commercial and trans
port workers, employees of the public
services and other unions.
X x x
Preparations for defense have not
put all the unemployed in Switzerland
to work, any more than they have in
the United States With industry
working full time and with a great de-
mand for labor in farming, the num-
ber of persons wholly unemployed
was 1858. The labor movement
points out that it would be erroneous
to conclude from this that unemploy-
ment had as good as disappeared.
No fewer than $500 men who would
otherwise be unemployed, were occu-
pied on emergency work, on the build
ing of mountain roads, in the Labor
Service, or in training courses. AT
the end of March there We're 8,542
men employed in labor and civilian
watching squads; and 1881 men above
the present Gallup age groups are
performing voluntary military serv-
ice
This makes a total of some $4,000
men Ga good sized number in Switz-
erland) who are not required by nor
nal economic activity, while no ac-
count whatever has been made of the
much larger number who have been
called up for national defense.
X x X
Polish resistance to the German
conquerors still persists, the American
Friends of Polish Democracy reports
The organization, with headquarters
in New York, says that the Germans
know that the Polish workers form
one of the main centers of resistance
and that they are trying to wear down
the workers by hunger and terror.
"All attempts at resistance are
smothered with utter ruthlessness,
says the account, which continues:
"In July, 1910, a strike broke out
in the Warsaw pumping and filtering
station, the workers demanding a rise
in their starvation wages. The Ges-
tapo at once interviewed and liquidated
the strike by armed force in a few
hours. I'm December, 1910, the tram
way workers of Warsaw struck on a
demand for advances on wages due
them. S. S. detachments, armed with
machine guns, entered the tram de
pots, and forced the immediate re-
sumption OF work under threat OF
opening fire.
"Despite fierce oppression, starya-
tion and misery, the Polish workers
have not given up the struggle
against the invader. In the words OF
secret manifesto issued by workers
in Warsaw, in this struggle they are
encouraged by the vision of an inde.
pendent Poland which will SWEEP
away the slavery and transform the
country into the Motherland Of Free,
DOM"