THE LABOR REVOLT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 345, 31 August 1889, Page 3

THE LABOR REVOLT.

THE PARALYSIS OF TRADE. IMPRISONMENT OF RIOTERS. BELGIUM “RATS." DOCK-OWNERS OFFERING A COMPROMISE. THE STRIKES EXTENDING. 100,000 MARRIED MEN OUT ON STRIKE. HARROWING SCENES. FRIGHTFUL STARVATION. FOOD DEPOTS BESIEGED BY WOMEN AND CHILDREN. FURTHER STRIKES REPREHENDED. London, August 29. Several coal carters, at King’s Cross railway station, have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for rioting, and intimidating other laborers. The dock-owners have held a conference, at which it was decided to agree to everything eficapt to fulfil the demand made for sixpence an hour.

Matters having gone so far the dockmen at present refuse to accept the compromise, but Burns, the wellknown labor agitator, is engaged in negotiating for a settlement, which it is believed will yet be made. The wharfingers, who have accepted the terms offered, will unload on to the wharves from mid-stream, and boycott the docks. Three thousand Belgians offered their services, in place of the strikers, at the rate of fourpence halfpenny per hour, but Burns stated that one hundred and fifty thousand British laborers would at all costs prevent foreigners being employed to the exclusion of British subjects He telegraphed to the Belgium labor leaders to stop the Coal carters from coming, and was successful in inducing them to comply with the request Seventy thousand carcases of Australian frozen mutton have been landed.

The strike has extended to Glasgow, where the dock laborers are now demanding an advance of a halfpenny per hour. The stevedores have published a manifesto, in which they say they do not complain for themselves, but that they have struck out of sympathy with the dockmen, whose hard and unjust treatment they denounce very Strongly. Thousands are similarly situated and are striking daily, and the Riverside factories and foundries and warehouses are confined to unskilled labor. The men who do not belong to Unions are totally.without means, and frightful starvation has been caused by this labor crisis. Payments from the strike funds average one thousand pounds per day. There are one hundred thousand married men on strike, and the allowance is limited to one shilling and sixpence worth of food daily, for each family. Pickets get two shillings a day. Thousands of women and children besiege the food depots, where the scenes are perfectly harrowing. The Strike Committee beg that the strike may be confined to the Riverside laborers, as otherwise they fear the movement will collapse from its own inherent weakness. The Brisbane wharf laborers have cabled home a cheque for £l5O in aid Of the strike fund. The greatest excitement prevails in London.