The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1925, Page 11

The Housing Situation in England (Continued from page 4) of building houses of steel plates, The government immediately gave its sup- port to this method in spite of the fact that the cost exceeded that of the brick house. Some criticism was giv- en of this type, and it was stated on good authority that these houses would prove to be extremely hot in summer and cold in winter, also verm- inous and damp. The minister of health, however, was not to be put off so easily, and in re- plying said, “What if these allega- tions are true? Are slum houses free from vermin? Are they rain or damp proof? Are they always cool in sum- mer and warm in winter?” Evidently the tory government thinks that the .Slum standard is good enough for the workers. A dispute arose o¥er the rates of pay of the men who were building them. The men employed in the erec- tion were engineers, who received about £1 per week less than the building workers, and the Builders’ Union claimed that these men should be paid the standard rate of the in- dustry. Lord Weir refused to discuss the question, on the grounds that these men were members of the En- gineers’ Union, and received the agreed rates of that union, E rings once more took advant- age of the situation, and the Light Castings Federation, the only pne that need fear no competition, once more put up the price of their goods. The Fight Against Evictions After the end of the war, evictions became prevalent. The control had to some extent been relieved and it was now easier for the owner to ob- tain possession of his house. Many of the owners were desirous of getting rid and in order to get a better price for the house, first get rid of the tenant. The unemployed, unable to pay their rent out of the miserable pittance they received, were the great- est sufferers,’ ne HEY were however, well organ- ized, and were n6t prepared to take the matter lying down. They rallied their forces to the scenes of the evictions, and by force of num- bers, either prevented the eviction of the tenant, or replaced the furniture after the officials had left. They in- terview local authorities, and were of- ten successful in getting the notices cancelled, But while many of their members were houseless, there were in many localities, houses standing empty, and they took ‘the law into their own hands, and very often seiz- ed the houses and put their members into them, while the landlord, rather than go to the expense of the law to move them, often let them stay, Another tactic used successfully by the unemployed was to change over the tenants against whom the notices were served, so that when the officials came to carry out the eviction, the person against whom it was out did not live in the house, and so it was necessary to go over the whole of the proceedings afresh. The workers have often come up against the police in these fights, and many have been severely injured and imprisoned for the part that they have taken in the struggle. Rent Strikes. HE revolt also found expression in rent strikes which took place in various parts of the country. A Ten- ants’ Defense League had been estab- lished, to defend tenants, in the courts against evictions, and illegal increases of rents. The league was controlled by the social democratic element and was most careful to keep well within the law. In Manchester, a rent strike took place. Two streets were involved. The fandlords had not given the necessary “notice to quit,” and the tenants, relying on the support of the league, had a clear case. The league refused to give its support as they said it was unfair that advantage should be taken of a small error to deptive the landlord of his rights, and so the strike fell thru. In London and oth success, but. nowhere in the country was the fight so persistently and ten- aciously carried on as in- the Clyde- bank area in Scotland. LYDEBANK is a town of about 50,000 inhabitants, the main part of whom are engaged in the Engin- eering works of Beardmore and Singer. The houses are owned by these firms and in 1914 they tried to force up the_rents. The women of the dis- trict revolted and refused to pay the increase. The workers then organ- ized for the fight. in the Clydebank Housing Association. ‘ Enthusiasm was strong, and in the windows cards were displayed bear- ing such slogans as “No Increase in Rent,” “No Evictions,” etc. The landlords tried to foree the in- crease from them by issuing notices of eviction, but they were not so easily beaten. Sentries were posted at the street corner to watch for the coming of the officials, and cycling scouts were in readiness, so that in a very short time, the workers could be rallied to prevent it. The landlords then tried the tactic of suing their tenants in court for debt. On the day of the trial, when the courts opened, hundreds of dun- garee clad men, straight from the workshop, crowded into the court, packing it to the doors. The whole of the workers of the district had rallied to the .call. HE authorities were aghast. Some- thing must be done, so they got in communication with London. Some- thing was done, the rent restrictions act was passed. A victory.for work- ing class solidarity. With the termination of the act, the landlords demanded an increase of 60 per cent, although legally they only could claim 331-3 per cent. This the workers refused to pay and in Au- gust, 1920, the whole of Scotland de- clared a one day’s strike in protest. A legal flaw wag round in the no- tices that had been served on them. The landlord and not his agent should have signed the notice, and they fought them on the grounds that they re not legal... The.well-known case ‘Kerr V8. Bride wag taken into the courts and fought on these grounds. The decision was given in favor of the tenant, and although it was car- ried to the county sheriff, the court of appeal, and in October, 1920, to the house of lords, the tenant still had the victory. N 1923, the government passed a bill allowing the tenant to keep the unpaid increases, but made no allow- ance for the return of those that the landlords had received illegally. It also allowed the right of appeal to the court of the sheriff for the making good of any “bona fide” errors or amission that. may have been made. This was fought on the grounds that the errors made were not “bona fide” and as yet no settlement of the posi- tion has been reached and all the in- creases are still illegal. The struggle is still raging, and in the meantime the rents that are mounting up as it is necessary for the landlord to refuse the offered, rent otherwise that would become the agreed rent and he would have to com- mence the whole proceedings again. They cannot evict them, for the scouts are still alert. HE labor council and provost are on the workers’ side, altho there ate £70,000 owing in rates, while the landlords have so-far lost £150,000 and the amount is growing at the rate of £50,000 per month. But the work- ers are determined to carry on the fight until their demand for the pre- war standard of rent is granted. The Communist Party. ‘HRUOUT all the phases of the struggle, the Communist Party has been playing its part, encouraging and supporting the workers in the fight, whether in the constitutional or extra constitutional methods, and putting be- fore the workers its program, such as! Adequate house room for all badly housed and houseless workers. Rationing of all housing accom- modation. ‘ No evictions of the workers, No decontro! of rents. Municipal housing schemes by direct “labor. and at the same time pointed but to them that the only hope for the:selu- tion of this and all the other evils from which they were suffering was thru the revolutionary struggle for the workers’ republic. SUN YAT SEN 2 The death of Sun Yat Sen, leader of the Chinese people’s party, Kuo- mingtang, has brought to the atten- tion of the world the mighty role played by him in the Chinese inde- pendence movement. He was an un- compromising foe of western imperial- ism and the Kuomingtang party, un- der his direction, accomplished won- ders in uniting the Chinese masses. He was a staunch friend of Soviet Rus- sia and was largely instrumental in bringing about the alliance between the two nations. By IRA SIEBRASSE, ITH grain prices going up and the time for spring seeding ap- proaching we are reminded that we must make an additional outlay for seed wheat. F While it is customary for farmers to save seed out of their last years’ crop, we often sell short in the fall to meet pressing obligations. Then too a number of cases have come to my notice where neighbors have sold all their grain to get rid of weed plants that infest the grain since they do not have the necessary machinery for cleaning and the separation of foul seed. In nearly every such case the farmer has sold his grain at threshing time, but finds no seed in the market till the following seeding time, These farmers are especially hard hit bj such market spurts where they were compelled to sell on a low market and buy back when it is high. The grain gambler has all ‘the advantage ove: the grain grower. IGH wheat prices are lauded as the benefactor of the grain grower. This is only a half truth. A few grain growers may temporarily benefit where they have not sold out tho these are exceptional cases. - In time the market manipulation gets the best of every grain grower for it de- pends chiefly on the cost of produc- tion as to whether the grain grower makes any profit whatever, and these market spurts have the bad effect of boosting the price of necessities and thus increasing the cost of production for every individual grain grower while only a few have perhaps re- ceived any benefit from the increased price of grain. farmer is wrapt up in a system of production, he is also a con- sumer of grains for he is a grower and feeder of stock, wheat products, as bran and middlings, considerable of which is used in feeding pigs, calves and dairy cows; a local elevator here is grinding poor grades of wheat into stock feed for the home demand tc avoid the high freight rate on ship- ping in other feeds, the result is that the increased cost of feeding become: & very unprofitable undertaking. The grain grower is not the benefactor in this transaction usually, for grain and milling companies take their profit, from the grain grower and the feeder who frequently are one and the same farmer, So whichever way the wheel turns it is not our fortune. The producer is always the loser. rr is a time of peril for the grain grower, seed is high priced with the general result, that when seed is high:much seed is usually put in the ground. In the event of a good gén- eral crop of wheat it frequently takes several bushel of grain at the time ot threshing to pay for one bushel of seed used at the time of seeding, this is especially true of spring grain seeding. So under present conditions if the wheat market drops with the coming of the next harvest the wheat growers will lose heavily. The farmer has learned all this and acts with cau- tion but he is in a position where he is powerless to guard against the in- evitable. OR the information of those’ whc think the farmer will be financially benefitted from the increased price of grain, let us say that that will be carefully avoided by the capitalists that prey on the farmer. For the farmer does not set the price on any- thing he sells nor does he name the SN || High Prices and the Farmer price on anything he must buy. Con- sequently he invariably finds the mar} ket down. when he sells and up when he must buy. With no stability in Prices the.farmer has no control whatever over the cost of production; Often the farmer produces a crop that actually cost him more than he can sell it for. If he fortunately gains a little on one crop, he most assuredly will lose on some other. A*® farmers, our only hope to get more of the product of our labor is to join with the workers in the other industries for workers’ control, There may sometimes be reason to question whether some farmer ig: act- ing rational but to know the life that he lives and there is no reason to think that he is not a member of the ~ working class. All power to the dictatorship of the proletariat. ‘BEAUTY AND BOLSHEVIK’ AT THE WICKER PARK THEATER IN CHICAGO The famous movie “The Beauty and the Bolshevik” which has drawn a gathering of 7,000 people when it was shown in Chicago sometime ago, is coming back to town for one evening only. it will be shown on the Northwest side, at Wicker Park Theater, 1139 Mil- waukee Ave., on Wednesday, April 15, from 6:30 to 11 p. m. conti- nually. The proceeds will go to the International Workers’ Aid, the Russian Communist daily Novy Mir, and the Polish Communist paper Tribuna Rabotnioza.