The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 19, 1926, Page 12

p-nemigemcennaenane We are publishing here the first of a series of three sketches on the British general strike sent to the New Magazine from London by Comrade Florence Parker, The ar- ticles are extremely interesting, as they were written by a close ob- server and participator in the great struggle. The second sketch will appear in the next issue of the mag- azine. * * @ By FLORENCE PARKER. RS. BROWN was one of the most terrible. examples of what even “a purely industrial dispute” can do to the mind of a simple British ma- tron. One shudders to think what will occur to her were the dispute at any time to take a more wide reach- ing character, She had married Brown when she was young and she had borne him three children willingly and one slightly more grudgingly, tho in fair- ness to Mrs, Brown one must admit that the grudge was largely caused by the financial insecurity which haunts / even the higher-paid rank of the Brit- ish workers. Brown had always been a keen man for his trade union and she had early realized the economic significance of trade union activity. But the war had been the first real step in the downfall of Mrs. Brown. In the country lived the sister of Maggie Brown and on her farm dur- ing those memorable years from 1914 to 1918 had worked a young German prisoner who had fallen in-love with, and later married, Mrs. Brown’s niece. But even before this Mrs, Brown had not believed in the war, nor in the righteous cause which Britain claimed as hers alone. The air raids had not had the proper effect on her, either, for instead of cursing the Germans ag any nice- minded British woman was expected to, Mrs. Brown railed against a vague “them,” never stopping to define “them” more closely, but quite con- vinced that “their” nationality was not limited to ‘the frontiers of Ger- many. In fact, Mrs. Brown had an inquiring mind and one which, tho slow to work, was not easily side- tracked. Having doubted the just- ness of the war, and having been skeptical about god from childhood, she was, as can easily be seen, a ripe subject for the sinister influence of the general strike. At the beginning Mrs. Brown found herself active on the social section of the strike committee. But this did not satisfy her very long and in a very short time she haunted the pub- lic meetings, dragging to them apa- thetic neighbors and spending her meal times distributing handbills an- nouncing such meetings. The children were galvanized into political activity and shamelessly ex- ploited at strike concerts long after the hour when they should have been in bed. Brown, busy on his strike bul- letin, received from his always devot- ed little wife, a new and invigorating amount of support and encourage- ment, ‘ For Mrs. Brown, hitherto merely skeptical and suspicious minded, found in the general strike, its work- ings, its progress and its potentiali- ties, an answer to most of her discon- tent and much of her skepticism. In short, Mrs. Brown became a political fanatic. Had she not borne so excel- lent a character in the neighborhood where she had dwelt for the past 18 years, there is not the shadow of a doubt but that she would have been described as a Bolshevik, and an “agi- tator” at that! She changed her baker because he did not share her views about the strike; she refused to pay her usual Sunday evening visit to Brown's mother because that worthy individ- ual thought that the general strike was going too far. She even accused the local branch of the Women’s Co- operatitve Guild of disloyalty to their class, for she considered all criticism of the progress and conduct of the as sabotage. She got mixed up with all sorts of ADE people, too. For example, she used to go round with the young woman who distributed the daily strike bulletin of the Communist Party and when she read that the police were after such people and stch papers she merely tucked a few dozen copies behind her baby in its ancient pram and innocently enough departed to various unknown -ad dresses. This last act, she felt, put her square with Sir William Joynson Hicks. And When Mrs. Brown caught her first sight of steel helmets on young British soldiers on the streets of her own suburb during the struggle of her own menfolk, then she did in- deliberately to get even with the gov- erninent. deed “see red” and determined quite The final touch was given when her The Terrible Metamorphosis of Mrs. Brown 16-year-old daughter, Ella, returned one afternoon from a tour of inspec- tion into one of the pretty parks in the bourgeois part of London and an- nounced that she had seen children there, of 8, 4 and 5 years old, dressed up as “special constables” and wear- ing on their tiny arms and wrists the blue and white-striped armlets which now stand for anti-strike and anti- worker, “That’s done it, my lads!” said Mrs. Brown, gazing with a chilly glint in her eye at young Bert and Art, aged 7 and 8 years, respectively. “You can join them Young Comrades you're al- ways talking about tomorrow. If > gO LN ARISE they’re training up their children against us we'll show them a thing or two. Now offto bed with you both, and see you wash behind your ears. We'll show them what the working class, for she considered all criticism against us, then those fancy gentle- men bus conductors, then steel hel mets, and now the children, They're simply asking for trouble. And they can have it, too!” *©eté And in such fashion have the Mra, Browns of Great Britain been think- ing, talking and acting during the “late lamented” general strike, Have appetites _ Brace up and c =, Demand of life And, living, kn Contentment By EDITH IRWIN Are you content with mere living, With eating and working and sleeping? Is there nothing in life that you long for, Is there nothing you seek to be meeting? Has toil darkened all, you poor creature; Has poverty smothered ambitions, Has it taken all hope of life from you, Has it made you quite blind to conditions? Do you wonder sometimes why so many only for middlings, Why some never hear the glad heart songs, But pay more than their share for the fiddlings? ome out of your sleeping; all that there is; * Let the world know you are living, ow life—what it is. “On the Battlefields of Industry ean By a Chemist. HE explosion occurring recently in a celluloid factory at Rockford, Ill, resulted in the death of five and the injury of ten women workers. The explosion was the result of the neg- lect of the most elementary precau- tions on the part of the factory man- agement in the handling of a most dangerous material. Altho celluloid articles such as combs, knife-handles and eye-glass rims are not liable to explode in or- dinary usage, as people used to fear when they were first put on the mar- ket, their manufacture is always at- tended by danger. Celluloid is made from cellulose, which is the main constituent of wood, cotton, and is present in all vegetable fibers. It was invented by the Hyatt brothers about 1860, while they were attempting to produce a printers’ roller material capable of withstand- ing atmospheric influences, At first there was a great outcry by the manufacturer of the costly articles made from ivory, amber, tortoise-shell, ete., against the use of celluloid sub- stitutes for these expensive commodi- ties. But the manufacture of celluloid has lived thru this opposition and be- come a big industry. It received a tremendous impetus from the rapid development of the moving picture in- dustry with its yearly use of millions of feet of celluloid film, The basic material used in the man- ufacture of celluloid is cellulose, which is furnished in the form of tis- sue paper. This tissue paper is shred- ded and treated with nitric and sul- hpuric acids, changing it into a sub- stance known as pyroxyline. Pyroxy- line is very much like gun-cotton, a component of most explosives, in chemical composition. Altho not so explosive, it is dangerous enough to handle in a dry state, and is usually kept moist, Camphor, a highly in- flammable substance, is now added to the pyroxyline, and the mixture ground up in drums, This mixture ts then put thru heated rolls which meet the camphor, and the latter dissolves the pyroxyline, making a new sub stance, celluloid, Coloring matter is then added at the proper time to give it the appearance of ivory, amber, agate or whatever is desired. It is easy to see from the manufac- turing process that the celluloid indus- try is an extremely hazardous one, and one in which numerous precau- tions are indispensable unless the lives of the workers engaged in it are to be constantly endangered. In the first place, the acids used in treating the cellulose gives off vapors which are very injurious to the lungs. They cause coughing, suffocation, conges- tion of the lungs and expectoration of blood. Then camphor is a highly in- flammable substance and in handling it the danger of fire is never absent. Moreover, frequently in manufactur- ing celluloid the camphor is dissolved in ether, and this solution used to dissolve the pyroxyline. Here an- other danger is added by the forma- tion of explosive mixtures by the. ether vapors. In making many articles the cellu- loid, which comes in blocks, is worked on lathes. A fine dust is present thru- out this process, and forms explosive mixtures which have given rise to many serious accidents. Altho efforts have been made to sub- stitute some other solvent for cam- phor in the manufacture of celluloid, this dangerous—but cheap—substance is still extensively employed. The in- troduction of safer methods would mean less profits for the manufactur- ers, and so, altho it might mean the saving of many workers from injury or death, capitalist industry naturally disregards the matter. THE TINY WORKER. A Weekly Edited by Johnny Red Vol. I. Saturday, June 19, 1926 No. 4 FACTS THAT YOU OUGHT TO KNO neers of America are collecting Wi money for their little paper “The Young omrade.’* You ought to help. School's out this month and its a Tine time to give other kids a copy of the “Young Comrade” to read. It's a classy little paper with stories, Puzzles np’ every thing. The lt. We. A. (tnat’s the inter. national Workers’. Aid) are having a summer camp around New Jersey where the children of Passaic strikers can stay during the summer. That's swell, The Young Pio- HERE | AM KIDS! is mel A swell artist madé this “pencil photo” and | posed for it. My mother said it is “beautifull” and Dad said: “It sure fooks as homely as you do.”” But he was joking ‘cause | know he liked it too, How do you fellows like it? Write a letter and teil me! + JOKES Paid Ad Pres. Coolidge is WANTED a wonderful man. Jokes, stories, He loves the work- |] funnies, news ers. tlen't that @jf ang letters Joke? from little boys Johnny Red: “Hey, why don’t you write something for the TINY WORKER.” Young Boy: “Be- cause what ! write Is no good. So what | write MORE JOKES “You might be PUNK gets eft, hMa- ha,” Jonnny: “That's! be right, But i won't left.| “It's a f Send it Ini aoe oe stp ip CRETE Wr sipatis mes _— al