77). Filled with despair, people "were seriously contemplating and frankly discussing the possibility that the Western system of society might break down and cease to work" (Toynbee in Bradshaw, p. xvii).
In October of 1930, Huxley visited a mining village in Willington; what he saw there contributed greatly to his sense of gloom and decay. In Willington, the miners continued to face unemployment and diminished living conditions as a result of a general strike in 1926. In the years immediately following World War I, England's coal industry had fared unexpectedly well because its European competitors were still recovering from the effects of the war. However, when production in neighboring countries resumed at the middle of the decade, British mine owners decided that the only way to remain viable was to implement longer hours and lower pay for their workers. In protest, nearly 3 million union members from the railroad industry and the iron, steel, and building trades officially went on strike on May 3, 1926. Their action was short-lived. Not only did the government devise an emergency system of transportation, which weakened the impact that the work stoppage had on the general population, but, unlike previous protests, the general strike of 1926 was not violent.
This is a free page. This page contains 179 words. This
article contains 3,717 words (approx. 12 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Brave New World Access Pass.
