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582
STRANG—STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS

and 373,936 in 1919; expenditure for 1919 amounted to 193,230. Imports were valued in 1919 at 925,235, and exports at 1,453,990, including rubber (782,037), tobacco (mostly grown on estates; 230,122), coal (78,706), copra (39,629), cutch (24,651), sago, and dried fish. The company's railway from Jesselton extends to Melalap in the interior, and has a branch from Beaufort to Weston, and a total length of 130 miles. There are four wireless stations. A Legislative Council was established in 1911 to aid the governor and civil staff in the local administration: the commercial, planting, Chinese, and native communities are represented on it. The com- pany created an opium monopoly department in 1913, following 'the policy of the Straits Settlements Government. (O. J. R. H.)


STRANG, WILLIAM (1850-1921), British painter-etcher (see 25.982), was in 1918 elected president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. In 1909 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Glasgow University. His later work includes the etchings " The Little Flower Girl " (1909); " Nymph and Shepherds " (1910); " On the Omnibus " (1911); "The Walls of the Alhambra " (1912) and "The Mirror" (1912); besides various portraits, including one of Thomas Hardy (1910). He had only recently been elected a full R.A. when he died suddenly at Bournemouth, on April 12 1921.

See Catalogue of William Strang's Etched Work, 1882-1912 (1912).

STRATEGY: see TACTICS.

STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL, DONALD ALEXANDER SMITH, 1ST BARON (1820-1914), Canadian statesman (see 25.1000), died in London Jan. 21 1914. His barony passed by special remainder to his daughter Margaret Charlotte, wife of Robert Jared Bliss Howard, of Montreal (d. 1921).

STRAUSS, RICHARD (1864- ), German composer (see 25.1003). His opera, Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), was produced at His Majesty's theatre by Thomas Beecham in May 1913 and the same year Der Rosenkavalier, first produced at Dresden in 1910, was performed at Covent Garden with great success, eight performances being given; in point of fact, this proved to be Strauss's most popular opera. His other recent works include Festliches Praeludium, for orchestra (1913), and Josephs Legende (1914). In addition to the works enumerated mention should be made of Eine Alpensinfonie, (1915, op. 64); and the three-act opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten, libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1916, op. 65). In the winter of 1920-1 Strauss visited S. America, where he officiated at Buenos Aires as opera conductor, subsequently returning to Vienna.

STRAVINSKY, IGOR (1882-), Russian musical composer, was born at Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, June 18 (O.S. June 5) 1882. His father was an opera singer, who early discovered his son's remarkable musical gifts. At the same time, however, he wished the boy not to devote himself entirely to music but to study law, and with this end in view Igor Stravinsky entered the University of St. Petersburg. At the age of 22, however, a meeting with Rimsky-Korsakov decided him in the direction of a musical career, and the former declared himself ready to take Stravinsky as a pupil. His first work for orchestra was a symphony (1907), followed by a suite, Faune el Bergere, and two short works, also for orchestra, Feu d'artifice and Scherzo fanlaslique. A meeting with Serge Diaghiliev turned his attention to the possibilities of the ballet, and in rapid succession appeared L'Oiseau de feu (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and Le Sucre du Printemps (1913). His next important work was an opera, Le Rossignol (1914), founded on Hans Andersen's fairy story of The Nightingale, of which the second and third acts were later worked up into a symphonic poem, Le Chant du Rossignol (1917). The opera was produced at Covent Garden in 1920, and the same year appeared a revision by Stravinsky of Pergolesi's Pulcinella.


STREUVELS, STUN, the pen-name of FRANK LATEUR (1871- ), Flemish author, who was born at Heule, West Flanders, Oct. 4 1871. He was a nephew of Guido Gezelle (1830-1899), a celebrated Flemish poet, and until 1905 worked as a baker at Avelghem, a village near Courtrai in West Flanders. Writing in the West Flemish dialect, he was accepted in Belgium and Holland as the most distinguished Low Dutch author of his day. He produced many short stories, including Openlwcht (1905) and De Vlaschaard (1908), a collection of which, translated into English by A. Teixeira de Mattos. appeared in 1915 under the title of The Path of Life. In 1912 appeared Het glorierijke Licht (" The Glorious Light ").


STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS (see 25.1024). In the following account of later developments between 1907 and 1921, strikes in the United Kingdom are first dealt with, sections following for other countries.

(A) UNITED KINGDOM

I. Statistics. Table i shows the total number of strikes or lock-outs recorded in each year from 1907 to 1920, inclusive; the number of workpeople involved therein, and the aggregate loss of working days due to these disputes.

Table I.

No. of Disputes

No. of Work- people Directly and Indirectly Involved

Aggregate Duration of Disputes in Working Days

1907

60 1

147,000

2,162,000

1908

399

296,000

10,834,000

1909

436

301,000

2,774,000

1910

531

515,000

9,895,000

1911

903

962,000

10,320,000

1912

857

1,463,000

40,915,000

1913

1.497

689,000

11,631,000

1914

999

449,000

10,111,000

1915

707

453.000

3,040,000

1916

578

281,000

2,581,000

1917

803

885,000

5,809,000

1918

1,300

1,142,000

6,332,000

1919

1,413

2,515,000

34,903,000

1920

i,7i5

1,932,000

27,011,000

It will be seen that the figures show a general advancing tendency, partially checked during the World War. The total for the year 1920 shows the highest figure ever recorded for number of disputes, the highest figure (with one exception) for the number of workpeople involved, and the highest figure (with three exceptions) for the aggregate duration of disputes. The exceptions in this latter case are 1893, with 30,468,000 work- ing days; 1912, with 40,915,000 working days; and 1919, with 34,903,000 working days. In 1893, 1912 and 1920 the high figures were principally due to great coal strikes; the year 1919 was a year of great industrial unrest.

As showing the general advancing tendency of the figures, it may be instructive to compare the average of the four years 1907-10 with the average of the four years 1917-20:


Average of Years 1907-10

Average of Years 1917-20

No. of Disputes . No. of Workpeople In- volved .... Aggregate Duration (in Working Days)

492 315,000 6,416,000

1,308 1,633,500 18,511,000

It should be stated that the increase in the number of disputes may be partly accounted for by improved facilities for obtaining information with regard to minor disputes, which may have previously escaped notice; but this will not account for more than an insignificant part of the increase in the figures for number of workpeople involved and for aggregate duration, since the greater disputes, involving large numbers of workpeople, have always been well reported in the newspapers. Table 2 (p. 583) shows the distribution of strikes between the principal groups of trades, taking the averages for the 10 years 1911-20.

Table 2 shows that the average number of workpeople involved in each dispute was a little over 1,000, and that the average dura- tion of disputes was about 14 days. The figures, however, vary widely as between one trade and another. Thus, the average num- ber of workpeople varies from a little more than 200, in the building trades, to over 3,000 in the mining and quarrying group; while the average duration varies from 8 days, in the transport trades, to 27 days in the building trades.

The figure for average numbers involved, and still more that for the average duration, give an exaggerated idea of what may be called the " normal " magnitude and duration of a strike. It is the great strikes, involving many thousands of workpeople, that are commonly also the hardest fought and the most prolonged. Great