Laugh

"James Morton has the laugh on Lady Astor," said A. J. ("Emperor") Cook, Secretary of the British Coal Miners' Federation, returning last week to London from a triumphant visit to Moscow (TIME, Dec. 20).

"James Morton," continued "Emperor" Cook to newsgatherers, "asked me to pay his respects to Lady Astor who so kindly paid his passage to Russia.* As a skilled worker, Morton is getting $20 a week -- $2.50 more than his last wage in England. He says he can save $5 a week, whereas he never quite earned enough to make ends meet at home.

"Mrs. Morton has two rooms and a kitchen in a converted hotel which are roomier and cheaper than the former quarters of the family in Liverpool. Food costs less than in England, school and doctors cost about the same, and clothes she buys through a 'cooperative' at not much above the English prices.

"She never wants to return to England except to visit friends. She enjoys the Russian movies and shows and has just received a cheap ticket to the first night grand opera ballet. The children are already talking Russian, and the 9-year-old girl is also learning German and music.

"Morton works an hour a day less than in England, but says that the job is harder owing to the antiquated equipment. The factory runs smoothly and is now producing " an output equal to pre-War times."

Questioned further, Mr. Cook declared that he brought back from Russia "some wonderful presents:" 1) a pledge from Russian labor unions to levy upon their 9,000,000 members for a gigantic fund to relieve the distress caused among British miners by the collapse of their coal strike; 2) three bronze statues, totaling half a ton in weight, and displaying workers in attitudes of extreme revolutionary truculence; 3) an entire series of medals and commemorative placques for British mine leaders who took an outstanding part in the coal strike.

*She was "called" by Mr. Morton when she bluffingly offered to send an English laboring man to Russia, if she could find one who would promise to stay there two years (TIME, Dec. 21, 1925).