LOW WAGE COUNTRIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 18, 21 July 1934, Page 6

LOW WAGE COUNTRIES

When trade unionism is weak, wages are. lower than they should be, said Mr. W. Citrine, general secretary of tlio Trade Union Congress,.in a broadcast talk, as part of the "Tolpuddle to T.tT.C.'' series, states the London "News-Chronicle." ,

Mr* Citrine reforrod to the fact that tho trade unions were determined that, the competition between, nations should not be conducted upon the basis of forcing down wages to starvation level. _He recalled that some years ago a British Minister pointed out to him that if British miners could only be induced to accept, lower wages this country could get back a good deal of tho export trade the coal owners had lost to Germany. •

Mr. Citrine said ho pointed out In reply that, curiously enough, that very week the German mine owners had approached the Gonnan Mkiers' Union with almost'identicsilly tho samo argument. . The argument about composition between countries could not bo brushed aside, but tho trade unions had always contested its validity.

If. it were pushed to its conclusion, the argument wouia mean that the British workers would eventually liavo to learn how to live, on a handful "of rice,- like the Indian textile operatives or the Japanese coolies. The right method waa not to depress tho standards in the better-paid countries, but to raise tho level of'wages and conditions of • employment in tho lower-paid countries '

Reduction of tho hours of work to a maximum of forty a week, together witU an increase in tlio purchasing power of the people, was regarilc',l by the International Federation of Trade Unions as essential to, any programme of recovery. '

During June _364 drivers' licences wcra issued by the Hutt County Council.

Groups of letters recently brought into use on licence plates of motor-cars in Britain occasionally work out curiously, Oxford comes off rather unfortunately •with "DUD." Gloucester owners are stigmatised as "BAD," and even as