WORKERS AND THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 72, 25 March 1915, Page 6

WORKERS AND THE WAR.

LIMITATION OF PROFITS. DIFFICULTIES AHEAD. (Times and Sydney Snn Services.) LONDON, March 24. City men, discussing the prospect of the Government limiting profits on war contracts, point out the difficulty of carrying out the Labour suggestion that all profits in excess of 10 per cent should go to the State. While patriotic employers are ready to adopt the principle not to make extravagant profits, it is difficult to formulate a cut-and-dried scheme. Many contractors have laid out new capital in enlarging works to carry out abnormal orders. This will be a loss after the war unless a sinking fund is established for the redemption of emergency capital expenditure. SPEEDING UP. LONDON, March 24. ! The South Wales and Bristol Channel ports engineers and shipyard employees have accepted the principle of settling industrial disputes without stopping work. Advisory boards are being formed in tbe principal industrial areas of the United Kingdom to carry out arrangements necessary for speeding-up work. TheTe is a serious shortage of agricultural labour, 15.6 per cent of the available supply having joined the Army or the Navy. Farmers require 80,000 more permanent labourers for the harvest. On the .Stock Exchange lack of employment is bad, though over one-third of the clerks have enlisted. i SOCIALISM AT A STROKE. DREAM OF 50 TEARS. (Received 10.5 ajn.) LONDON, March 24. It is pointed out that the new law giving the Government power to commandeer factories brings into being at a single stroke the fifty years' cbeam of Socialism. Sir F. G. Banbury (Unionist member for the City of London), speaking in the House of Commons, said it would be simpler if the House gave the Government a one-clause bill, declaring: "During the war you can do just as you like." Mr. J. Hodge (Labour member for Gorton) said the bill gave effect to the contentions of the Collectivists and Socialists. CLYDE MEN GET RISE. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, March 24. The Government Arbitration Court i has awarded the Clyde engineers an lincrease of Id an hour and the pieceworkers .a 10 per cent rise.