MINERS' EIGHT HOURS BILL.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 144, 17 December 1908, Page 5

MINERS' EIGHT HOURS BILL.

Press Assn— By telegraph— Copyright . LONDON, Yesterday. A meeting of London merchants, aud also of the Chamber of Commerce, urged the House of Lords to amend the Government's socialistic Miners' Eight Hours Bill on the . ground that it was flagrant class leg--islation, interfering with the personal .liberty of the miners, and was carried at the instance ; of the Labour party -without consulting the workers. Several railway directors protested at the prospect of increased prices leading to economies involving the discharge of many servants./ - Lord Newton's amendment for the rejection of the Minors' Eight Hours ■ Bill was rejected in the House of Lords by 211 votes to 44, and the Bill was read a second time. . The Marquis of Lansdowne expressed his misgivings especially in the interests of consumers. Even a temporary embarassment of tho country industries would be serious when numbers of ' unemployed- were walking the streets'.