"FULL EMPLOYMENT AND FAIR WAGES."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11748, 24 November 1903, Page 7

"FULL EMPLOYMENT AND FAIR WAGES."

(Received November 23rd, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, November 23. •Mr Chamberlain, iv tbo course of a speech at a luncheon at Cardiff, said he believed his proposal* would put wages in the workers' pockets, restore some of our lost industries, and give u» industries which we ought to have. But we must look beyond the material benefits, inasmuch as a national greatness was not measured by income tax or the number of cheques received at the clearing house. Britain had been the greatest of kingdoms heretofore, but the days of kingdoms were gone. We w£re dealing with an Empire, and an empire cannot a great position unless it is supported and fortified by the cO-operation of its children across the sea. They would not inevitably support us unless vre were es ready as they to make sacrifices for the" greater interests coming into view.

Mr Chamberlain subsequently addressed 3000 workers at Newport. He contrasted Mr Asquith's optimi/rm with Sir H. Camp-bell-Bonnerman's quotation in a recent speech that one-third of the population was on the verge of hunger. "My ideal," added Mr Chamberlain, "is full employment and fair wages for every industrious man. Tlie allegation that the increasing • influx of foreign goods to Britain, and the decreasing exports to protected countries was due to' the employers' waiifc* of energy and the workers' want oi intelligence ia based on ignorance. If yoji discover an invention enabling you to make steel cheaper than other countries those countries would raise their tariff;?. Thus you who had crawled in under the new invention would quickly crawl out again."