LABOUR MATTERS

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16945, 21 September 1920, Page 7

LABOUR MATTERS

BRITISH MINERS' DEMANDS. (Bv Cable—Press- Association—Copyright.) (Beuter's Telegrams.) LONDON, September I£. i Owing to the fact that the Coal Con-! ference adjourned with Mr Robert Smillie's uncompromising insistence on n,u immediate increase of 2s per the coal situation is again generally regarded as one of extreme gravity. Some circles believe that the miners will push their distaste for an enquiry to the extreme action of a strike. After the conference, members of the miners' exexcutive declared that if the Government had said its last wofd upon the. wages question, a strike was inevitable. ' Sir Robert Home, Minister of Labour, says the-questions of wages and increased output are inseparable. Hitherto, every fresh advance in wages has been linked up with a diminished output, because, it was declared, every increase merely stimulated a greater number of men to absent _ themselves from work. Sir Robert desires to raise the output to the pre-war level of 287.000,000 tons, which, he believes, is easily attainable, seeing that 200,000 .more men are employed than was the case in 1914.

It is significant that a sub-committee of the Triple Alliance met after the conference and discussed arrangements for co-ordinated action in the event of a strike.

The Coal Association, in a statement on coal Viewers' wages for Juno, shows that the first pro up averaged over £20 a week, the second £15 a week, the "Wiird £12 a week, .and the fourth £10 a w<>ok.

Mr J. H; Thomas, M.P., in a speech pleading for industrial peace, suggested that as the Government now possessed! all the data, it could settle the miners' trouble itself. He justified the minors' demmds on the ground of the increased cost of living. It would be a crime if a strike occvirred. Labour leaders were striving for peace, and they must be assisted. Let all help to prevent what niipht prove the most disastrous and far-reaching struggle in the history of Britain, a strangle that could easilv develop into something more than an industrial fitrht ; and shake the Empire to its foundations. GERMAN COAL MINES. ("The Time*.") (Received September 21st, 1.20 a.m.) BERLIN, September 20. The Royal (sic) Commission on Coal recommends the Socialisation of the industry. A majority report proposes control by an "Imperial" Council. The minority report favours the retention of the owners on the directorates. COTTON SPINNERS* STRIKE. (Reuter'e Telegrams.) (Received September 21st, 1.20 a.m.) LONDON, September 19. Two hundred mills will be rendered idle in Oldham on Monday by a strilco of spinners, who have repudiated an agreement concluded by their union on their behalf. Thirty thousand operatives aro affected. "DAILY HERALD" CONTROVERSY. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, September 18. Mr Ernest Bevin, of the Doekers' Union, a director of the "Daily Herald." has written to Mr Lloyd George, protesting against the official statement that the "Herald" would not ] have taken the public into its confidence regarding the proposed Bolshevik subsidy had it not known that the secret could no longer be This stateI nient Mr Bevin regards as a reflection upon the "four trade union-officials whoare directors of the "Herald." Mr Lloyd George, replying, recapitulates the* damaging disclosures already made concerning the negotiations, and concludes: —"It appears inconceivable that directors who were really exercising a business control over the concern of which they were trustees for the trades unions, should not have been acquainted with what was going on. If they were ignorant of such • vital matters. it is a sinister commentary on the control exercised by the trade union representatives over this organ." Mr Bevin, replying, charges Mr Lioyd Georce with side-tracking the issue with his usual'ability, and |not maiing his charges definite and explicit. Mr Bevin reiterates that the directors i declined the offer as soon as it came to their knowledge. WAGES AND TAXATION. BERLIN, September ID. ■ Herr Wirth has resigned the portfolio of .Minister of Finance as a protest against the granting of higher wages to the portal and railway officials without a simultaneous increase in taxation. CONCESSIONS IN ITALY. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) ROME, September 19. An ' agreement lias been reached by the Milan manufacturers granting 4 lire per day increase to adult workers, and increases of 80 per cent, to those under 20 years of age, and 60 per cent, to women and children. Several factories have been evacuated, and the red and black flags have been everywhere lowered. . Shots were fired at tho Rome-Milan express train near Rovoredo. A woman and a child were severely wounded. 44-HOUR WEEK DISPUTE. SYDNEY, September 20. Tho boilermakers and • engineers working for private firms and at the Government dockyards worked on Saturday. A number of the stovemakers were absent, although the Stovemakers' Union decided that members should work on Saturdays. Tho Painters' Union is asking for 48 hour rates of pay, for 44 hours' work, and is encouraging no Saturday work *ky giving rebates in "fclio contributions of members who do not work on Satur(Received September 20th, 9.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 20. Mr Justice Beeby lias accepted a commission to enquire into the question of the forty-four hours' week.