APPEALS TO LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 134, 3 December 1915, Page 7

APPEALS TO LABOUR

FAVOURABLE CONSIDERATION URGED.

MINERS PREPARED TO HELP ALL THEY CAN.

- LONDON, 2nd December. Mr. M'Kenna (Chancellor of the Exchequer j also addressed the Labour Conference. It was contrary to the interests of the State, lie said, for the poorer classes and the workers themselves to demand higher wages for particular trades at present. If we ha-d to mortgage our last shilling of capital, he would insist on having the means for enabling our gallant soldiers to fight. No matter what the cost of their munitions, artillery, clothes, and food, we had to pay it. Large wages had been earned, but half the present trouble, would not have arisen if these wages had not been lavishly spent. "If, during the war, we buy imported goods, we throw upon the State the extraordinarily difficult task of paying/

A voice : "What about the rich? Mr. M'Kenna: The excess profits of the rich are taxed 50 per cent. During the subsequent proceedings the miners' representative said that the miners believed that the Government was in the right in the war. and they (the miners) were prepared to do all they could to help. Every class had done its best. He urged them to leave their petty difficulties until after the war.

The conference resolved to commend Mr. Asquith's and Mr. M'Kenna's appeals to the favourable consideration of the trade unions.