UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 100, 28 April 1921, Page 14

UNEMPLOYMENT

PLAIN WORDS TO LABOUR

PARTY

THE SELFISH BUILDING UNIONS

HOW TRADE IS RUINED

(fsoh ons own cowts»POHi>3:f7.)

LONDON, 24th February

Correspondents from all parts of the ' country report that the depression in '. various staple trades is becoming more and more acuto. Fourteen days' notioes ■ terminating their contracts have been . served upon thousands of miners in , South Wales, irioluding clerical staffs; i ■ 18,000 Monmouthshire miners are unem- j ployed, and 26,000 .ire under notice. A j ciluation of the gravest possible char- . . acter has arisen in the Rhondda Valley < with regard to unemployment. By-pro- 1 duct plants are closing down, and fears 1 are entertained that many of the collier- ■ ies will alfio.be closed indefinitely unless 1 unexpected new contracts come along. '1 Conditions are reported to bo very bad 1 in East Lancashire, thousands of work- * era being wholly or partially unemployed. ' Ir.e position is rendered worse by the state of union funds, which are nearing i exhaustion in many cases. It is de- 1 dared that very shortly over 80 per ' cent, of Lancashire textile trade unions ' will havo reached thj end of their re- ; sources. Those in the leading centres : have already buspended contributions and benefits, and with <!.'e approaching : torminatioii of relief under the Insurance ' Act, the statutory limit having been ' retched, Iho condiiiol of thousands of operatises will shortly be riistrssbing. ' DEBATE IN 1 THE HOUSE. Unemployment was the theme in the House of Commons a few days ago, i when the Labour Party moved an amendment to the Address, regretting ,' that, "in view of tho serious distress consequent upon unemployment and the lack of preparedness on the part of the Government to deal with the situation, there is no mention of legislation recognising the right of the genuine unemployed to work or adequate maintenance." The amendment was moved by Mr. Clynes, the new leader of the Labour Party, "Maintenance or work—preferably work," was the bnrden of his speech. Btit wh«n he was closely pressed to say what his particular proposals were, he stubbornly refused to enlighten his questioners. "If the private employer cannot provide enough work," he said, "let the- State do it." But he did not say who would buy the products, nor did he set any limit to the loss. Anyone could run State factories if he had a limitless purse. Mr. dynes minimised what Ministers, had done or weTO doing. On the whole his speech was ineffective, and did, not help at all to deal with the existing situation. THE BUILDING TRADE. During the course of his speech Mr. Clynes had rashly thrown doubt on the existence of the 50,000 ex-Service men to whom tho building unions are said to be refusing admission. He did not believe that anything like that number were anxious to enter the locked gates. "You give them the chance!" was Dr. Macnamara'o (Minister of Labour) indignant retort, and he then proceeded to 1 riddle the arguments adduced by these selfish unions for their recent almost unanimous rejection of the Government's offer. They said that they had 64,222 unemployed oh their books on 3rd Feb- , ruary; but half of these aie labourers, and of the other half 25,000 are painters, 3500 carpenters, and 1028 plumbers. The number of bricklayers, however, is only 238, and all these are men just changing over from one job to another. Yet there are 5576 registered vacancies for bricklayers, and the registrations , would be increased fivefold if employers thought it worth while to notify the jobs. Here is the crux of the whole problem. It is the scarcity of brick- ,> layers and plasterers which throws tens of thousands of other men out: of work. Building contracts, for example, have been signed for 147,000 houses. But operations have only been started on one-half, and even here the work is 11,000 bricklayers short; And yet the building unions still keep their doors tightly locked! It is a perfectly shameful situation, and the Minister for Labour grew hot with indignation as he exposed the case in- all its native ugliness. Labour simply shrugged its shoulders. Mr. Macnamara declared with emphasis that the Government were resolved to fulfil their pledges to the ex-Service men, but excused himself from explaining how just now, as negotiations with the unions have not been finally broken off. PLAIN TRUTHS. ' It was Mr. Barnes, however, who exposed the hollowness of Labour's affected indignation. This trusted and experp enced Labour leader promised to deal faithfully with both sides, but the I primary effect of his argument was to destroy tho Labour case almost in its entirety. Mr. Clynes, he said, had failed to offer any practical .suggestion, and had given no indication that he would induce Labour itself to take its part in getting the country back to normal conditions. • Mr. Barnes told his old friends that they were deceiving their followers when they ( encouraged them to build their hopes on a renewal of trade with Russia. "There is nothing in Russia," he said emphatically. On the point of "adequate maintenance" he described to the House a talk he had had with a shrewd workman who saw that one, two, or three millions of unemployed could not be maintained at full rates without a colpssal burden being thrown on to the trade of the country and on those who remained at work. He plainly told the Labour Party that lack of confidence, owing to the wanton strikes of the last two years, was responsible for much of the present unemployment, and he denounced scathingly, but still in quiet tones, tho cruel action of the building unions. Then, finally, he begged the Labour Party to act as citizens and not as members of a class, and to give up the foolish denunciation of the Government as being responsible for the "present system," and all the evil effects of capitalism. Later on, Mr. G. H. Roberts also the same good, wholesome doctrine that we should not be able to compete in foreign markete until employers j and workmen got together in an atmosphere of goodwill to discover and recognise the facts of the situation. He said that he wanted to see trade lifted out of politics and away from Government control, and he also prophesied that "a drastic cut in wages was inevitable unless there was improvement in output. £62,000,000 IN DONATIONS. Dr. Macnamara, in the course of his reply to Mr. Clynes, revealed the fact that the number, of registered unemployed on 11th February was .1,039,000. Of these, 368,000 are ex-service men. About 600,000 others are on short time. The figures ai'o very large, ■ though they have been larger in previous times of unemployment, but their gravity is much accentuated by the high range of prices. Towards- meeting the problem the Government ajid local authorities have found work in all for about 70,000 men, including 6000 on short time in Government establishments. All the Departmente have done what theyjsmldt,

but the Minister admitted frankly that it was very HUlo among so ma.ny. The Government will also have spent a million more on benefits by 31st March, owing to the amendment of the Unemployment Insurance Act, and four millions on the extension of the period of donalion to ex-service men. Sine© tho armistice 40 millions has been spent in dona- [ tiona to- these ox*oldiera, and 22 millions to civilians. < WHAT-REVIVED TRADE. One of the most effective speeches was that delivered by Mr. George Renwick, a. shipowner at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He said quite bluntly that they were driving, and had driven, the trade away by the continual upset of the last two years. "I never knew such madness," he said. "We had the ball at our feet. We have thrown the opportunity away by strikes and threats of strikes." He spoke of a ship which ought to have been delivered twelve or eighteen months ago, at a cost of £200,000. It has just been finished at a cost of £350,000, and the firm which ordered it cannot afford to take it at the price. He spoke of works of his own on which half-a-million had been spent being held up by lack of bricklayers on the new power-house. It was Enough, he said, to make him weep to see employment for hundreds of men 1 thrown away by wilful folly. He spoke, too, of the moulders' strike, and said that the effects were still with ua.' "That'e what has ruined your trade," he cried. Unemployment is rife, because the costs of production are too high, higher than they axe on the Continent, and he counselled the Labour Party to give less: of their time to conferences and running round Europe, throwing their arms round the necks of foreign comrades, who are making goods which are pouring into this country to undersell their own productions. There was no bitterness in this speech. Mr. Renwick pleaded for Co-operation between employer and employed, and said that he, for one, preferred to pay high wages so long as a good return was given; what evidently worried him was the folly shown, in spoiling' the , unexampled opportunities ' whioh presented themselves to British J,industry, after the war. j TRADE CREDITS. Mr. Lloyd George, in reply. said that 180,000 building contracts were let. Work on these would absorb 50,000 men ; but the trade unions—who clamoured for the " right to work " —stood in the way. The Government were asking tie | builders to insist on a fair proportion of ex-service men being employed. If the unions refused', the Government would stand by the employers in whatever action they took. The people of Central Europe (he went on) were in need of our goods,' machinery, and clothing, but couldn't pay. H.e hoped to secure them a supply of wool. The whole difficulty was the establishment of credit. Everybody wanted the Government to take the whole risks. Thai was not fair. The Government had provided a fund 1 of £26,000,000 to establish credits, and were taking 80 per cent.' of the risks, leaving only 20 per cent, to the private traders. The Government had tried' to interest the banks jn this scheme. The banks were quite, willing to come in if the Government would take all the abnormal risks. That was not fair, and he should feel hazier if he was quite clear there'was no politics in their attitude. It was very shortsighted policy on their part not to come in, because it,was as much to their interest as it was to everybody else's to see that trade revived and that the ma-, chine which had got stuck in the slush of Europe should be started again. Up to the present they had not been willing to-take any share of the abnormal risks. He earnestly appealed to the banks to take their fair share of the risks of trading. They were the only people who could really help. It was better for the Government, the manufacturers, and the banks to co-operate and increase trade than to find doles for unemployment. (Cheers.)

After 1 two days of debate the House rejected' the Labour Part-'s unemployment amendment to the Address by 262 to 84.