OUR LONDON LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 15308, 7 October 1913, Page 7

OUR LONDON LETTER

[By W. L. Geojqe.] August 29. When dealing, in my letter of last week, with the increase in the cost of living in England, and expressing the view that our industrial situation would shortly lead to strikes, I did not expect confirmation so early as the following three days. But the statement in the Press of the workers’ grievance seems to have fed the flames, for we are in the throes of an epidemic of small strikes; in a dozen places m London th e men have come out —plate-glass makers, ropcmakers, bookbinders, bakers, motor mechanics, and electricians. True, these are small movements; and affect only some 20,000 men, but they are all part of an impulse, and naught save the petrels that fly before the storm; a much larger stir is indicated by the resolution passed by the London rail way men in the course of the week-end for an day all round and a' 30s minimum wage. .This is an exact'echo of my forecast of last week, and though no national strike is expected, it is / clear that the workers must be met fairly. The employers appear to realise this, for a number of firms nave given way to the demands of the painters, while the Select Committee appointed to consider grievances in the Post Office have recommended a general rise in wages, coupled with the far more important suggestion that the trade unions of postal servants should be recognised. The latter is the significant point. The committee do not advise full recognition of the unions, but advocate “ conference ” when required. That has only on© meaning : the coriimittee do not want to bully the Postmaster-General, but they are giving him a strong hint that the time has come for him to take the initiative and recognise the unions. A very tactful move, for it enable the Post Office to take up a graceful attitude, to give more than it is actually told to give. I trust that Mr Herbert Samuel will take this hint, and not land the British public into one of the postal strikes which have so often dislocated the trade of France and Italy. He should not he carried away by the heavy defeat of the Labor party at Chesterfield last week. It is true that the seat was formerly held by a. Labor man, and that-the-Derbyshire miners refused to obev the fiat of Mr Ramsay Macdonald and the Labor chief office; that they elected their own mine official, a mere Radical, in defiance of him—but what does that mean? It means much more than the return of a parliamentary Labor man—viz., that the workers are to-day so determined that they cannot be controlled from London. If that is not the spirit out of which comes a bitter industrial movement, the experience of years must go for nothing. Both the State and employers must ■he made to realise it, or they will soon plunge the country into chaos. , **#«•*** It is reported that an, agreement has been arrived at. between'"the Imperial and the Canadian Governments' for uniform naturalisation, and suggested that the other_ colonies have also come into line. This is not yet confirmed, but must inevitably come ’ about in course of time, for the present.position is absurd. To-day a foreigner may reside for 20 years in New Zealand, fot instance, become a naturalised Hew Zealander; bound by your laws and subject to the Imperial Governor, and yet in Great Britain lie will not be a British subject. Such curious results might follow that a French child who emigrated from New Caledonia to New Zealand, was naturalised in early yout-fi, and ultimately rose to the rank of your Prime Minister, could not in Great Britain become a borough councillor or a volunteer. The law must be unified, but our own must then ho modified, for we naturalise Chinamen and Japanese, who are not acceptable to you. We must proceed carefully, so as not to injure the feelings of our fellowsubjects in India, South Africa, and Hongkong, but it might be possible to continue to naturalise the yellow man in Great Britain while leaving the Dominions the right to discriminate. London has nothing to fear from the Jap, but we must recognise that the white man of Oceania is entitled to protect his race. I understand that the question will bo in the forefront at the next Imperial Conference. * 7* #. ■£. -54* * #

We have been muct interested in the report on your trade in 1912, sent in by the Commissioner, Mr W. G. Wickham, notably in his views on the results of compulsory arbitration. He appears to think that it has not resulted in better relations between your employers and workers, which, judging from your cables, is correct enough. Still, it is clear that an Act which has given 42,000 workmen an average wage of 44s 3d a week has done something for your country. Interesting, too, are the figures which show that the preference you give British goods has not served us much, as' only 30 per cent, of your trade is affected by it, and that even that Great Britain cannot hold, as onethird of the preferential trade is in the hands of the foreigner. Apparently the admission of Canadian goods on Imperial terms has enabled the United States to squeeze into yodr market by establishing. Canadian branches or forming Canadian firms with American capital. There is only one lesson to be read from this: if you tax, you must tax hard. Small duties are ineffective. If we are to have Imperial Preference we must be ready for a M Kinley tariff, for 60 per cent., for 80 per cent, ad valorem duties, and Freetrade inside those duties. Mr Chamberlain’s 10 per cent, is; merely playing with the problem, and if in due course we hesitate, we shall assuredly be lost.

* * * * * * Olympic Games fund is swellingsome £7,000 being already available. This is an appeal for £IOO,OOO, headed by the Duke of Westminster, to discover “hidden talent," runners notably, but also cracks who can box, Jump, throw the disc, and piit the weight, so that we may retrieve our defeats on the last occasion. The appeal is having a mixed reception, for the Olvmpic Games are, and must remain, the property of amateurs, must not be disgraced by the buying and selling of men which characterises football, and is creeping into cricket. The £IOO,OOO is not going to be devoted to these bag© objects but if large sums are to be spent on coadimg young athletes for two or three years they will cease to bo amateurs by the the trainer has turned them out “fit”; they will bo good for nothing save their branch of sport, and will become professionals. Thus the amateurs will be robbed of their, best men and, little by little, sport may bo obtainable only at £5 a week. A reaction is in progress, but wry little can be done except by the Press; if w© steadily refuse to report amateur performances where a competitor is admitted who does not work for his living in some profession or trade, or, failing that, has no private means, we can restore to amateurism the lustre which it is losing, and make the British games the clean things they were a century ago, when the hundred-guinea cricket purse barely covered the expenses of an eleven for transit, lodging, and food. * ***** * I, extract some interesting facts from' Mr Valent iae’s Steer’s new book, ‘The Romance of the Cinema.’ It appears that in 1907 there were but 500 men working in the picture theatres in our islands, and that io-day there are 125,000. This is a phenomenal development; an industry which, pays out £12,000,000 a year in wages, and provides the pleasures of 400.000. people can claim to be a national factor. It is more; it is an international factor; in America the patrons of the cinema ' theatre number about 1.800.000. a, year; there are picture palaces'iii little Polish towns, in China, and in Japan. Enormous sums are spent, employees paid £5,000 a year, locomotives and bridges cheerfully destroyed, £7,600 given for the film of ‘Quo Vadis?’ 800 men employed to build a fort so that it may be blown up/ These are staggering facts, 'and many are, .the letters which protest'in the' papefS' that the pidture palace i® degrading public baste. That is an exaggeration; it is true that most of the dramas are crude, many vulgar, but I have myself seen' real comedy, w ild animals at play,, and good, thrilling* adventure on the filin. If we remember that the class that haunts.' the picture palace is recruited mainly from that which crowded

,in drinking saloons or indulged in. rowdy street years ftgo, our judgment must be less severe. At any rate tie picture palaoa is generally, clean and devoid of brutality; dt is but it is much less coarse than its ancestor, the old-fashioned music-hall On the whole, it appears as a civilising factor, and there is no limit to the good it may yet do, while there is nothing to show that it has done anv harm.