A LABOR PALACE

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1914, Page 2

A LABOR PALACE

PICTURES, MUSIC, AND BILLIARDS. GENERAL STRIKE PROVISION .....; ;..y STORE. The scheme for building a central London .palace for workmen, on the lines of a fashionables. West End club, restaurant, picture palace, meeting halls, and trade union offices combined, is being carried put by an association of about fifty London trade unions. Th« 'Labor Hail alone .will cost nearly £85,000, and .the annual "unproductive^ liabilities, such as ground rent, rates* etc., are placed at £6394. The annual profits, from meals and drinks (1000 drinks a day ac £d profit), cinemas, Sunday performances, banquets, and subscriptions, are estimated at £8141, leaving a balance of £1747. , Despite the immense scale on which the new London Trades and Labor Hall was formally approved by a conference of participating unions, a newidea has been introduced. It is now: proposed to allocate considerable space for the establishment of general provision stores, with display windows, on one side of the building, and the scheme is to supply provisions in time of strike in lieu of strike pay, up to a certain amount, probably 10s a week., | "It has been worked out," said Mr i Percy A. Young, the organising secre- ! tary, "that by supplying provisions at | cos# price, instead of money, the { unions will save 3s 2d in every 10s. | This in itself will give enormous power ! to a union conducting a strike." Credit will also be given to the unions when in need. ALL UNDER ONE ROOF. j Mr Young says that the scheme has ,'j the official support of the London j Trades Council, representing 120 ', trade unions, w^th membership .of { about 200,000.: There are probably, in > London, he explained, 70 small unions ; which meet, in "poky little buildings i all over the place." I The new v£abor Hall, which, wall i bring under one roof the comparatively small unions with memberships varying fmm 250 to 2000,. is to be at | the corner of High Holborn and Drury, j Lane, or on an alternative site in the i neighborhood. . , ; : i The restaurant' is -to be one of the ! principal features of the new hall. I Music will be provided, and there wili |be three sets of prices. Catering profits, Mr Young declares, are enormous. The members pf the club are to have at least three dining-rooms to themselves and a smoking-room lounge on the lines of the palm court in a famous hotel. There will be a luxuri- ; ous billiard-room with nine tables

■ , Theirthere is the cinemahall wher*< ; (according to the scheme) special filmsl v telling distinct Labor stories" will. ?be shown, accompanied by aa- { orchestra, and a large organ playine J special music written round the pi<>~ ■ tures. Mr Young states that arranKe- . meats have just been concluded with | trade union leaders in Germany BelS gl-^ Vanl F^an? c ?or the interchange^ | of £70,000 having been formed for" ] this particular movement, which has, I made enormous headway on the ConI ££enfc, >"W with th«~ "People's Halls." ; [ i r r » j 3 3 ? - - I | ! " i t I I f { 1 • ' 3 t 1 ; J £ 1 I ~ ' r " ? 3 i : 3 I 5 i ) f i - 3 I - 3 t 7 * i ) a i -