BRITISH COAL CRISIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 174, 24 June 1926, Page 7

BRITISH COAL CRISIS

IMPORTANT SPEECHES. APPEAL TO WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS. MINERS’ SECRETARY DENOUNCED. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 23. Two speeches, likely to be landmarks in the coal dispute, were delivered yesterday. Mr P. Snowden said that the trades union idea had been one of antagonism to the employers. “We have got to change that,” lie said, “and get the workmen to realise that they are partners in industry. I would like to see ike policy changed, so that unions would not be concerned merely in getting the highest wages they can screw out of industry, but rather in helping to make industry efficient, so that money will be there from which the highest wages can be paid. The attitude of employers, that workmen are paid to work and not to think, must also bo altered. Employers must cease discouraging a higher output by not sharing the profits from such.” Mr Snowden appealed to employers and workers to get together and create a new era of prosperity. The Earl of Birkenhead, who is a member of the Cabinet Committee examining the trade union law, addressing 1500 Conservative Association delegates, declaring that the primary necessity was that the controllers of trades union funds should be answerable for wrongful acts for which they were responsible. He favoured secret ballots, and believed that the difficulty of adequately arranging for these could be surmounted. A secret ballot would be useless if examination of the votes were left entirely in the hands of representatives of the trades unions. The Cabinet Committee, lie said had overwhelming evidence of fraudulent votes and bogus returns.

Lord Birkenhead said that the Government had not been anxious to take sides. He held that the language throughout tho negotiations had been as harsh to the owners as to the men. “But, as far as my experience goes,” ho said, “the fault has been entirely with those who will not consider the least concession. Neither tho Prime Minister nor the Angel Gabriel will be able to reach a settlement, so long as they have to deal with such a man as Cook (secretary of the Miners’ Federation) . I and my colleagues are determined, if driven to the necessity by this attempt at blackmail by men who declare "that they have a stranglehold on the vital chords of industry, that we shall again sorrowfully, but resolutely, gird ourselves for a great struggle. We shall not permit the nation to be destroyed.”—A. and N.Z. cable.