LABOUR'S NEW WORLD

Northern Advocate, 23 June 1920, Page 1

LABOUR'S NEW WORLD

WAGES MORE THAN DOUBLED

BRITISH GAINS

LONDON, April 15

Most people have abandoned hope of ever seeing the birth of the new world of universal brotherhood and contentment which was to rise out of the ruins, of the old world whose hydraheaded monsters, such as militarism and oppression, which had so long baffled the noblest aspirations of human nature, were destroyed in four years of colossal conflict. The world we live in to-day is so much more closely encompassed with much misery and hardship, with poverty and discontent that the ideal on which the public attention is now centred is not a new world, but a return to the comparatively happy conditions which existed before the war began. But it is obvious that in 'Great Britain at any rate a now world has dawned for the working classes. As a result of conditions created by the war the lot of the labouring classes in Great Britain has been improved to a degree that twenty years of peaceful progress along constitutional lines would not have obtained for them.

Their wages have been increased and their hours of labour Wave bqen reduced. It is doubtful if there is a single trade or industry in Great Britain the workers in which havo not benefited both by reduced hours and increased wages. The positon of the railway men, who before the war were one of the worst paid sections of a community in which low wages were the rule, typifies the economic progress that has been made by the British workman since the war began. Only a little time before the war the great railway companies of England would not recognise the trade union formed by their workers. They were actuated by the knowledge that the law of supply and demand with respect to labour, in a market where a supply was always! greater than the demand enabled! them to keep wages down and to refuse to enter into negotiations \wtha trade union of their employees formed for the purpose of raising wages and improving working conditions. But as the result of the conditions created by the war the •r'aihvay trade union has now a share in the administration and management of the railways on all matters that affect wages and working conditions. The annual wages foil of the railWay companies has increased from £47,000,000 before the war to a sum of nearly £130,000,000. The rate of wage of every man employed in any capacity on the railways has been more than doubled compared with the rates ruling before the w&r, and his hours of labour have been reduced, thus rendering it necessary to add to the number of employees and further increase in wages bill.

FARMERS AND DOCKERS. Take the cases of two other see-

tions of the workers who were extremely badly paid before the war— the farm workers and the dock Mw ourers. The wages of farm workers varied in the different counties before ifche war (as they do still), and local customs varied with regard to the payment of extra work at harvest time. But in some counties the wages of farm workers were as low as 12/ a week, and in most of them they ranged from 14/ to 18/, On | such a wage the farm worker was expected to marry and bring up a family. But as the result of successive increases in wages authorised by the Agricultural Wages Board (which, was constituted by Parliament during the war) the minimum for farm workers has been _ fixed at 42/ a week, with extra pay for overtime beyond an eight-hour day, and also for Sunday work.

Before the war the labourers at London docks were paid 7d an hour for a nine-hour day. Successive in, creases made during the war, mainly to meet the increasing cost of living, raised the rate to 1/5 i an hour. But as the result of an investigation into work at the docks, the claim of the men to a wage of 16/ a day of eight hours has been upheld by the newiyconstituted Industrial Court. This award has aroused discontent among other classes of workers, especially among the lowly paid occupations of the middle classes. Clerks, curates, school teachers and shop assistants find themselves in receipt of far less remuneration for their work than is paid to unskilled labourers. But the fact that unskilled labour at the London docks is now being paid at the rate of 27 an hour is emphatic evidence that a new world has dawned for the British labouring classes.

I've a dear little wife, the star of my life, Whose blue eyes wiith love-light shino, And a beautiful boy. our pride and In that dear little home of mine. Oft in winter they wait by the garden gate To greet me with rapture pure: And ask did I buy their needed supply Of Woods' Great Peppermint Cure.

STARTMNG CONTRAST. It is estimattd that the total increase in wages paid to workmen in all trades and occupations in Great Britain amounts to £8,000,000 a week, compared with the wages paid before the war. It is true that in most cases the increases have been granted to meet the continuous rise in tht cost of living. But in the cases of the railway workers, the dock labourers, the farm hands, and others, the proportionate increases in wages have been much greater than the proportionate increase in the cost of living. According to the latest official statistics, the cost of living is now 135 per cent, above the rate in July, 1914. But the official statistics do not take into account the use of substitute foods (such as margarine for butter) and other forms of economy in food and clothing adopted in almost every household with the object of reducing the cost of living. It is probable that the rise in the cost of living, even in workingclass homes, where the room for economy has been less than among classes of the community accustomed to a higher standard of living, has not been higher than 100 per cent. But the increase in wages has been more than 100 per cent in many occupations. The dockers' wages are nearly 250 per cent, higher than in 19i14, the farm workers wages are

jvbout 200 per cent, higher, and the railway men are receiving about 150 per cent, more than they did in 1914. MUST COME DOWN.

No doubt wages will fall when the cost of living falls, but no one believes that wages will ever go back to the low rates which ruled before the war. The wages scale agreed to by the Railway Trade Union and the (Government (which still exercises over the railways the control assumed during the war) is based on an understanding that when the cost of living becomes normal the rate of wages will remain pemanently 100 per cent, above the rates ruling in 1914. It is safe to say that the return to normal conditions will find wages in many trades in Great Britain permanently fixed at double the rates prevailing before the war.

; This is the new world which war [ conditions has created for the British working classes. Eminent political economists of the dry-as-dust school, who have not yet awakened to the fact that this new world is a permanent reality, are busy pointing out in the English newspapers and other publications that the labouring classes in being fulily recompensed by increased wages to meet the increased cost of living, are shirking their share of the burdens imposed on the nation by the war, and are passing .it on to other classes of the community. They deplore the fact that the selfish attitude of the workers in demanding high wages is keeping up the cost of living for other people, and is retarding the return of the community to the happy conditions that existed in 1914. But the labouring classes of Great Britain have emancipated themselves from the conditions which existed in 1914, and have no intention of returning to them. They have secured concessions that they will not. part with; they are able to insist that the industrial life of the nation, Which is now being reconstucted, shall be based on recognition of the fact that 'labour has ceased to be a commodity subject to the laws of supply and demand. They are insisting that in the new world Which has dawned for them the industrial system shall be founded on recognition of the fact that the labourer has a right to a fair standard of living for himse'tf and his family, and some degree of leisure in which to enjoy life. The community must make up its mind to the fact that the prices of commodities will not return to the low standard of 1914, because wages iviil not return to the old standard. Eminent political economists who com-? plain that the labouring classes are shirking their share of the burdens of the war will have to readjust their perspective, and recognise that the explanation lies no/t' solely in the selfishness of the labouring classes, ■but to a large extent in the selfishness of those classes which before the war denied to the labouring classes a fair share of the comforts and decencies of life.