Trades Union Aspirations.

Southland Times, Issue 19553, 6 May 1905, Page 4 (Supplement)

Trades Union Aspirations.

Surprise io some quarters, delight in others, lias (says a London journal) Men Occasioned by the majority of 122 by which the Trade Union and Trade Disputes Bill was road a second time in the House of Commons, seeing that last year the majority was only 29. The measure may •be described in a word as intended to authorise trade unions to do what the law now says they cannot do without risking serious penalties. They are to bo allowed to picket premises for the purposes of peacefully persuading—an excellent' illustration of apt alliteration’s artful aid ; they are to be exempt from responsibility for the acts of their agents, and they aro to bei aflowed to do ns a combination anything in furtherance of a trade dispute which an individual anight do. Essentially, as ” Lincoln's Inn points out in Tho Times, the bill would create a privileged class, whether of ” workmen ” or ” masters ’ a departure da’ngerous in itself and against the spirit of our legislation for many years past. As tho Commission appointed in 1903 to deal with the question will report in the course of a couple of months the debate bore an air of unreality — an air intensified by the action of the. Government in opposing the measure, but leaving their supporters to vote on it according to their personal views.