The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15th. 1912. LABOUR DIFFICULTIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 43, 15 February 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15th. 1912. LABOUR DIFFICULTIES.

Dealing witli industrial matters and tliq year lately ended, , a writer in a Home journal remarks that the year 1911 (was remarkable for a series of gigantic labour disputes, representing . a leap in British trade union development only comparable to that of the 1 Lo'iififin dock strike' of 1899 a fad the “now unionism” which, followed. Mow, as then .the'movement mainly affected the less skilled and less organised workers. Rising prices and stationery wages had irked them for some years, Jni.tjtb.e ipew factor which made their revolt formidable was the Transport Workers’ Federation. This body, which combined for lighting purposes in each locality the different unions of dockers, stevedores,- lightermen,' sailors and firemen, carters, and transport labourers, had prominent among its authors Messrs Tom Mann • nnd Ben Tillott, two of the three most conspicuous figures (Mr John Burns was third) in the great strike of 1899. The first blows were struck at midsummer'by the Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union, a body reputed weak and opposed to one of the strongest Employers’ Federations. Its unexpected victories stirred every discontented but hitherto hopeless worker in the country, and a veritable strike fever ensued. Not only did the Transport Workers’ "Federation bring its varied forces into battle all along the line, and successively in Hull, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, and London paralyse the whole transport industry and obtain very large concessions from the employers, but all sorts of low-paid workers—from engineers’ labourers in Lancashire and factory girls in London down to anglers’ worm-gatherers at Nottingham—organised, struck, and in most cases won. An almost inevitable sequel was a railway strike; not merely because the railwaymea wore one of the largest classes of discontented and on the whole low-paid workers but because many of them, particularly the van drivers, were doing work identical with that for vdiich higher wages had elsewhere been obtained by striking. Before the transport disputes were all settled railway disputes began to overlap them; and the events of Sunday, August 13, at Liverpool, when the police dispersed a vast crowd in St. George’s Square, precipitated a crisis. lA Royal Commission on the points in dispute rejjorted in October; and, after some adjustments and a debate in Parliament, peace seems to bo assured upon the linos it recommended. Much unrest, however, still affects the industrial world. A fierce transport strike at Dundee has but just finished ; a cotton war involving all Lancashire is in progress; the coal miners are balloting as to whether they shall start a national strike for a minimum wage. The main fruit of the movement so far has been a widespread rise in the wages of low-paid labour and in the membership of the transport unions. ft cannot bo said that the methods of industrial war change greatly, and a railway strike always tempts Governments to make an abnormal use of troops. '! lie New Year did not open auspiciously, and dark clouds hang over tire industrial world in the Old Land. In .Brisbane the struggle to paralyse trade is still being maintained, while to come nearer home the meat worker:-.’ strike is being watched with some anxiety, though it is thought that the 1 good of the people themselves will prevent the trouble spreading beyond i the industry affected.