NEW FEELING IX INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1927, Page 7

NEW FEELING IX INDUSTRY

EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED the maintenance of peace 1 OLD METHOD SUPERSEDED (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, Oct. 17. The Lord Mayor of London, adopting a saggestion of the British Brotherhood Movement, will preside to day at a Mansion House meeting at which representative employers and Labour leaders will attend to discuss methods of promoting and maintaining industrial peace. Speaking on the subject yesterday, Mr. Frank Hodges, ex-eeeretary to the miners, stated that there was in Britain ample evidence of a growing disposition towards better industrial relationship, and the method of strike and lock-out were being superseded. He said the declarations of the trade union leaders recently made in favour of saner methods in the conduct o" industrial relatione were beyond doubt sincere and well conceived. ■ The conference between the railway companies and unions’ representatives gave ample proof of the new orientation. The scheme propounded in the chemical Industry was also far-reaching in its character and must mean an entirely new status for the workmen and staff in the near- future. There might be points of difference as to details but the principles were sound insofar as they gave everybody connected with work a living Interest in the well-being of the business. Such developments must be the work of industrial leaders but if they found themselves in need of legislation for some phase of their conciliation and arbitration machinery then the politicians also could lend a useful hand. Mr. J. H. Thomas, the railwaymen’s secretary, also made reference to the move of railway’s managements towards developing conciliatory’ machinery. Speaking for the men, he declared that they were responsible and were going to pull their weight on behalf of their particular industry. Received Oet. 18, 7.35 p.m. London, Oet. 18.

A new attempt at peace in industry was made at a gathering of representative employers, Labour leaders and officials of the Brotherhood movement at the Mansion House. The meeting was convened by the Lord Mayor at Mr. Philip Snowden’s suggestion. Opening on behalf of Labour, Mr. C. G. Ammon (who was Under-Secretary to the Admiralty in the Ramsay MacDonald Ministry) admitted there had been a -rise in the standard of life-, but said the workers were suspicious of an at■t nipt. "to drive them from that standard. ' The words “master” and “man” should be expunged from the vocabulary and wage courts should replace the present haphazard wage, fixing. While he and others did not scruple to condemn social and economic condition?, deep in their hearts all were actuated by Jove of their country. Sir Alfred Mond, M.P., said it was idle to tell people they were wage slaves and that employers were grinding their .faces. It. was just as idle to call workmen lazy. Ho condemned those who made use of the industrial movement for the sake of their owu aggrandisement and advertisement. Mr.. Ben Tillett reminded the gathering of similar speeches in the same room at the settlement of • rhe great dock strike in 1888, but they had not yet brought peace. “I know very little difference between the Labour Party, the Independent Labour Party, the Left Wing or the Right Wing,” declared Mr. Arthur Henderson at a mass meeting at Burnley. "The aims and purposes of the Labour Party are the same with all these representatives, though some are anxious to find differences where none exist.”