LONDON DOCKERS' DEMANDS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16046, 10 February 1920, Page 2

LONDON DOCKERS' DEMANDS.

REMARKABLE SPEECH BY ORGANISER. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, February 6. Mr Ernest Bevin, the dockers’ organiser, and known as the “Dockers’ .King’s Counsel,” was applauded at the termination of a three days’ speech at the inquiry. Lord Shaw', commanding silence, said he was not surprised at the demonstration , Mr Beviu deuouuced the inhumanity of the casual labour system. He submitted a model budget of 120s weekly for a family of five. The employers estimated that the men’s demand for sixteen shillings a day would cost ten millions yearly. Mr Bevin argued that they were able to pay. He declared that skipping profits for the first thirty-one months of the war amounted to 350 millions. The New York docker was 100 per cent, better off. He declared it was the duty of all shipping to ensure the dockers a minimum subsistence, based on five days' pay per week. He spoke of the tragedy the mere breaking of a teacup caused a poor family, and concluded by saying that if the men’s claim was refused, the only alternative was to close schools and reduce, labour - fodder to au animal basis. Society ought not to create aspirations for the beautiful and deny the wherewithal to satisfy them. It would be better to keep the workers in dark ignorance.