LABOUR CONGRESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1536, 4 September 1912, Page 7

LABOUR CONGRESS.

BRITISH WORKERS' DEMANDSBITTER ATTACKS ON LIBERALS AND TORIES. FRANCHISE DEMANDS. _ B? Telegraph—Press Association— Copyrreht ■ ■ ■•' London, September 2. Mr. Will Thome, M.P., in his presidential address to tho Trade Union Congress at Newport, blamed the Government for defeating the transport workers. Ho declared that the coal strike had brought the nationalisation of tho mines nearer. The Scottish, dockers' delegate asked the congress to repudiate syndicalism, but was ruled out of order.

;, (Rec. September 3, 9.15 p.m.) 1 London, September 3. Mr. Thome, in his address at the Trades Union Congress, in referring to the elevation of Lord Devonport, Chairman of the Port of London Authority, to the Peerage, said it seemett that the qualification for a Peer most recognised by Tory and Liberal Governments was a payment into the party and political fighting funds to uphold the privileges of the propertied classes. Mr.' Thome demanded an' eight-hour day and equal .education opportunities for all children. Child-labour, he declared, could only be prevented by raising the school age, and the religious difficulty in the schools would only be settled by the State supporting secular education. He charged the Tory leaders with the responsibility for the attacks on Catholic Socialists at the Belfast shipyards. If the Government had done its duty those high-placed individuals would have been put where thousands of Irishmen had been put for less violent language. The Franchise Bill did not meet the trado union demands. He insisted on adult suffrage, the abolition of plural voting, the payment of returning officers' fees, 'simultaneous elections, and proportional representation. Mr. Thome also stated that he hoped organised Labour would stoutly oppose compulsory arbitration. Wage-earners should endeavour to secure the collective ownership of land, railways, and production. They . should support the international working class movement and terminate the foolishness of spending half the national revenue on armaments and war debts.

SYNDICALISM. (Rec. September 3, 11.25 p.m.) London, September 8. 'Although tie Trades Union Congress over-ruled the proposal to repudiate Syndicalism, thus avoiding a cleaT issue, the question' will be resubmitted in a less direct form later. , ■