BRITISH POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 19791, 15 February 1928, Page 4

BRITISH POLITICS

INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS REVIEWED NO IMMEDIATE REMEDY FOR. UNEMPLOYMENT. LONDON, February 13. Mr J. R. Clynes, resuming the debate on the Labor amendment to the Address in Reply, said that he feared that there was trouble ahead for the cotton trade. The employers had learned nothing from the coalfields, but were simply repeating the propositions to reduce wages and increase working hours, which were responsible for ail the industrial disputes in recent years. He urged an impartial inquiry into the cotton trade problems. Mr Ramsay MacDonald said that the Government was seeking to accommodate new industries to old by reducing wages and heaping up the cost upon the backs of the wage earners. _ “We will never Accept or agree to this,” he declared, “hence the amendment.” Mr Baldwin, replying, said that there was a tendency to imagine always the same 1,000,000 persons hopelessly unemployed. The fact was that 500,000 of these had been in recent employment, Within the past three years 50,000 new workers had found permanent employment, which was a marvellous tribute to the elasticity of trade. In many parts of the country the standard of life was appreciably better than before the war. The International Labor Office had stated that the real wages in Britain were nearly double those in Brussels, Rome, Vienna, and Paris, and one-third above Berlin. “We can only maintain the standard of life by avoiding industrial disputes, and a national effort is fortunately being made to this end. _ The real problem at the present time is the transference of workers from black spots to better areas, which is being given close attention.” The Prime Minister said he hoped the Laborites would co-operate in this effort. Commenting on the , sparse attendance of Oppositionists, he declared: “This shows that you realise nobody has an immediate remedy for unemployment. If people believed your indictment to be true we would be swept out of office to-night. You would win every by-election, out you are not making headway at the polls. We shall be ready to meet these or any other charges when the Labor Whips think it will be decent for ns to have a General Election.” The Labor amendment was defeated by 293 votes to. 187>

Colonel Gretton, on behalf of the economy group of Ministerialists, moved an amendment regretting that the Government had not promised economy relief from taxation. He admitted that the cost of the fighting forces had substantially diminished, except the Air Force, but.the civilian staffs of most ■ departments were swollen. Sir Frank Nelson, in seconding, suggested that a select committee, under the chairmanship of the head of one of the five big banks might discover redundancies in Government staffs. The amendment was lost by 189 to 84, five Ministerialists voting with the minority.