LOT OF WAGE-EARNERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 262, 26 January 1928, Page 1

LOT OF WAGE-EARNERS

CAN BE IMPROVED UNDER PRESENT SYSTEM MR. SNOWDEN’S CONVICTION British Wireless—Press Assn.—Copyright Reed. 11.30 a.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. Speaking last evening, Mr. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government, said that he anticipated that the conference with% the employers would effect a great change for the better In Industrial relations. There was only an extreme minority among the workers which refused to accept the responsibility of cooperation in industry. He said he could conceive no folly more colossal than the possibility at some sudden and revolutionary act to change the existing industrial system, and then immediately to build up and erect a new and superior industrial order. Progress was not made that way. True class division to-day was not between employers and workmen, but between those who put their selfish interests foremost, and those willing to sacrifice their individual interests for the common good. To say that the lot of the wageearning class could not be improved under the existing system was sheer nonsense. Improvement in the past had been won not by fighting, but by co-operation among workers. The limit of improvement u.Vler the existing order had not been reached.—A. and N.Z.

INDUSTRIAL PEACE AVOIDANCE OF DISPUTES DISCUSSION TO CONTINUE By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Tuesday. At a meeting of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress it was decided to continue the discussion with the representative group of employers on the avoidance of industrial disputes through a committee consisting of the chairman, Mr. Ben Turner, Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., Mr. E. Bevin, the secretary, Mr. W. E. Citrine, Mr. A. Pugh, Mr. W. Thorne, M.P., and Mr. T. Richards, who are drafting an interim report for the executives of the affiliated unions. POWER GIVEN TO COUNCIL The secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Mr. W. E. Citrine, on behalf of the congress, replies to the contention that the unions did not give the General Council power to take part in the Industrial Peace Conference. He says the Edinburgh Congress invested the General Council with the requisite authority to seek a basis for agreement on principles.—A. and N.Z.