LABOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 92, 4 September 1912, Page 5

LABOR.

WILL THORNE SPEAKS OUT. A VIRILE SPEECH. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. Received 3, 9.15 p.m. London, September 3. Mr. Will Thome, referring to Lord Devonport's elevation to the peerage, said that it- seemed that the qualification most recognised by the Tory and Liberal Governments was payment into their political fighting funds, to uphold the privileges of the propertied classes. Mr. Thome demanded an eight-hours day and equal educational opportunities for children. Child labor could only be prevented by raising the school age. The religious difficulty could only be settled by State-supported secular education. He charged the Tory leaders with the responsibility of 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 trade union demands. He insisted on adult suffrage, the abolition of plurality voting, the payment of returning officers' fees, simultaneous elections, and proportional representation. Ee hoped that organised labor would stoutly oppose compulsory arbitration. The wage-earners shojild endeavor to secure collective ownership of the land, railways and production, and support an international working class movement to terminate the foolishness of spending half the national revenue on armaments and war debts.