LABOR AT HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1920, Page 5

LABOR AT HOME.

NEW WAGE FOR DOCKERS,

TRAGEDY OF WANT REVEALED. By Teleiraph.—Press As3n— Copyrislt. Received Feb. 9, 9.20 p.m. J London, Feb, C. Mr. Ernest Bevin, the dockers' organiser, and known as "the dockers' K.C.," was applauded at the termination of a three days' speech at the transport workers' Court of Inquiry. Lord Shaw, commanding silence, said he was not surprised at the demonstration. Mr. Bevin had denounced the inhumanity of the casual labor system, and had submitted a model budget with a minimum of 120s weekly for a family of five. The employers estimated that the men's demand for sixteen shilling.? a day would cost £10,000,000 yearly. Mr. Bevin argued that they would be able to pay. He declared that the shipping profits for the first thirty-one months of the war amounted to £350,000,000. The New York docker was a hundred per cent, better off. He declared it was the duty of all shipping owners to ensure the dockers a minimum subsistence based on five days' pay weekly. Mr. Bevin spoke of the tragedy the mere breaking of a tea-cup caused a poor family, and he concluded that if the claim was refused their only alternative was to close the schools and reduce labor fodder to an animal basis. Society ought not to create aspirations for the beautiful while denying the wherewithal to .Satisfy them, 'it would be better to keep workers- i;i the dark and in ignorance.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

[A cable, dated London. December 31, stated: "The Transport Workers' Federation has accepted the employers' offer of a court of inquiry for the investigation of the dock workers' claim to 10s n day as a minimum wage. The court will consist of three employers, three workers, and an independent chairman. It is hoped thus to prevent a strike of 150,000 men."]