MR. LLOYD" GEORGE AND LABOUR.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sia,—There has not been and there is not a single Labour leader with a hyphenated name, and I never heard of one indulging in the luxury of a club at Bournemouth, or any other watering-place. Their position has been attained through their experience in the industrial world and their intimate knowledge of the wrongs which oppress their fellow-workmen.
Mr. Barnes-Austin says : " This is, presumably, a country where the privilege of the subject to dispose of his own labour on his own terms has been hitherto accounted an inalienable right." Well, what was the position before the " abominable tyranny practised by the Trade Unions"' effected its being? Just this—long hours, bad pay, terrible housing conditions, bringing about physical deterioration of the industrial classes. Mr. Barnes-Austin does not recall the time when children under eight were worked in the factories of Lancashire for fourteen hours a day, with an overseer to whip them, from time to time, to keep them awake. He is not aware of the dangers the •miner was unnecessarily compelled to undergo. It is a matter of no importance to him that dangerous machinery was left un- guarded, and lives consequently sacrificed. He does not refer to the loss of life in the many dangerous trades by the neglect of the masters to provide precautions. These things have been remedied, but how? By the efforts of Trade Unionism. The workmen, in, union, are justified in making rules to govern the conditions upon which their labour shall be bought and sold. We punish the thief and other wrongdoer for breaking the laws of society. Why should not a workman suffer who will not conform to the rules of his class?—I am, Sir, &c., W. A. DANIEL. 10 Grove Mansions, Clapham Common, S.W. 4.
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