The debate was continued on Thursday by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald,
who proposed an amendment attributing the Labour unrest to the deplorable insufficiency of wages and to a considerable increase in the cost of living. Regret was also expressed by him that no mention was made in the King's Speech of legislation for securing a minimum wage and for preventing the unequal division of the fruits of industry by the nationalization of railways, mines, and other monopolies. After chaffing Mr. Bonar Law for having said nothing. about our ruined industries, Mr. MacDonald declared that the only effect which Tariff Reform would have on the labour unrest would be to aggravate That, no doubt, is true, but it is also true that Mr. MacDonald's Socialist nostrums, a minimum wage and the nationalization of railways and mines, would be even worse aggravators of the situation. They would be certain to lower the product and so at once decrease wages and increase the cost of living, and on a scale so vast and so terrible as to make the bad results of Protection, seem as nothing. Mr. MacDonald ended by savagely criticizing the Government for supinely allowing the continuance of monopolies and the exploitation of the public. The workers had no trust in Conciliation Boards and Arbitration. " We have been cheated so often that we are not going to be cheated, again " was their feeling in regard to them. Taken as a whole, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's speech is a significant com- ment upon the fatuous belief of so many Liberals that they can buy off the Socialistic tiger by a policy of throwing it a few sops.
Previous page
