On Thursday a deputation from various trade organisations waited upon
the Home Secretary with reference to the Coal Mines (Eight Hours) Bill. Among the bodies represented were the Iron, Steel, and Allied Trades' Federation, the Clyde Steamship Owners' Association, the Engineering Employers' Federation, and the Steam Fishing Vessel Owners' Association. Sir Hugh Bell, on behalf of the Iron and Steel Trades, by far the largest coal-consuming industry in the country, declared that the present Bill must either diminish the quantity of coal raised or increase the cost, and it might possibly do both. The common estimate was that the increase of cost would not be less than 10 per cent. If their fears were realised, as many as thirty thousand or forty thouSand men would be thrown out of employment in the iron and steel trades alone, and, with their families, the people concerned would number a hundred and fifty thousand or two hundred thousand. Mr. Beeching, for the Steam Fishing Vessel Owners' Association, said that the Bill would have the most disastrous effect upon the whole of the steam fishing industry.
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