The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08
Week s Gossip ofLondon
BY w. HAMILTON RHODEs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


 unions in the shipyard trades have now reached a definite stage. At conference held in Edinburgh on Au- gust 23, 1907, a provisional agreement was drawn up for the prevention of disputes between the employers and the members of the Boilermaker's So- ciety pending the discussion and adop- tion of a permanent agreement. The negotiations with reference to this permanent agreement were interrupted by the seris of disputes which occurred on the Northeast coast after the New Year. and one result of the disputes in that district with the wood work ing trade unions was that negotia- tions were also opened with these with view to permanent working agree ment Meantime discussion of the agreement with the Boilermaker's So- ciety was allowed to lapse, and a joint committee, consisting of seven representatives of the Employers Federation and seven representatives of all the shipyard trade unions. be- gan the consideration of an agree ment intended to apply to all the so- cieties. This committee have had sev- eral meetings. and have now agreed on proposals providing for the full dis cusslon of all questions in dispute and for their settlement without any stop page of work.
 4ACSC piOPObdlSB WHiCH dLG SOOu bO DO submitted to the employers associa- tions incorporated in the federation and to the members of the different trade unions. will apply to twenty three associations, including the Bofl- ermaker's Society, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, the Shipwrights Society and a. score of others. Although details of the pro. posals cannot yet be made public, 1t may be said that the machinery which it is intended to set unpwi1l con- sist, generally speaking. oH a system of local and national conferences, sim- liar to that existing between the En- gineering Employers Federation and the allied engineering trade unions. Any matter in dispute will be discuss ed first in the yard in which 1t crops up; then. if necessary, between the To- cal officials on both sides; and after wards if a settlement has not been arrived at, by a conference represents. ing the executive board of the federal tion and the executive councils of the unions. The details of the proposals, however, applying as they do to so many trades. differ in many respects from the engineering agreement; but it Is confidently believed that If they are formally accepted by the employ CTS associations and the members of the trade unions they will do great
 
 in the industry and prevent disputes and stoppage of work in any of the districts. The new agreement Is not only the result of very careful delib-t eratiorr on the part of employers and men,. but~4t fs also the most compre- hensive that has yet been suggested in the shipbuilding or engineering tn- dustries, and it will in all probability be fully accepted by both sides.
 ThOrne'a Defense.
 Cardinal Manning once told a crowd of dock strikers that if they were starving they were entitled to help themselves to bread. That statement Will Thorne, M. P, defends himself for having at a recent unemploye- ment demonstration advised his hear CTS to rush" bakers shops. The words he actually used were these: DO not rush the House of Commons. There is nothing there worth rushing for. If your are hungry. if your wives and children are hungry, then rush all the bakers shops, where there is some- thing worth rushing for. Some of you may get locked up, but you would be- better cared for in prison than you are being cared for now" There is likely to be sequel. What Is going on was hinted at during the question hour in the House of Commons the other afternoons when Lord Robert Ce- ell pointedly asked whether the gov. ernment meant to change the honor- able member 1Thorne), with melting to riot. "I think" replied the attor- ney general, "the matter is one for the police. But Is it engaging the at- tentton of the government" T have no doubt" repeated the suave of. fciaI, "the matter is one which Is en- gazing the attention of the police" The house laughed and then cheered a Iittle
 How great the dificulty is with which the government will have to deal. will be understood from the pro- gram just drawn up by the committee of the General Federation of Trades Unions. which calculates that at the present time something like 7,5OO,00 human beings in this country are suf- ferlng from unemployment. This, or course, beats the record of 100000 unemployed in the United States The committee declares that the problem demands instant attention, and they make a great many recommendations The trades unions wish to stipulate for the total abolition of overtime and the immediate employment or sur plus labor in the reclamation of waste lands and the acquisition by the State of the canal and railway systems or the United Kingdom.
 It was foreseen when the Patents and Designs Act was passed that some plan would be discovered for saving foreign manufacturers from all the consequences of the enactment re- qulring British" patented articles to be made "to an adequate extent" in the United Kingdom. In France and the United States, where a kindred law prevails. evasion is practised by the introduction of articles in a half manufactured state, leaving only the finishing process to be carried out in the country which protects itself with A. patent law. Now a syndicate com nosed of German, American, Russian, and French capitalists, Is coming to the help of foreign manufacturers find patentees affected by the new act. The syndicate will, 1t Is said. acquire about twenty large factories in differ ent parts of England, and will there manufacture the patented articles, or carry out the processes at cost price, charging a small commission on the sales. If this be true. the act will be shorn of many of the advantages which it was to bring to industrialiSm in these countries. Foreign firms will be saved the enormous expense of having either to build or hire factories in the United Kingdom. furnish them with plant, and keep large staffs of workmen.
 TennysOn's Centenary.
 Various plans are being discussed for the celebration next year of the centenary of Tennyson's birth. One intention Is to hold a pageant at Has lennere next summer, to be organized by Mir. Irvine, who carried through the Chelsea pageant so triumphantly. Meantime it has been suggested that 1t would be an excellent thing to se-