Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1909-01-21

their power TO return one or other OF
the great historic political parties.
At the election Of 1906, however, a
new party made its appearance, con.
sisting of 80 workingmen who had been
returned to the House of Commons
neither as Liberals nor as Conserva-
tives, but independent of and in many
cases in opposition to both of the older
parties; and it is to the influence of the
men of this new labor party that the
social legislation which is now forming
30 distinctive a feature of our British
laws has TO be traced.
The Labor party in Great Britain is
a combination, an alliance between the
tracts unionists and the leading So
cialist organizations.
The basis of the alliance is that the
trades unionists support the Socialist
candidates and the socialists support the
trade unionists candidates, on the un-
derstanding that when each has been
returned to the House Of Commons they
there form part Of a separate and dis
tinct political party. pledged to sit in
opposition to every government until it
can form a government Of its own.
(Applause.)
Some Striking Figures.
As showing the strength of the new
movement, let me give you these fig
ures. In the constituencies where there
were labor candidates the total number
of electors was $4,000. The number
Of these who voted for labor candidates
was 323, ZOO, a proposition Of something
like 81 per cent. and it is a safe as
sumption that had there been a labor
candidate in every industrial constitu-
ency in Great Britain the proportion
would have been maintained through
out.
The party is entirely financed by the
working class (Applause), is entirely
controlled by the working class, and
allows no outside interference, either
from politician, parson or publican.
(Applause.) Let me just enumerate
briefly a few of the measures which
have this year been enacted, and indi-
cate one or two which we anticipate
will be placed on the statute books in
the very near future.
Some Measures Secured.
There is first of all the act TO enable
the educational authorities to provide
food at the public expense for destitute
school children. We had for years the
spectacle, the tragedy of tens of thou
sands of innocent children being com
peeled to undergo the farce of having
their minds crammed while they were
suffering the pangs of hunger. Every
educational authority has now power to
provide meals for all the children at
tending schools and to pay from the
public funds for those children whose
parents are too poor to provide the Bee
essary cost. (Applause.)
This year persons over seventy years
of age have come into an old.age pen
sion. (Applause.) There is no taint of
pauperism about it. IL realizes the
aspiration of John Ruskin that the day
would come when the veteran Of in
dustry, bent and worn with toll, would
draw his pension from the state as
freely and as honorably as the general
who had conquered in battles. Gap
plause.)
About the middle of this year an act
limiting the hours Of miners to eight
per day comes into operation.
During the present year we antisi-
pate-and / am now entering into the
region of prophecy; dangerous ground
that two further measures of ours
will become laws. The first Of them
is bill to establish wages boards for
certain sweated industries.
In a great free republic like this you
cannot be expected to know anything
concerning the horrors of sweating such
as we have in the old country, but when
/ tell you that il is common for women
TO be employed fourteen and sixteen
hours a day for a wage which seldom
exceed $3.50 a week, you will realize
the need there is for drastic action Of
some kind. We are therefore agitat-
ing, and expect this year to succeed in
a measure to have by law
established n certain minimum wage
in those industries, so that women who
toll at them shall be able honestly to
live on the output of their labors. Gap.
plause.)
The Most Important Bill.
The next measure and the one TO
which personally / attach most import.