Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-07-28
FRoM OUR CORRESPONDENT

London,.Into the House of Commons
on July 4th Winston Churchill reintro-
duced the Shops, Bill. This Bill enact
ing ten-hour day for retail clerks, or
as we call them ''shop assistants" can
not become law this year unless it is
not opposed. This is regarded as I'M
likely. As explained by Mr.. Churchill
the following are the features of the
Bill:
1t limits the hours of shop assistants
but not the hours within which a shop
may be open.
Shops served by the occupied or his
family are not affected.
An assistant must not work more
than sixty hours a week, and not after
p. m. on more than three nights.
He must have proper time for meals.
Provision is made for a regular half
holiday at 2 p. m, and local authorities
on the demand of two-thfrds major
ity of shopkeepers, may enforce early
closing orders.
Presumably the Bill when printed,
will be exactly the same as Mr.. Glad
stones. That measure exempted from
Sunday closing and the half-holiday.
licensed houses, refreshment, tobac-
conist, newsagent, cycle and motor
car. baker and dairy shops; ordered an
interval of at least fifteen minutes every
six hours; allowed the half-holiday to
be on a different day for different
trades or different districts of a town;
exempted shopkeepers from serving
out of hours in cases of illness, and
exempted Jewish districts from SUNDAY
closing up to p. IA.
The Bill, said Mr. Churchill affected
nearly a million assistants, and half a
million shopkeepers. 81 have often
mourned the hard fate" he remarked,
(which threatens SO virtuous an As
semb1y with the danger of an early dis
solution, but although its days are un-
certain this House can, with little
good will and diligence, pass this Bill
We ought to do it for the credit of our
reputation as a Parliament and we
ought to do it out4of consideration for
the intelligent, deserving, hard-pressed
oyerstrained, multitude of young men
and women who look to the House of
Commons as the bulwark of their
needs" The Bill was brought in and
read first time.
increase in weavers' wages recalls the
matter of the disparfties of payment in
the worsted and wooden industry. AS
shown by the Board of Trade inquiry
in 1906 women weavers at Hudders-
field earned $4.92, as against $3.42 of
Bradford and 1882 of Leeds. Certain
differences in the kind of goods woven
obscure a direct contrast between
these figures, but it is substantially
true that 20 to 80 per cent less than
Hudderf1eld rates are paid for weav-
ing goods of the Huddersfield type in
the areas adjoining that town. Not all
the goods woven fetch the high price
in. the market that Huddersfield wor-
teds command, but some of them make
direct competition
The outer manufacturers have an
indubitable advantage, which however.
is less than that suggested by the fig
ures above. The cost of mending fine
cloths woven in some Bradford mills
nearly counterbalances the apparent
saving, and the Huddersfield weavers
make considerably less waste in their
work The howns in which the lower
rates are paid for weaving are those in
in times of pressure such as have been
experienced recently, and ill-paidweav-
ing has produced a large cless of fairly
well-paid members, whose work is less
laborious and more enticing. To con-
siderable extent the matter is one of
the distribution of a fund between
classes of operatives, and individual
worsted manufacturers outside Hudders
field have found it profitable to curtaif
mending expenses by paying weaving
prices which attract highly efficient
weavers.
The Amalgamated Society of Car
penters and Joiners celebrate this year
it's jubilee. At "a conference in Man
chester last week delegates of the So
cfety were present from all parts of the
world, including Canada, Australia
New Zealand, South Africa, and the
United States. In striking speech de-
livered by ex-general secretary Apple
garth, after reviewing the Society's
activities during the past fifty years
and the successes in the way of i'm
proved working conditions and increas
ing remuneration secured by theUnion,
he finished as follows. quote these
few words verbatim because they
bring out so strikingfy the point of
view of the modern British Trade
Union leader.
.'And further, recognizing that labor
saving appliances and modern methods
of building construction are causing
us to suffer more frequent periods of
unemployment, we look to the national
Government to supplement our efforts
to maintain the right of trade unions
to- combine political as well as indus
trial action. and this meeting pledges
itself to work for, the future success of
the Society and of the Parliamentary
Labor party.
A speech delivered by J. R. Clynes. a
Labor member of Parliament, informed
the delegates that the whole attitude
of Parliament towards labor was SO
entirely changed that instead of the
annual dress parades," on labor mat
tiers, of which little or nothing came.
working class questions were the sub
ject of Parliamentary discussion now
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