New-York tribune., 1918-03-31

feelings as we'll And the facts were
bad enough-ship owners, coal own
ers, the London coal ring and the
food owners generally had made and
were making immense profits. A
Welsh firm of millers had made over
100 per cent extra in one years
profits on their flour mills. And in
spite of the fact that the government
is now controlling prices and has
subsidized bread to the extent of
some 940,000,000 a year the feeling
is still bad.
AS an example of this, at great
labor food conference in London on
December 20 last, where 100000
Of workers were represented, Robert
Smile said that grave crisis was
impending and that the workers
have the first claim on the food they
produce. Smillie is the president
Of the Miners Federation of Great
Britain, which has 100000 men,
bers, and is quite blackleg proof.
He gives one the deep impression
of being a man of absolute SINGER
ity. He is genuine labor man,
he has no ornaments of speech, but
means every word he says. Two Of
his sons are fighting in France, one
is at home and is a conscientious
objector. He was offered the post
of food controller but he refused,
knowing that he could not have full
liberty.
Food Measures
Taken Tardily
One may take it, then, that if the
food trouble is not properly han
died it may blaze up in fire of
open rebellion. The fact of the
whole matter is that the govern
ment is about two years too late
in its controlling measures. The
War Workers Emergency Commit
tee, the inspirer of which is Mr.. Sid
ney Webb, of the Fabian Society,
recommended on the outbreak Of
the war that the British govern
ment should take over at once the
whole food and fuel supplies of the
country, which they are, after three
years, tardily doing.
What has affected labor besides
the food is status. The munitions
act, which was hailed with Joy by
people who did understand what
labor really felt, caused by far the
worst and most dangerous outbreak
during the war. The rising on the
Clyde was due to the act. 1t is
we'll known now that when Mr..
Lloyd George came to GLASGOW to
speak to the men on that occasion
they shouted him down and called
for Ramsay Macdonald, but at the
time the seriousness Of the strike
was suppressed in all the papers.
The chief trouble of the act, which
is now amended, since Mr.. Winston
Churchill has gone to The Ministry
of Munitions, was "leaving certifi-
Gates" This clause led directly, as
the men conceived it, to industrial
conscription. The Labor party in
Britain accepted military conscrip-
ton as an urgent necessity, but
they were and are to-day intensely
suspicious Of anything like that
measure in civil life. Now the
leaving certificates worked out in
this way: When a man was no
longer wanted in munition or
"controlled" factory he had to get
certificate before he could apply
for work anywhere else. This could
be delayed or refused. If it was
refused the man found the way to
work blocked in all directions and,
under the military act, he became
liable for the army.
How 1t Worked
In Practice
1t might, therefore, easily be
used to get rid Of a troublesome
agltator or a man unpopular with
the masters. Even the delay of the
certificate meant that man was
left hanging about with no work
AMI no wages until he was wanted
But there was another consequence.
The introduction of women into
industrial life is no new thing in
England. But the war increased it
enormously. Now the leaving GER
tlficates affected them, because their
economic position was far less Sc
cure than that Of the men, adverse
~ and even dangerously. Let me
give one example which will show
how it worked. A number of wom-
en- were employed near Woolwich
on night work A watchman there
behaved to them in way that Of
ICnGed fHolr ca,,r. nf <onnx..