The Cotton Factory Times. — 1914-04-17 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

ROTES ON PASSING EVENTS.  Following upon the decision of the employers in North-East Lancashire to grant two extra days' holday per year, a large number of districts hays now made arrangements for the dates on which these holidays are to be taken. This is naturally causing some keen comment on the refusal of federated employers in other parts of Lancashire to agree to any extension. A conference of representatives from all districts connected with the United Textile Workers' Association has been called for to-morrow (Saturday), at which the whole subject is to be further discussed. It is expected that a decisive line of action will be taken in case the employers in the federated area show any further resistance to the proposed change. It is reported, however, that the resistance has now become considerably weaker, and it is not anticipated that there will be any great difficulty in getting the two days' extension applied all round.  When the employers went as a deputa, tion to the Home Secretary a few weeks ago to destroy the case built up by the operatives a few days previously in favour of the abolition of fining and steaming, there was something said at the close of the interview about the Home Secretary coming down to Lancashire and seeing the conditions of the steamed sheds for himself. A kind of understanding was arrived at between the employers and Mr. McKenna that this shoul 7. be done. If the employers think that any evidence obtained by the Home Secretary in this way will be accepted by the operatives as affecting their claim for the abolition of fining and steaming they are labouring under a delusion. The Home Secretary could only get an accurate idea of what steaming is like if he dropped in the sheds when he was least expected. Taking everything into consideration, we think the proposed visit would be a waste of time and money.  All Blackburn people were interested in the recent strike of municipal employes there, which stirred the town from end to end. It is a textile district, and as trade unionists the textile operatives were favourable to the employes of the Corporation being properly treated. In a case heard at Blackpool the other day the defendant described as a labourer, said he worked at the Blackburn Gasworks during the recent strike, and earned .£7 10s. a week. Did the men on strike ever earn £7 10s., or half that sum ? We can scarcely think those who were responsible on the part of the Corporation for keeping the dispute going through refusing the men's reasonable claims would pay imported labourers £7 10s. a week for the mere gratification of dishing trade union labour. If they did, the ratepayers should ask these .representatives some pointed questions. If the statement of the defendant in question was correct, it discloses a surprising state of affairs, What do the Blackburn city fathers say who had the town's affairs in their hands at that time?  The Oldham magisterial bench was in a bit of a fix on Monday in a case in which two cotton spinning firms were charged with allowing boys to oil spindles at a quarter to six in the morning and during the dinner hour. The inspector himself was in despair, and said it would require the wisdom of Solomon to say whether the workpeople or the employers should be summoned in such cases. It seemed to have become a custom for this work to be done outside the legal hours, but neither he nor the magistrates could be a party to it. He thought one remedy was to keep the mill doors locked until just before six. We can see practical difficulties in that suggestion. The other suggestion that the employers and operatives should try to come to some arrangement on the matter seems more feasible. Whatever is done, either by the employers or workpeople, there is one thing that must not be done. The inspector must not give up his position. He must insist on the carrying out of the law. There is a way out, and ;f those who are responsible will rot find it he must keep on the clear path of maintaining the law at all costs. If he gives way one iota it means that illegal and meal-time work will become rampant. In the interests of the workpeople the Act of Parliament should be administered rigidly. If it is, no one will be a penny the worse, and both employers and workpeople will benefit in other directions.  Amongst the questions touched upon at conferences of Sunday school workers during the week-end was that of gambling in cotton mills. Mr. G. Watts, of Boffinwood, said that some of the lads and lasses who had attended their schools were being led astray by unscrupulous men and women. They were being used in Lancashire cotton mills to send betting slips to " bookies." It was not long since a lad of 14, after altering what was on a betting slip, committed suicide rather than face the men in the mill. The mills and workshops were snares for many children. Mr. Schofield, of Radcliffe, suggested that the conference should get into touch with the employers of labour, and do something in the direction of stopping the eVil of gambling. He spoke as one in a group of workmen where gambling went on, and he thought it was not fair that, after what a Sunday school teacher had done, he should have to see, perhaps, his own scholars in a mill exposed to such temptations. We stand firmly for the exclusion of all such work from the mill. We would punish the man or woman severely who touts or connives at touting on or about mill premises. It not only demoralises those engaged in gambling, but it destroys efficient workmanship The trade unions are  Give ri above all other Liberties. the Liberty to Know, to Utter, and to Argue freely, according to Conscience?' —Mn-