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themselves at first hand regarding working conditions, hours, wages, and the use of up-to-date machinery in representative American industrial establish

ments.

The invited men will include a fitter, a turner, a machineman, a boiler. maker, a moulder, and a pattern-maker.

They were to be chosen with the knowledge and assistance of their Trade Union, and would be quite free to form their own opinion of what they saw in the United States. The only stipulation made was that these guests of the Daily Mail should be "working Trade Unionists in good health and over thirty years of age."

THE generous provision made for each of the tourists by our contemporary is as follows:

Beginning of
Wisdom

(1) All his travelling and hotel expenses.

(2) Full weekly wages, time or piece. Compulsory weekly insurances will also be paid. These moneys will be sent to the men's wives or representatives weekly.

(3) An allowance of £20 for outfit.

(4) A personal allowance of £3 weekly.

(5) A life and accident insurance policy for £1,000 for the duration of the

tour.

Mr. William Mosses (for many years General Secretary of the United Pattern Makers' Association, and also General Secretary of the Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades), who was a high official in the Labour Ministry during the War, and is one of the most respected men in the Labour World, will accompany the delegation on their five or six weeks' tour, which cannot fail to be extremely interesting, and should exercise considerable influence on labour developments at home. In the course of a letter to the Daily Mail expressing warm approval both of the project and of the considerate arrangements made for the trip, Mr. George Barnes "touches the spot" when he says:

Our leaders of labour have themselves been obsessed by outworn theories of class conflict. They regard Labour as a class apart, against whom the hand of everybody is always uplifted and whose hand must therefore be always uplifted against everybody.

For everybody concerned in Industry, Mr. Barnes insists, including the worker,

the main thing is the production of goods. . . . Have the Americans anything to teach us in this field? Do they, more than we, put their heads as well as their hands into their daily work?

There, I verily believe, is to be found the beginning of wisdom. I do not say the end, because consumption also is important and high wages the road to it.

But low production must mean low wages, whereas high production in this country of effective industrial organization would, I am sure, bring high wages in its train.

The country which is producing most is the country which is doing the best for itself. Is America that country? The Daily Mail Mission will tell us. The main thing for its trade-unionist members to remember is that they should free themselves from bias and conduct their investigation with open minds.

I am pleased that my old friend, William Mosses, of the pattern-makers, is going with them. He is an old trade unionist and will be of great assistance to them, not only because of that fact, but also because he is no stranger to American trade unionists.

Good luck to them all!

of Parliament

PARLIAMENT was formally opened by the King, accompanied by the Queen, on February 2nd, with all the stately and picturesque ceremonial which seems to gain The Opening in impressiveness and popularity year by year. As the As the Speech from the Throne is admittedly the handiwork of fallible Ministers, and as such is debated for several days by the Opposition, who move hostile amendments to the Address in Reply in order to embarrass and harass the Government of the day, it is a somewhat absurd fiction that expects outsiders to treat the Royal Speech as though the Sovereign bore any responsibility whatsoever for its contents. The doctrine "the King can do no wrong" merely means that Ministers are wholly and solely responsible for every political utterance or action in His Majesty's name. The present Speech may strike some of those who are at pains to peruse its terms as in some respects a disappointing document to issue from a Conservative Government supported by a record majority. Presumably the Prime Minister, as too often before, has allowed the Coalition element with which he overstocked his Cabinet to once more call the tune. In a word, there is altogether too much "Internationalism "" and too little Imperialism. It needs no effort to imagine what would have been said by Conservative orators had they been in

Opposition, and a Radical or a Socialist Government had presented Parliament with a Speech containing paragraph after paragraph on our external relations-the League of Nations, Locarno, Disarmament Conferences, "Negotiations" with this, that, or the other Power, and barely a reference to the British League of Nations-the British Empire-beyond a mention of loans "for the development of the British Dependencies in East Africa and of mandated territories "-the value of which we do not for a moment question. Where, we may inquire, is that "Imperial thinking" of which we used to hear, that " constructive Imperialism"-never more needed than now-which we are entitled to expect from any Cabinet calling itself Conservative or Unionist, especially one in which the Birmingham School are so strongly represented?

"Increasing

AFTER the customary tribute to "the increasing need of national economy," and a reference to the a reference to the "reductions of public expenditure now being formulated," the Royal Speech thus accounted for the economic disappointments of the past year and a half.

Need of
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Economy

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The improvement in trade and industry at the end of 1924, which it was then thought would result in an appreciable decrease in the volume of unemployment, was unfortunately checked early last year by the widespread depression which occurred in coal-mining.

But this same "depression " in coal-mining, which has sat on the nation like a nightmare throughout the winter, was, according to all impartial testimony, accentuated, if not precipitated, by the gratuitous adoption of the Gold Standard last year (as the result of manoeuvres behind the scenes, with ramifications extending to New York, of the existence of which neither the country nor, we believe, the majority of the Cabinet were aware until presented with a fait accompli), on which Parliament had never been consulted. It is really idle for Ministers who perpetrate wanton blunders, with obvious and inevitable consequences, to bemuse the public by representing the Coal Crisis as one of those bolts

from the blue such as no human foresight could anticipate or prevent. The Treasury and the Bank of England-and certain International Financiers-must share the responsibility of this disaster with those Anarchists of the Miners' Federation who are avowedly "out to upset the apple-cart," and whose most valuable assets have been hitherto the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Gold Bugs of Lombard Street, and the Federal Reserve Board of New York, who were allowed to inflict a heavy blow on British Exports, from which these show no signs of recovery. We can't blame America's bankers for seeking to put an industrial rival out of action, but we do blame every Englishman implicated in this transaction, to whatsoever Party he may belong. Is it fair to the Crown to include such a paragraph in the Royal Speech at the opening of a new Session ?

Legislation

THE legislative paragraphs of the Speech from the Throne were less controversial than this untoward explanation of our economic plight. They foreshadowed a programme which should provide Parliament with a full and fruitful Session, though the absence of any indication of any serious attempt to grapple with the terrible problem of Unemployment is decidedly discouraging. Were we challenged for a suggestion on the ground that it is so much easier to criticize than to construct-we should unhesitatingly recommend an immediate and heavy customs duty on all imported manufactured luxuries, which would be no violation of any electoral pledge, plus an instant lowering of the present 5 per cent. Bank Rate. Useful as several promised Ministerial measures may prove to be, none will as effectually expand Employment as would the two emergency measures we suggest as a first instalment. The main Bill of the Session is to secure (6 greater economy and efficiency in the generation and transmission of electrical energy in the future," which will "shortly" be presented to Parliament. The Agricultural programme includes a Bill to improve "Credit facilities," and others to promote "small holdings and cottage holdings" and for the marking of agricultural produce and manufactured goods. Not the

least interesting of the Legislative paragraphs thus hints at a big housing policy:

While I learn with satisfaction of the progress made in the building of new houses in the urban areas of England and Wales, the conditions under which many of My people are compelled to live, both in country districts and in the congested areas of numerous towns, still occasion Me deep concern. My Ministers are now examining certain proposals for the improvement of these conditions, and if time permits they will submit to you measures designed to hasten the removal of the worst defects, both in town and country.

The Prime Minister is known to have this painful subject much at heart, and we sincerely hope that once he puts his hand to the plough he will not look back. Events are combining to prepare the way for a really serious effort to deal with this blot on our civilization, for which it is the duty of the Government to find or make "the time." It does seem extraordinary that there should be so much money to spend on almost everything except the housing of our own people.

AN awful description of present conditions in Scotland will be found in our Correspondence section in the course of the notable speech of a Socialist Member of Housing Parliament during the debate on the Address, Mr. Rosslyn Mitchell, who performed the feat of ejecting Mr. Asquith from Paisley, thus constraining that enemy of the House of Lords to become a Peer. Mr. Mitchell had the courage to break away from his Party on this occasion and to support the Government's Weir Steel House programme, obstructed by Building Trade Unions. The least Conservatives can do in return is to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the shocking and uncontested facts set forth by the Member for Paisley, which throw a flood of light on the political situation north of the Tweed, and go far to explain the obliteration of the Liberal Party in constituencies it once dominated and the growth of Socialism in the great industrial centres. The Lawyer-Politicians who have conducted Liberalism to catastrophe never interested themselves in the well-being of the People. They were too absorbed in purely political campaigns against political opponents. The masses have consequently abandoned laissez-faire

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