LABOR CONFERENCE AT HULL

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2093, 20 January 1908, Page 2

LABOR CONFERENCE AT HULL

IMPORTANT RESOLUTIONS,

United Press Association—Copyrigb', (Received Jan. 19, 4.40 p m 1 . . LONDON. Jan. is 4lie majority of delegates who had been attending the Labor part.- s conference at Hull were present at a special conference of trade union, socialist, and co-operative organisa“rol,E _, °» tlle unemployed question, -ur I. Curran, the member for JarPresided, and said that the s .1.0,000 which had been granted for reuel purposes was only a drop in the ocean. They could not accept Government philanthropy or help under charity conditions. As long as the law of private enterprise was the guiding principle of the world’s industry and commerce, they always would have unemployed. They could not solve the question, until they curtailed the incomes of the rich and thereby added to the incomes of the poor. They desired legislation to prevent- the chaos and ruin that would follow the uprising of the people, crying for bread. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald protested against the habit of voting money in a panic. He moved a resolution declaring that want of employment was not caused by free trade, and was not averted by periods of good trade, but- was a permanent feature of the present industrial organisation. The resolution also urged vigorous use of legislative and administrative powers, including the shortening 'of the hours ol labor of public and other employees, and the protection of the worker against the operation of land and other monopolies, and called upon the Government- to fulfil the promise made in the King’s speech in 1906 to amend the Unemployed Act. The resolution set forth that such amendment to bo satisfactorv, must embody the principles of tho Labor party’s Bill. Mr. J. O’Grady, tho member lor Leeds, in seconding the resolution, said that the Queen’s Unemployed Fund, though promoted by a woman with a big heart, had done more real damage to common manhood aong tho unemployed, than anything in the last twenty years, it degraded and demoralised them. Protection as a remedy against the want of employment was absurd to rest on, and free trade was doubly absurd. Several delegates advised caution in the interests of labor, lest the cause should be weakened in the country. The resolution was carried with enthusiasm. A purely Socialist amendment was negatived by twenty-one to thirteen.