To the Editor of the "Noon-Cuiwa Datty News."
Sm.—I wonder if any of the supporters of this scheme have earefully stadicd it from a business point of view.
At the present time in England {it Is well known that the cotton mill industry is completely controlled by the labour unions. In fact things! have reached such a state that ployers of labour are hardly able to eross the road of their own free will A few of the instructions issued {to employers by the Union are 'A wages book showing the amount tourned in piece work by each ploy must be "kept the sal that seount must an owner of a ly wage book during iery_is allowed to ghee treed than that greed apon by tne Union," leven though the faster the machinery runs the more the operators corn, as they are on a piece work basi Owing to this hampering of production, costs are much higher than they should be. In the event of any machinery having to be stopped for some trivial repair, no workman is allowed to attend to the trouble less ho is a member of the Engineers' Union. This, in many the mill m 3, until the Union member appears on the cone, Result unnecessary time lost And consequently increased cost.
T know of a cate where a very small repair (but entailing the stop-age of the mill)" was attended to bythe manager during the tiffin hour, and when the employees. re-Assembled in the afternoon, this was discovered and he had to undo it fand send for a Union man to do all over again. "In the meantime the mill was stopped.
Having tied up Lancashire mana-facturing to the best of their ability, the Union are now looking for fresh elds to conquer, and in this respect extracts from a speech reported in the Leeds Chamber of Commerce Journal for March 1925, just probably will not be out of place, as showing How the paid agitators. are working:
"An address on the work of the Tneernational" Labour' Oaice at sirens before th enibere of the Leeds Chartber Tocndny the March by eir, Harold Batier, Director of the. Ofice.
Buller explained that Srgantsation might be" disectty figeibed to the'
What docs it try to dot ashe Mr. Butler.
"Its' fundamental object it to, set dards of labour "of, the fund: resent time. there are very divergencies which country as compared Tacretore it was tele that if any improvement was fo be made inery to bein more advanced ones. What has Been accomplished?
india they Rave abolished night Sons-and inereaved the age at whick en were employed from 9 to T Wiel it te tale to nay that this tas been "done by the Tater: Rational Labour, C "fake Japan.
"China ts the most Th view of the above it must be obvious that behind the Child La-
Dour question there are very strove Labour Union interests:@ work. Evidently, if successful with this, they will go on to other things, az the speech referred 9 me is made that a shorter hour movement has been pressed for in' Iidia and Japan.
The humane point "of view is reertainly not the' point at issue far as tie International Labour Office is concerned, but certainly if bby introducing, sentiment they can obtain what they want they will be foolish not to do Mr. Butler in his epcech mentions that Chinese labour is unorganized Jat present. Heaven help production when it ist But the point to my mind is that, i€ the Powers that be are trying to enforce stringent labour con: ditions in the Settlement, and have secured the support of the Munici-Pal authorities in this connexion, then we.are entitled to expect that the Council has received an assur ance, from the Chinese Government whoever that may be,—that it intended immediately to adopt a similar condition in Chi I cannot believe that it is the deliberate intention of the Counci to force the large cotton mill industry out of Shanghai, but this. ie obviously what must occur production conditions are less fa yourable here. am, ete, Rareraven,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.