One Hour More

(British Commonwealth of Nations)

Onetime Laborite Premier James Ramsay Macdonald enjoyed little sleep last week at his comfortable London home, Upper Frognal Lodge. Night after night the House of Commons resounded through wearisome post-midnight hours as the 150 Laborite M. P.'s fought and filibustered against Premier Baldwin's irresistible phalanx of 413 Conservatives. At last Mr. Macdonald suffered the ignominy of seeing his forces become so disorganized that many a hot-headed Laborite howled such unparliamentary epithets as "coward," "liar," "murderer." ( This unbridled rowdyism burst forth, of course, when the Government began to force through the Commons its long heralded bill to lengthen temporarily the working hours of British miners from seven to eight. As everyone knows, the strategy of this measure (TIME, June 28) is to lure the 1,000,000 striking British coal miners back to work by making it possible for the owners to offer the miners the wage they ask, providing they will work an extra hour. Last week A. J. ("Emperor") Cook, secretary of the Miners Federation, became so fearful lest this strategy succeed that he threatened to order on strike even the "safety pump men" who prevent by their work irreparable damage to the coal mines which would result from unchecked flooding.

The "coal debate" in the Commons was keynoted as follows:

Sir Arthur Ramsay Steel-Mait-land, Minister of Labor: "The reasons why the Government introduces this bill, which is designed to suspend the Seven Hours Act only temporarily, are based upon a plain convincing fact: last year, apart from the Government's Coal Subsidy [TIME, Aug. 10 et seq.], over two-thirds of the great coal exporting firms operated at a loss. . . . The only way of meeting this situation, in the opinion of the Government, is an immediate but not permanent extension in the hours of labor. . . ."

Colonel Lane-Fox, Parliamentary Secretary for Mines: "I may say that is seems to me that miners who are thoughtful of the welfare of their wives and children will not object to working an extra hour. . . ."

Joseph ("Fog Horn") Westwood (diminutive Laborite M. P., leaping up and pointing at Colonel Lane-Fox) : "The coward! The dirty, dastardly coward! My aged1 father has been locked out of his work at the mines, and this dastard says my father isn't going to defend my mother!"

J. J. ("Jumping Jack") Jones and David Kirkwood (Laborite extremists, chanting in unison) : "We demand ... to be thrown . . . out ... of ... THE HOUSE!!!"

Colonel Lane-Fox (after 40 minutes of pandemonium, during which several Laborites took off their shoes and threatened to hurl them at him): "I withdraw any remarks which may be deemed offensive."

John Wheatley (onetime Laborite Minister of Health) : "The Government's slogan seems to be, 'Our class, right or wrong. . . .' The German miners have to work eight hours instead of seven to pay war reparations. If our miners work eight hours to compete with them, the Germans will have to work nine. . . . Who gains, except our ruling class . . . ?"

George Buchanan (Laborite): "The miners aren't getting fair play. The miners are getting Hell!"

Premier Baldwin (rising to reply to Laborite insinuations that he owned 200,000 shares in the great iron manufactory, Baldwin's Ltd., and was therefore biased toward the coal owners and anxious to break the strike at the miners' expense) : "I hold the shares in question. That is absolutely true, and they represent the bulk of what I have. ... I might have been a rich man today had I sold' those shares during the War and transferred the proceeds into foreign securities. . . .

"That large block of shares on which I could have realized a fortune during the War--well, today, I don't think anyone would take them off my hands. ... I need hardly add that Baldwin's Ltd, is an old family business. . . . "All my life I have consistently refused to invest my money abroad. I have always been, for good or evil, in British industry. It is for that that I am being attacked tonight."

Conservative Members (bursting into cheers en masse) : "Shame on the Laborites! Baldwin for Britons! Silence! Order! Hurrah! . . ." Joseph Batey (Laborite, rising to filibuster against First Lord of the Admiralty Bridgeman) : "I will not permit the First Lord to speak! I will shout down any man who attempts to speak for this bill!"

The Speaker: "I have called on the First Lord of the Admiralty."

Joseph Batey: "You may called on whom you like! He's not going to move the third reading of this bill today!"

"Jumping Jack" Jones (passionately) : "Mr. Bridgeman, you are a murderer!"

The Speaker: "Such an epithet cannot be allowed in the House of Commons. The Right Honorable gentleman from West Ham must withdraw it or leave the House."

"Jumping Jack" Jones (Tipperary-born, but M. P. from West Ham since 1918): "I refuse to withdraw it. I now gladly leave this House." (He pointed at the Ministerial bench on which sat the Premier and several of his Cabinet.) "You are all murderers! The, whole gang of you!"

Former Premier Macdonald (rising from the opposition bench, haggard, distraught): "I wish to dissociate myself individually and officially from anything tending to degrade the House of Commons in the eyes of the country. I am speaking for my colleagues as well as myself."

Premier Baldwin (rising amid cheers after an interval of wild disorder, and recapitulating at length the Government's arguments in favor of the bill) : "Even now I believe that after this bill is passed a settlement satisfactory to all may be reached if the Miners Federation will cooperate to increase the efficiency of the coal industry by accepting the recommendations of the Royal Coal Commission's report." (TIME, Oct. 19 et seq.)

The measure passed 332 to 147.

Though Mr. Macdonald's inability to suppress Laborite rowdyism last week somewhat damped his prestige, he appears to remain en rapport with all but the most radical Laborites. In 1914, on the contrary, his pacifist leanings carried him so far out of sympathy with British Labor that he not only lost completely his position as leader of the Labor Party that year, but even failed to obtain a seat in Parliament in the elections of 1918. As Laborite sympathies reacted, at the close of the War, Mr. Dacdonald rode upon the crest of that movement into the Prime Ministry (Jan. to Nov., 1924).

A further disorderly incident occurred when Premier Baldwin strove half humorously to extenuate the recent anti-Russian tirade of Chancellor Churchill (TIME, June 28) by remarking: "In the Conservative Party some of us use wings and some of us walk on the ground."

Cried "Jumping Jack" Jones: "You'll be an angel yet, Daddy Baldwin!"