HC Deb 10 March 1908 vol 185 cc1310-1
MR. WATT (Glasgow, College)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, in view of the depressed condition of some of the industries of the country, and especially those industries which use large quantities of coal and are therefore largely dependent on the price of coal, he will defer the further progress of the Mines (Eight Hours) Bill until another session.

MR. GLADSTONE

The Answer is in the negative.

CAPTAIN CRAIG (Down, E.)

asked the right hon. Gentleman whether he was aware that there was a growing feeling in the country against this Bill on the ground that it was for the benefit of the few and would inflict incalculable hardships on the many.

MR. W. E. HARVEY

asked whether that growing feeling was not due to the inaccurate statements which had been and were being made.

MR. GLADSTONE

I would refer the hon. Member for East Down to a speech I made a year ago in the House, in which he will find my views fully stated, and in which I deliberately called the attention of the country to the possible risks to the consumer which were involved in, at any rate, any hasty legislation on this subject. I would remind the hon. Member that he took no part in that discussion.

CAPTAIN J. CRAIG

Is it not the fact that since that time the feeling in the country has emphasised the very expressions he made use of in that speech?

[No Answer was returned.]

MR. WATT

asked whether it was not the fact that much of the unemployment in the country was due to the high price of coal.

MR. GLADSTONE

No, Sir. The state of the coal industry has given employment to a great number of men previously unemployed. I may say that last year that reached the extraordinary total of 58,000.

MR. JOHN WARD

asked whether it was not the fact that similar statements as to its injurious effect have been made against all industrial legislation during the last fifty or sixty years.

[No Answer was returned.]

MR. GEORGE FABER

May I ask the hon. Gentleman whether, in view of the speech he made the other day to a deputation, he has not himself changed his views on the advisability of this legislation?

MR. GLADSTONE

Certainly not.