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SIR CHAS. DILKE IN THE RHONDDA.…

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SIR CHAS. DILKE IN THE RHONDDA. TORY LABOUR LEGISLATION. NEW EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY BILL. ELECTION PROMISES FALSIFIED. WELSH HOME RULE DISCUSSED. "FULL LEGISLATIVE POWERS FOR WALES." DEFENCE OF THE RADICAL PARTY. '1 MABON AND THE UNDER- SELLING SCHEME, Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., addressed a large and unthusiastic meeting of Liberals at the Tudor Hall erndale, on Monday night, the meeting being held under the auspices of the Rhondda Labour and Liberal Association. The hon. baronet, who was accompanied by Lady Dilke and Mr W. Abraham, M.P. (Mabon), and Mrs Abraham, were met at the railway station by the Ferndale Prize Band and a strong contingent of Liberals. Considerable interest was centred in the visit of Sir Charles, and the ball was crowded. Mabon, the member for the con. stituency, presided, and supporting him on the platform besides those already named were Mr T. Bevan, chairman of the Ystradyfodwg School Board; Revs. Silas Charles, Matthew Charles, B. Watkins, D. G. Williams, and E. Richards, Maerdy; Mr W. Evans, agent of the Cambrian Miners' Association Mr Griffith Thomas, M.E., Councillors Morris Morris, Daniel Evans, and Rhys Griffiths, Mr Richards, Liberal registration agent Councillor Morgan Williams, Ynyshir Mr Morley Williams, secretary of the Porth Liberal Association Mr Griffith Thomas and Mr E. Smith, Metropolitan Bank, Pentre and Ponty- pridd and Messrs M. P. Price, Timothy Davies, Abraham Tibbott, Thomas Samuel, David Thomas, J. Hughes Owens, and others. Upon the invitation of the Chairman the mdience gave a thrilling rendering of the hymn, Dros y bryniau tywyll niwlog," and Sir Charles and Lady Dilke appeared to be deeply touched by the haimonious singing. MABON. who was given a splendid reception, ihen addressed the meeting, and expressed he pleasure he felt in presiding over the first meeting attended by Sir Charles and Lady Dilke in Ferndale. (Applause.) He knew they ?xpected to have a speech trom him, but after thinking over the burning question of the day Among Welsh miners, he had made up his mind that it would not be advisable for him to speak apon that question that night. He was going to wait to see what his friends and colleagues had said, or were going to say about it, not because he was afraid to speak his mind, but because, before the close, the staying hand of an old practical man might be necessary in the guidance of the policy that they were now pursu- ing. (Cheers.) He urged them to keep an open mind upon the proposed scheme to adjust the wpply to the demand, but he could assure them, and that was the only assurance he intended giving that night, that the scheme was in itself a distinct guarantee that not only an honest but also a strenuous effort would be made to gain the end in view, which wonld benefit employers and employed alike. (Applause.) Sir Charles Dilke, he concluded, had consistently supported mining legislation, and was about the only one, outside a few Welsh members, who had in the House of Commons supported the extreme views advocated on some labour questions by the member for the Rhondda. (Laughter and applause.) The Rev. D. G. WILLIAMS moved, and the Rev. SILAS CHARLES seconded, a resolution of want of confidence in the Government. The resolution was as follows :— That this meeting wishes to express its regret and disappointment that false promises at the last election secured a majority for the so-called Unionist party, which ignores out aspirations as a Welsu nation, and its protest against the Government's insolence ill relieving: the wealthy landlords at the expense of the already over-burdened ratepayers in towns and Industrial districts, and against its endeavours to subsidise denominational schools; it hopes the day is not. far distant when the Radical party will again come to power and pass measures of real value to the working classes, and such other measures as the overwhelming majority of the Welsh people have been craving for in vain for so many years. Sir CHARLES DILKE, who was received with much enthusiasm, spoke in support of the resolu- tion. He agreed that a good many false promises had been made at the last General Election. For example, the Government could immediately do a great deal of good to the state of trade, could establish a general system of insurance to work- men against all injuries, free from litigation— (cheers)—while a strong and smooth foreign policy would save the country from all those dangers which Mr Curzon had described in a famous speech, and which had immediately" afterwards become intensified. The labour legislation part oi the resolution was of slightly too p'.rty a nature for him. as it seemed to imply that good labour legislation could immediately be obtained from the Liberal party and never from the Conservatives. RADICAL VERSUS LIBERAL. The phra-e Radical parcy appeared to be used in the resolution, as the Unionist papers were in the habit of using it, for the Liberal party but all Liberals were very far from being Radicals, and there was something ludicrous in the heading Lord Tweedmonth on Radical Prospects and the statement Lord Rosebery will preside over a Radical meeting at Edinburgh to-morrow" when one remembered the very sharp conflict that existed upon many questions between the Whiggish memb3rs of the Liberal party and the Radicals. LABOUR LEGISLATION REVIEWED, There were some Liberals who jibbed even at Mr Asquith's Factory Bill ot 1896, and there were some Conservatives who frankly accepted its policy. In the last Session he (Sir Charles) bad not had an opportunity of bringing forward the motion against all fines and deductions for which be bad obtained a day, but the Government, in taking his day, bad promised him a Bill. The Bill, however, was not against all fines and deductions, bus was only for their regulation., He and his friends had improved that Bill during its passage through the House, and it was now an Act which was, to some extent, an improvement upon the law, but far from all tllfty needed. (Hear, hear.) The Coal Mines Regulation Act of last Session was in somawhat similar a posi- tion. Mabon had joined with him in con- demning it when it was introduced. It was now an Act which, like the new Truck Act, gave them something, but far less than they wanted. (Hear, hear.) He had had charge of a rival Bill which was much more important a measure, prepared by a miners' conference, representing the whole of the miners of Great Britain, for South Wales, Northumberland, and Durham, and some districts outside the Federation had joined the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in the preparing of the Bill. His own view, and he thought that of Mabon, was that the Government Bill should have been opposed, because the passing of such a Bill made it unlikely that any other Bill on the subject would pass for several years, and yet the Government Bill was behind thoee measures of safety for which public opinion was now prepared. (Cheers.) But they stood alone. The other members representing mining constituencies declined to take the responsibility of stopping the Bill, so that they had yielded their opinion to that of others. He hoped that the new Act would do more good than he himself expected it would. The third Government labour measure of last Session was the Conciliation Bill, which he had opposed. It was the same Conciliation Bill as that which had been introduced by the previous Liberal Government, and which he had opposed when it bad been in their hands. The conciliation legislation of both parties was A LEGISLATION OF PRETENCE. The other Labour movements of last Session were the appointment of the Committee on the Fair Contracts, and the similar question brought before the House of Commons as to the minimum wage. As long as 1 a week at Woolwich (where house rent was higher than almost anywhere else in London) and 7s a week to auxiliary rnral post- men for the work they did on Sundays, and week days alike, was the rate of pay, there was a good deal of room tor House of Commons action on the question. (Loud cheers.) In the next Session, after the Education Bill, they would see a consolidated Factory Bill with amendments and there were other amendments besides those which the Government themselves would be driven to introduce, which would come from Labour and Radical members. THB EMPtOTEHS' LIABILITY BILL was very likely to be very different from that which might have been gathered from the pro- nnses which had been made at the General Inaction. Sir Matthew Ridley's recent promise did not go so far as that which was known as Forwood's Bill, and Forwood's Bill was very much behind the speeches of Mr Chamberlain and ObJp-- b} PIM*iw. forward the German system in arguing for com- pensatinn for all accidents and without litigation, although in Germany there was a great deal more litigation than was supposed. Bub the essenceofthe German system had been declared by the German Government in its report on the Chicago Exhibi- tion to be trade responsibility for accidents as against individual responsibility, and there was no trade responsibility in Forwood's Bill. For example, a firm wen t bankrupt, and In Germany the whole trade to which that firm belonged had to pay the accident debts of the bankrupt firm. (Laughter and cheers.) As regarded the private members' labour measures, the MINERS' EIGHT HOURS BILL was less strong in the present Parliament than it had been in the past. The miners of the county of Durham, with their admirable organisation joining the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, might in future have some effect upon the fortunes of the measure, but Northumberland still stood out. He (Sir Charles) had always been in favour of attacking the long hours of the Northumber- land lads by means of the extension of the existing provisions, with regard to their employment, in the Coal Mines Regulation Acts. Having de- scribed at some length the degrading condition of the employment of lads in the Northumberland coal mines, he declared that it was impossible in the face of this state of things for the Miners' Federation, supported by those of the miners of the Welsh Sliding Scale districts, who favoured the Miners' Eight Hours Bill, to agree to the exemption of Northumberland from their Bill. (Cheers.) The miners of Lancashire had been careless at the last election, and did not obtain- indeed, they had hardly sought—pledges from the candidates on both sides on this question, which, in many cases, they might have bad for the mere trouble of a clear statement of their views, and the result was that the case of the Eight Hours Bill was probably less strocg in the present Parliament than it had been in the last. IWME RULE FOR WALES. The resolution in an important phrase spoke of our aspirations as tha Welsh nation." There might be some little doubt as to exactly how much the word nation implied in the direction of Home Rule. He was and had been for many years in favour of what was called Home Rule all round." He did not, however, exactly agree with Lord Rosebery's phrase in which he said that if we granted Home Rule, You will have to give satisfaction under the same conditions certainly to Scotland and possibly to Wales." Ia the first place, the demand in Wales was stronger and more general than in Scotland, although he believed that in Scotland there was a demand for local institutions from the majority. The phrase under the same conditions went too far for absolute truth. It was not an essential factor of the c.tse that the grant of Home Rule to Scot- land and to Wales should be on exactly the same conditions as the grant to Ireland but if they were going to establish a tederal system, then no doubt Lord Rosebery's phrase would be an aecarato description of what must occur. If the nations, to use the words of the resolution, were coming into a Federal Union, like the sovereign States of the United States, or the formerly sovereign cantons of Switzerland, probably the federal institution granted to each must be pretty much the same. He himself, while he was a very strong, and, as age went in these matters, a very old Welsh Home Ruler—having advocated it since 1873, and having spoken in favour of it as long ago as 1885-he did not go to the extent of a true Federal constitution as between England and Wales. He was not in favour of five Cabinets in the kingdom, which Lord Rosebery's phrase r seemed to imply. Lord Rosebery supported the Irish Home Rule Bill of 1886, and if its institu- tions were to be conferred upon Scotland and Wales there would be A PARLIAMENT IN WALES and a Cabinet in Wales, and no Welsh members at Westminster. But Lord Rosebpry supported the Irish Home Rule Bill of 1892, and if the institutions of that Bill were to be applied to Wales, there would be a Welsh Parliament and a Welsh Cabinet, and Welsh members at West- minster for certain purposes only. Neither of these Bills bad been sufficiently thought out in advance before their introduction, and he hoped that the next Home Rule Bill would be carefully considered before it was produced. A very able Liberal member, Mr Rotaon, had said that the machinery of five Cabinets—one for England, one for Scotland, one for Ireland, one for Wales, and one for the United Kingdom—was the only way to obtain Home Rule for Ireland. But he (Sir Charles) did not believe that the English people would consenb to the adoption of so highly developed a federal system, although he believed they were in favour of ANY AMOUNT OF SEPARATE LEGISLATION, that is to say, full legislation for Wales according to the dictates of Welsh opinion. There had recently been a revival of the proposal that the Irish members should form the Irish legislative body, Parliament generally accepting and endorsing their views. It had been revived in a form in which it applied to Scotland, and to Wales also. (Cheora.) He himself, while he pointed out the difficulties about a truly federal scheme in fall development), was in favour of conferrit.g upon Wales the fullest legislative powers. (Loud applause.) is DEFENCE OF THE RADICAL PARTT. He did not think that the existence of advanced and independent Radicals calling for a full survey in advance of the policy of the Liberal party, and following the leaders of the Liberal party only when they agreed with them was a weakness to the Liberal party. There were always plenty of Liberals in the countrjwf a moderate and a timid type who were prepared to follow the party leaders pretty much wherever they went, and it had always been his view that the selection of the party leaders must be left fro this school of thought, and could not be dictated by the Radicals. The editor of the South Wales Daily News, in an article which was too kind to him personally, bad questioned something which he bad said with regard to the Radical 'not following the party leader. All that he bad said was that as the Radicals only followed when they agreed, he thought that it would be impertinent on their part to claim also to select the leader. But notoriously there were, and must be, diversified aides of opinion upon almost all questions among those who were opposed to the Conservative party, and in favour of advance mere or less tapid. The Radicals had, for example, destroyed the policy of reforming the House of Lords, which bad been a recent policy of the Liberal party, and they could not have done otherwise, holding the views that they did. They had de- stroyed the policy of the creation of additional small freeholders by law. But what was essential for progress was nob that they should cease to hold their individual views upon these questions, but that they should be careful bever to entrap tha Liberal party by not giving fair warning of their views in advance. All parties must always, to some extent, be in the hands of the wire- pullers and of the timid members of the party, and it was the duty of the independent sup- porters of the patty to redress the balance by firm insistence on clear principle. (Loud and prolonged applause.) Hearty votes of thanks to Sir Charles and tha chairman (the latter being seconded by Lady Dilke) closed the meeting, after which Sir Charles and Lady Dilke, Mr and Mrs Abraham, and a number of visitors were entertained to lunoheon at the Rhondda Hotel, Mr and Mrs D. S. Davie: catering.

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