and wiser policy to spend £1000 in the return of a member to the House of Commons than it is to spend ten times that amount in a strike which is often not successful, and even if successful entails upon the members participating in such strike great privations.1 The president's address roused Congress to serious consideration of the usual resolution, moved and seconded by Belfast delegates that Congress "heartily recommends to the Trades Unions of this Country an immediate affiliation with the Labour Representation Committee to promote the formation of independent labour representation in Ireland". Despite the energetic defence of the Nationalist Party by a minority of Dublin delegates, the resolution was, as usual, carried.2 The Belfast Trades Council, dominated by the remnant of the Belfast Socialist Party, was not slow to act on its own recommendations. In 1905 the Belfast Labour Party came into being, nominally independent of the Trades Council, actually controlled by an interlocking directorate. Backed by the infant Labour Party and supported by his own trade union (Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners), Walker contested a bye-election in North Belfast that same year. This constituency was the one contested in 1885, on the Liberal ticket, by a trade unionist endorsed by the Trades Council. Since that date it had been a life incumbency for a succession of Conservative baronets, whose return was rarely even opposed. The heir apparent in 1905 was Sir Daniel Dixon, Bart., a well-known Lord Mayor. Sir Daniel was elected, but by a majority of less than 500 in a total poll of 8,400.3 Before he could take his seat the 1 Report of 11th Annual Irish Trades Union Congress, Kilkenny, 1904. 2 By 41 to 14, ibid., p. 57. 3 Rt. Hn. Sir D. Dixon, Bt. Wm. Walker C 4,440 Lab. 3,966 Cf. The Constitutional Year 474 [352 general election of 1906 supervened and the struggle was renewed. In this contest the Labour candidate all but duplicated Devlin's feat in West Belfast. While that apostle of Nationalism broke the Conservative monopoly of Belfast seats at Westminster by carrying that division, he was elected by a plurality of only 16 votes, out of a total of 8,300 cast.1 In North Belfast, Walker was defeated by only 291 votes in a poll of 9,500.2 A year later the death of Sir Daniel Dixon gave Walker a last opportunity. Tricked by the Protestant Association into answering a set of leading questions as to his ecclesiastico-political opinions, Walker lost to (Sir) George Clark by almost 2,000 out of a total of over 10,000 ballots cast.3 Undaunted by this reverse, Labour once more contested North Belfast in the general election of 1910. As its former champion had in the interval accepted a government post, another prominent trade unionist was selected. It was his fate to meet somewhat more decisive defeat, polling less than forty per cent. of the votes cast.* Nowhere else in Ireland had Labour progressed so far as even to nominate candidates for Parliament. In the field of political action, as in the work of the Irish Trades Union Congress, Belfast was in the van of the Irish labour movement in this first decade of the twentieth century. Finally, it was in Belfast that the "new unionism" first appeared on Irish soil. The story of the dockers' and carters' strikes in 1907 need not be retold here. Suffice it to recall that the new spirit and new methods introduced by Larkin were destined to capture the whole Irish labour movement and, coupled with the labour philosophy worked out by Connolly, to make Ireland for a few years the cynosure of all labouring eyes. Yet Belfast was far from being a workers' paradise. The new dockers' organisation had not survived its organiser's departure. In the summer of 1911 Connolly was sent to Belfast by the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union. He found the position well-nigh hopeless and the men dispirited by constant victimisation. The day's labour was unlimited. It began often before the nominal starting-time and continued after the nominal knockingoff. Half the meal hour was worked in most cases and seldom was a full day's wage paid, no matter how hardly earned. The day's wage was fixed at 5/- but through stoppages and pretexts of various kinds few were the men who received five shillings even for eleven and twelve hours' work. . . . The man who objected to this "jibbing" was given several weeks' rest without pay or chance of employment.1 In the grain trade " gom" of 6d. extra was given to men working in gangs whose output had exceeded fifteen hundred 200-lb. bags in a day. To be sure, Belfast's pride lies not in her docks, but in her shipyards and linen mills. From these monuments of 1 Workers' Republic, June 12, 1915. prosperity the Orange worker has repeatedly sought to drive the hated Catholic Nationalist. Here, then, one might expect to find conditions of employment favourable in proportion to the workers' pride. The clang of the ambulance bell is one of the most familiar daily sounds on the streets between our shipyards and our. hospitals. It has been computed that some seventeen lives were lost on the Titanic before she left the Lagan; a list of the maimed and hurt and of those suffering from minor injuries, as a result of the accidents at any one of those big ships would read like a roster of the wounded after a battle upon the Indian frontier. The public reads and passes on, but fails to comprehend the totality of suffering involved. But it all means lives ruined, fair prospects blighted, homes devastated, crippled wrecks of manhood upon the streets or widows and orphans to eat the bread of poverty and pauperism.1 Conditions in the linen industry in Belfast, to which attention had been called by the annual reports of the medical superintendent officer of health of Belfast, were made the subject of a Government Inquiry in 1911. Particular attention was given to out-work, which was described as being, "on the whole, indispensable ", as "the existing accommodation at the factories would be wholly insufficient to receive" the existing out-workers; if these women should, by the curtailment of out-working, be deprived of their employment, either the men (working for the most part in other industries) must get better wages or "the people could not exist ". The former alternative was not deemed worthy of serious consideration as a possibility. "Moreover, certain processes are, and always have been, carried on exclusively as home industries." To convert them into factory industries "would involve nothing short of a revolu 'James Connolly, Labour in Ireland, p. 284. tion in the trade. Further, the evidence shows that outworkers furnish the employers with a supply of labour, on which, in times of pressure, he can make demands unrestricted by the Factory Acts; whilst in times of slackness he can turn them off without incurring the standing charges involved in the case of factory workers." The Committee of Inquiry "consider, therefore, that so long as present conditions prevail, out-work must be accepted as part of the machinery of production in the making-up trades of the North of Ireland, and that any measures which resulted in a considerable reduction in the amount of work given out would entail serious suffering on the out-workers". The "present conditions", as soberly set forth in the Committee's Report, deserve some attention. The "Rates of Payment said to be earned per hour by Belfast Outworkers" in seven processes, all but one of which "demand a measure of skill", while two "are highly skilled industries", were carefully tabulated from the evidence of two officials of the Belfast Corporation and of one trade-union official. Of the 531 cases investigated, two are recorded as "between 5d. and 6d." per hour; eleven in all are recorded as over 3d. per hour. Of the remaining 520 cases, 98 are given as not less than 2d. and not more than 3d. an hour, and 422 as under 2d. an hour. In 168 of the cases tabulated, the out-worker was found to be earning less than one penny an hour. In considering these tables it should be noted that those cases have been omitted (1) in which the worker was referred to as being aged, infirm, or inexperienced; (2) in which mention was made of any other circumstances unfavourable to a normal rate of earnings; or (3) in which the actual rate earned per hour was not clearly stated. All other cases, including those showing high rates of pay, are included in the summary. |