The thirty-fifth annual Trade-Union Congress opened on Monday in the
Holborn Town Hall, and was attended by some five hundred delegates. Mr. Steadman in his Presidential address on Tuesday observed that the Parliamentary retrospect had been depressing, not a single measure of benefit to the working classes having been put upon the statute-
book during the past Session. The Education Bill was reactionary, its " one authority " an imposture, and chaos would be its probable result. Ho condemned the Corn-tax in equally full-blooded rhetoric, declaring that its real effect would be to relieve the rich at the expense of the poor, and turning to old-age pensions, scored a good debating point off Mr. Chamberlain. The Colonial Secretary had stated that the country was rich enough to pay for the war even if it had cost double what it had done. If that were so, the nation could easily afford to pension the worn-out veterans of the industrial army. The housing question, now more acute than ever, could never be solved till they had a Parliament prepared to deal in a drastic manner with the land question. As for the general influence of Trade-Unionism on industry, now impugned in the Times, he pointed out that the most prosperous trades in England and the most prosperous countries on the Continent were precisely those which were best organised from a Trade-Union point of view. The legal status of Trade- Unions, now seriously affected by " Judge-made law," could not be re-established on a satisfactory basis except by legisla- tion. To secure this they would have to reconstitute the House of Commons by building up a great Labour party in Parliament from the ranks of the Trade-Unionists. He con- cluded with an eloquent appeal for toleration and unity of action.
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