2 days ago
100 years ago: Lloyd George airs plans to solve the mining crisis
Lloyd George, speaking at an open-air meeting at Cinderford today in support of the Liberal candidate, referred to the mining crisis and dealt with the plan for the unification of the coalfields that was rejected in 1919 and 1921.
'That scheme,' he said, 'would have had a most beneficial effect on the mining industry but it was gibed at by the extremists of the time. Now those very men are ready to advocate it as a remedy.' As a result there was the prospect of strife and of a disastrous struggle, which had been brought about by the rejection of the proposals of which he had spoken.
The Labour candidate, Albert Purcell, he said, belonged to that section of the Labour Party that had done the most mischief in the coalfields in recent years. He and the extremists on the other side had swept away the moderate men; hence the trouble which was now being experienced. Lloyd George remarked that men like Purcell wanted the moon.
'Well, there is no coal in the moon,' said Lloyd George, 'and if men of that type get hold of England it will be as desolate as that sterile orb.'
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Purcell was too much even for the working men of Coventry. They put him out and he fled to Moscow, and now he was seeking the suffrages of moderate Labour in the Forest of Dean. Lloyd George said the government had muddled the gold standard: trade had been kept down and the cost of things had increased.
This had led to the neutral markets of the world being handicapped by the most formidable competition with our exports. This resulted in the government putting up the price of coal abroad by 1s 6d per ton. That had given the advantage to Germany and the United States, he said.
⬤ At Dayton, Ohio, the jury in the evolution trial are going about their business as usual, not being confined or kept together. They are only instructed not to talk to anybody about John Scopes.
If annoyed or questioned, the jurors are authorised to call the town marshal to protect them. Most of them have returned to their farms. The 'City Fathers' are debarred from holding revival meetings on the court lawn during the sessions on account of the noise, shouting and singing, and the possibility of a collision between zealous antagonists and supporters of evolution.
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The crux of the trial [Scopes was charged with violating state law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution] comes in the argument over the admissibility of scientific evidence, which will determine the length of the trial.
Monkey man: John Scopes, second left, at his trial in 1925 for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution in high-school science classes
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
The defence counsel states: 'If we are permitted to defend ourselves, the trial will last at least three weeks; but if the scientific testimony of thirty-five defence-witnesses is barred, the trial will end very quickly.'
