Two Men are Umemployed OF THOSE on whom the trade dispute at Valley Mills brought affliction, Harry Schofield was the first to suffer. The anomalous situation at Valley Mill caused a vast amount of official correspondence. The union twice addressed letters to Arnold Lumb, urging him to enter negotiations for the termination of the dispute, but Arnold replied firmly that there was no dispute, and referred to his previous letters to prove it. The men were thereupon advised by their union to make a claim for unemployment insurance benefit; their case was sent up by the local Employment Exchange authority to the Headquarters Insurance Officer, and thence down to the local Court of Referees. All this procedure, which Milner learned from the union secretary, and explained at home, induced in Harry a feeling of thwarted impotence and inability to understand what was being done to him, which fretted his robust and confident temper greatly. The Court of Referees adjudged that the Lumb’s men, having refused work at full union rates of pay, were disqualified for benefit for the maximum period of six weeks.
