Word: bevins
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Winston Churchill, looking for big men for the big job of boosting Great Britain's war-industries output, picked shovel-blunt, beefy Ernest Bevin to be his Minister of Labor. Ever since he had fought Bevin during the General Strike of 1936, it had been plain to Churchill that the strongest man in the British Labor movement was this publicity-shy union official who preferred not to sit in Parliament but wielded enough power to make Laborite Leaders Attlee, Greenwood and Dalton jump when he yanked strings...
Jubilated Liberal Pundit Harold J. Laski: "The three pivotal economic positions in the Ministry are held by Labor [War Cabinet's Greenwood, Supply's Morrison and Labor's Bevin]. Behind their occupants is the solid support of the trade unions. These are gains of an immense kind. They mean that Labor dominates the economic organization for the conduct...
...tough, one-eyed Herbert Morrison, popular Leader of the London County Council (in effect "Mayor of Greater London"), a Socialist of the same practical stamp as Bevin who keeps in his office a small, framed portrait of Nikolai Lenin, went the job of Churchillizing the new setup. This he did by putting British war industries on a 24-hour production schedule, with twelve-hour shifts, such as are being worked in France and Germany, and sounding off with gruff eloquence: "There is time for nothing now but an intense, concentrated effort of muscle, mind and will. . . . The peace and civilization...
...WORK LIKE HELL!" was presently adopted by Trade Unionist Ernest Bevin as the slogan of the Ministry of Labor and he soon rivaled Socialist Morrison with a ringing radio declaration: "Machine tools and instruments of production are now more valuable than gold. . . . I want another [sixth] column in Britain-a National Service Column resolved to win, and to win quickly! . . . It will deal drastically with anyone who seeks to hinder us in our crusade...
...Government swiftly set up a court of inquiry to consider the busmen's claims. Chief spokesman for the busmen was raucous Ernest Bevin, general secretary of London's Transport & General Workers' Union and one of Britain's most powerful Labor chiefs. Secretary Bevin had a double job on his hands: he had to get the best possible terms for the striking busmen and at the same time prevent the strike spreading to the subways and trams...