Oct, 28
'THE news received to-day that, representatives of the Trade Union Council are in consult tion with Mr. Stanley Baldwin over the disastrous coal strike, now drawing to the close of its sixth month, will be greeted with much satisfaction, The first meeting did not produce any result; but nobody could well expect that it should; and others are to be held. The great thing is that a new influence has been brought into the discussion and that, moreover, one which has ithe "most powerful interest in getting the strike ended. While there is everything to lose by, prolongation of the struggle, it has recently begun to assume a particularly ugly shape. The miners' representatives announce, that they have converted themselves into a War Council; then comes their demand on the Trade Union Council for a general levy on members in support of the strikers; and then the forcible prevention of speeches and meetings, which, although uridoubedly necessary, wears an ill appearance.
It will be remembered that the Government's last offer in the matter was that the wages question should be settled by districts but that a national arbitration board should be set up without delay to adjudicate on all settlements not considered satisfactory. This proposal the mines' representatives turned down flat, in spite of Mr. Baldwin's warning that the Government would wash its hands of the whole matter if they did. But this is no way to leave things that can satisfy any. feeling. No sensible man believes the accusations thrown about in the Labour world and so lightly caught up by the Opposition in the House of Commons, that the Government has delivered itself over to the mineowners. But the harm that is done to the Conservative cause throughout the country while the strike drags on is none the less grave, even if irrational. Furthermore, it is not satisfactory that, men should be forced back to work because they cannot afford to stay out. Sore feelings are "bred which will have evil results' in due time, whereas the general hope and earnest desire of all must be that the present coal strike may bring this compensation for the evil it has done, that it shall prove to be [the last.
The root of the trouble is shown in Mr. Baldwin's caustic! remark in the House of Commons on Monday:- "The only thing that he'was quite clear about was that there would of a settlement of the industry] had to be negotiated between the! Personalities who had attempted negotiation all this time."
In its issue of September 18 the! "Spectator" referred to a demand) springing up in various quai for new leaders on both sides, adding:—
"For months we have been- saying] that Mr. Williams, Mr, Cook and] Mr. Smith have become stale, that] they have got on one, another's nerves, and that they are so intent upon their persond wrangle that they seem to ba unable to take into! their survey any of the relevant facts on a wider political horizon. If both sides agreed simultaneously to a change of leadership there would be no loss of prestige to either. The advice and knowledge! of the present leaders need not, of course, be ruled out, It is here that the assistance the Trade Union Council might be most serviceable: As a mere matter of fact they know that their members cannot afford 'a levy to keep the strike going, which has already caused the limit of damage in other unions. And to put the matter on higher' grounds any of the unions could testify from personal experience of good arrangements) made between masters and men to settle differences without recourse to striking, notably in! the splendid example of the ship-building industry recently described in these columns. The report of the Coal Commission contains this most important, "The Ministry of Labour have supplied us with a list of thirty) industries other than coal mining, each of which has some form of national organization for_condueting wage-negotiations. They include, so far as we can see, every important body of wage-camers in the country.'
Such testimony.surely should not be neglected, but it needs new minds to grasp and act upon it. Would it be impossible for the Trade Unions, together with employers selected from those industries which have found a way out of their difficulties, to provide an arbitration board to decide the issue in the coalfields? It might be presided over by Mr. Stanley baldwin, but by no other Minister. There are unfortunately.members of the Government whose inability to take a broad view of the coal deadlock is generally believed to} be just as great as that of the men actually directing the fight.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.