The present coal niining dispute! finds its origin many years back, and generally, may be said to arise out Of discontent which long years of Jow wages and bad conditions were hound to create. But for the pur-oses of understanding the present dispute, it is not necessary to back beyond 1916, when the outbreak of discontent in the South Wales coal field, led the then Govern. ment, as a war measure, to take control, The first step having thus been taken, it was but a step to control] the whole of the mining industry of Great Britain and in the early part of 1817 the coal mines were controlled on exactly the same lines the interior means of communica tion and transport. In ro sense did it amount to an acquirement of the coul mines, though it became a demonstrable fuct that they were churze upon the tax pay 3 Reward for Beonomies Decontrol took place on March 2, 1921, The wages which the Government hail been paying were not Such ax the industry exult afford to continue and pay ity way and, in the months prior to decontrol, it Decame apparent that the owners, once they obtained control, would have to place wages on a basis having regard to the economies of the industry.
Their attitude was that it_wax Impossible to establish a nations minimum wage, and they offered t men a scheme whereby district minima were to be fixed varying with the profits of the different areas, The miners retorted with a demand fort national minimum, to be obtained" by. & national "pool of] profits, thereby establishing w stand. Ard wage irrespective of districts, The two. points of view were xo] Widely divergent that strike notices were issued during March, 1921, to Become effective on April 1. The sympathy of the whole of the Labour World seems to have been with the milners, for, in the easly part of April, the Triple Alliance vousht to declare a sympathetic strike of railwaymen transport. worke dockers, which would have eventual. fed had it not been for the attitude of the National: Union of Railway: men, who would not support the strike on a question of principle viz, the nationalization of the mines, though it was prepared to dos" on a question of wages.
1 The Settlement of 1921
'The miners' strike lasted for some 8B days, a. settlement being nounced on June 28, 1921, in whi the Government agreed to ps subsidy to the industry of £10,000,- 000 and to establish National" a District Boards to determine wages payable on the basis of "the proceeds of the industry in the various districts." It will be observed that the miners' demand for the national Pool of profits did not gain the day.
Owing to the dislocation of the Ruhr coal field British coal industry went through a boom po though there were minor nothing serious occu 1924, when, in Mare! 5 sought to vary the 1921 agreement offer to increase wages by 124 per ent. on the minimum wages, hi with a reduction of 4 per the percentage of surplus to be taken as profits.
This latter stipulation was, naturally, designed to bring about a variation in the basis upon which the district boards were deter wages payable. i.e, "the proceeds of the industry in the various districts."
This proposal was rejected by the miners, but they remained at work under temporary agreement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.