Apr. 5.
For the third time within two years Great Britain is in the throes of an industrial fight which strikes at the roots of her wellbeing. The seeming suddenness of the blow is not less appalling than its weight. Last November we were led to believe that a system had been found on which the coal miners might live contentedly. The issue then was one of increased output versus increased vay. A compromise was effected the men got their extra money but agreed to its being regulated by the amount of output, to be taken at fixed periods. What most of us probably forgot, in hoping that this meant peace in the coalfields, was that the arrangement depended vitally on the Government's control of the coal industry, which involved regulation of urices, of amounts available for export, compensation to nonprofitable mines, national snbsidies. The first rumblings of the present storm were heard at the beginning of February when it was announced that in view of the increased output, slackened henie demand and the approximation of of export to home prices, the Government had decided to decontrol coal from March 31 and to abolish all existing restrictions on its movement. In: other words, the coal industry was to be put back
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.