Nov.
UNconscious humour pervades the news that the Executive of the Miners' Federation, after discussing the votes cast' on the Government's proposals regarding the strike for two and a half hours, decided to send Mr. A. J. Cook ' to Russia in D ember.
Why not have done that long ago?' And having thus opened their eyes to realities, the Exeecutive went even further and recommended the men to settle their dispute with the owners by districts, since they could not agree on the Government's proposals, Thus it would appear that the leaders, having conducted the men to an impossible position, ingloriously resign leadership and tell their followers to do the best for themselves they can, The results seem better than might have been expected. Nottinghamshire, we are told, has given an example to other coalfields by estab ing a district wages periodically to adjust wages cording to the condition of industry, with a minimum wage and a seven-and-a-half hour day.
Of which example great things jate hoped.
There is light under the door. What the Nottinghamshire owners and miners have done,.is much the same as what can be found in practice in many dustries and it has ever remi ed a mystery to the outside world why the same should not succeed on the coalfields. Modify the administration, take the men into confidence, make them feel that their interests and the employer's are identical, convince them that the concern is run fairly for both and its profits are fairly shared, and there an end of strikes. it has been done in the soap, mustard and cocoa world; in' ship-building too, a far more capricious dustry, facts have been faced and masters and men have come to agreement. And now even in the coalfields, where we are told that the personal relations between employer and employed have remained far more cordial than the dourness of the conflict would suggest, there are signs of a new spirit. These are facts that bear out the optimism of {Sir Oliver Lodge in delivering a recent lecture.
"More and more are the employ-ere of labour realizing that the welfare of humanity is their ultimate end and aim, and the only one that can be really satisfying; they lore and more trying to organize! their factories so that the workers! too may get some joy in their work, und share the benefits of the rapid means of production which science, has put into their hands, Another century will see a great change in the conditions of labour, and in the} relations between labour and capi. tal; and,.when the nascent ability of all mankind is liberated, it will seem astonishing "that we have been. so Sen ithe Une setoned One would fain raoag that less!
low ili fens izing the power whi
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.