And Their Bearing on the Great Struggle To-day As outlined in the previous arti-ele the Sankey report of March, 1919, dealt with the nationalization of the coal mines and the joint control of industry by those employed in it. The passage dealing with this is sufficiently important to bear repetition given," Say Mr. justice Sankey and "Even upon the evidence already fis three colleagues, the Government nominees, "the present system of ownership and working in the coal industry stands condemned, and some other system must be substituted for it, either nationalization or a method of unification by national purchase and/or joint control,"
In Reuter's telegrams dealing with the present crisis we can observe frequent reiterations by the Premier of the Government's refusal to reinstate the coal control, which came to an end on March 31 last. This in itself has a very important bearing upon the reasons which now impel the miners to cease working, insomuch as rate of wages differs in the various coal mining areas.
Poor M&anacement, Poor Emptoy.
In those mines which have been inefficiently or extravagantly conducted by present or previous owners the miner is offered a lesser wage, for doing the same work, than his fellows in another district where the mines are economically and efficiently run. Such is the solidarity of the miners that they insist that they should not be asked to pay, though lesser wages, for the mistakes or greed or whatever it may be of those owners whose mines are poor in quality or in management.
This may seem absurd to those who are not fully acquainted with the arduous and dangerous nature of the miner's calling. Yet, these men have learned that to achieve their objects it is necessary to make common cause in advancing their interests. If they stand solid, they are likely to gain their end. If they are divided they fall. It is the old story of the bundle of twigs with a practical application.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.