The Communists are also. jubilfant over the part played in the dis-{pute by the Tight wing Labour and trade union leaders. These ood intentioned but somewhat woolly! brained individuals were stampeded into backing: the general strike when the outrageous "character of the mine-owner's demands wore first revealed. This incursion into the most foolish manifestation of direct action we have yet had cost them dearly in lost prestige from their moderate trade union supporter has also destroyed al "the Tt
there might have been "in subsequent railings "at the extra, jmmism of Cook and' Smith.
For at leart the latter gentlom can fairly claim that they have been \engaged in the straightforward. and {dard of living (whick is the function for which trode unions exist) Bet lever since the general strike. was called off Msars Clyne, Snowden Macdonald, Bromley." Theme Hotges, and many. other "moder. ates® have boon profitably andi dustriously engaged in exposing to the readers of the anti-Labour pross [the fatty of the miner's resistance and the" shortcomings of thet circles that these essay ioo "it is well "known, in journalistic lost popularity than any error of Judgment we remember, and the Communists have not hesitated. make the most of it. Left wing partisans in the Labour move: ment are now. confident "that when the victorious Labour host troops into Parliament after the next general election these amateur Journalists will be missing. Some of them are now taking part in the} "Industrial Truce" movement which apparently has for its object the wild idea of standardizing existing hours and wage rates for the next five years. That means the ensure ing to the builder his £5 2 week, to the dustman his £3: 15: 0. to th inoer his 2: 10, to the miner is 30/- or 40/- and so on through the whole absurd scale of unendurfable anomalies. Such a. scheme fs, of course, not worth wasting breath upon although any amount fof breath is being wasted upon i {in halls and meeting rooms up and down the country.
Te is reliably estimated that the cost of coal at the pit head now the new agreements are in. operation averages 15/- per ton. The mine owners are charging from £2: 15: 0 to £3: 5 for it. Paragraphs are also appearing in the press from tinrevesled sources warning coal buyers that "for a long' time. to jerome" coat will be dearer than it sed to be, as the owners have to recompense' themselves. for their ast losses. Tt is very evident Already that the production of Heap coal" has ceased to figure in the vocabulary of the mine-lowner's press agents. The profits that will be won by this last infamy tus reduction of the miner's standard of living are not, it appears, to benefit the steel workers and al! the other workers who depend on heap coal for prosperity. All these profits are to go into the mineowners' pockets, Several manufacturers have already awakened to this entertaining volte face and. their plaintive letters have enlivened the local press.
are recalling that a Cabinet Minister stated before the outbreak lof the dispute that what. was wrong ith the industry was the fact that there was a surplus of 200,000 men in it, They are now wonder-{ng why the increate of hours with the further two or. three hundred thousand men it will throw out of work was ever supposed to be remedy for our coal industry ills. 'The miners reasonably argue tha' ithe owners want this huge reservoir of destitute labour so that, wages can be kept dows his visit to His reception there should equal that of any victorious. general returning home, if the fame is only a spiritual one. Behind him in he mining villages of Scotland," Durham, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, inthe Welsh veys, and a hundred other places, he! eaves itter lass hatred desis Hon, il health and. misery. the ost ferrite all Zor the seed Glenda fu Moscow want to cow Great. Britain, and. in every mining lodge and trade union branch there are trained propagandieee now sowing it Before be wut he issued his lst manifesto. Rg a that he would fever put is" hand to any" agree: ment lengthening the hours of the Iminra, and he has kept his word His prestige among the miners is undiminished, "A. "spontaneous heer greets the "mention of his name in any Labour meeting in the country. "And as nothing "reveals the man more than his spoken and vwrtien utterances" it might well to give here his farewell refer months the mineornes, gor cxnmenty and carts Laboat Wed, Fe ths SU"ty Wh fee elaine star Brey hive reitertied tu chovae Bea ord be "here coneatal i only ethers Sani ieee cout a instruct the men to open up nest ons with the owners. Haz harmony and bance resulted?
in Bristol, Somerset, Kent, Forest of Dean, Leicester, and Notts the owners retare to meat the representa: tives of the Miners" Federation. 'a matter of fact in Somerset the. owners actually refuse to discuss any fee ae a "These conditions are thrown down with"an incolence. which shows that the owners are Bruval victors. Their {dea seme to be that since they have Starved the Miners. it is only eves Sary now to shackle them body and the callous condi-surrounding them prove. that the owners are not only determined fo'enferce slave conditions, but they Spe cually determined to deatray the "vin ie how the ers have Fhemas, 'Snowden, and 'Clynes' for ied to. the hysterical" pleadings of
industrial peace."
"Thomas yearns for the bosses to do 'This is the logical outcome of his whining for' the miners. toc Tower wages and district agreements. which mean longer hours, Thames. Gid' not worry over-much what the terme, should" be. It was' only. settled of any cent, shat he des iis object—supported by the mineowners government.
Dodies and soufe Workers will pay for it decent living wage, seven hours anda national "agreement was" fess "f" the programme) upon wil nye a Miners" Federation met the demands fof the owners when they' locked out 7 Sill adhere to that programme The "Miners Federation" will not Fatty any agreements which do not Contain titese aims.
We will use the' Federation to enrage the struggle wherever we can ight against Vietimsatlon oFganl 'As. the delegate of the Miners' Federation "I "travel" ty. Russia. thank the brave Workers and leaders there for their splendid help. Tad our own trade unionists dene as much four Russian comrades the Miners"
would have ended In a great now conduct an energetic campaign in the coal fields having for its object the unification of all the district organizations into one big union. He will denounce any agrecment foreed on the men which binds them to a long industrial truce. And he will work for a retaliatory strike at the earliest possible opportunity. It is commonly, and -we believe, correctly supposed that if this strike takes place when a Labour Goverment is in power that Government will buy off its extreme left wing by nationalizing the mines. If it takes place before change in the government it will immediately precipitate one.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.