STILL DRAGS ON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 73, 26 March 1912, Page 7

STILL DRAGS ON.

BRITISH COAL STRIKE. PROTRACTED CONFERENCES. v COLLIERS IN NORTH WALES. SCOTCH MINERS BREAKING AWAY. By Telegraph.— Press Association.—Copyrlght. (Received March 26, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, 25th March. The Premier (Mr. Asquith) had protracted conferences with the owners' and miners' representatives separately.' A joint conference will probably be held to-morrow morning. The Minimum Wage Bill has been further postponed. The men's leaders oppose an ultimate award by an independent chairman in the case of district boards not agreeing, as being tantamount to compulsory arbitration. The colliers at Chirk, North Wales, have obtained a minimum wage. Other collieries in North Wales are offering a minimum wage, and are inviting the men to resume. The Scottish miners are breaking away from the Federation. A thousand have resumed work in Lanarkshire and hundreds elsewhere. COAL MINES BILL CRITICISED MEN NOT GOING TO MARK TIME. IF-THE MILITARY WERE CALLED OUT. SYNDICALISM. LONDON, 25th March. Addressing a meeting of 5000 miners at Castleford, Yorkshire, Mr. Herbert Smith, president of the . Miners' Association, referring to the Coal Mines Bill, said no Tory Government could introduce a -worse Bill. They were not going to mark time to the tune of five shillings a day. The meeting resolved that the Federation's schedule must be incorporated in the Bill. Mr. J. Eamsay Mac Donald, Labour M.P., speaking at Bradford, denounced syndicalism, which he declared would open the door to the worst form of reaction. The minimum must be inserted in the Bill if the strike was to be settled. Mr. F. W. Jowett, Labour M.P. for West Bradford, at the same meeting, said that if the military were called out it would be their duty not to 6hoot. They had enlisted solely to fight foreign foes — not to shoot unarmed crowds of fellow-countrymen. Mr. Albert Stanley,- Labour M.P. for North-west Staffordshire, speaking at J Stoke, saidi a short and* »harp period j of suffering would be better than for ] the masses to be grovelling in poverty and distress while a few people made millions. Mr. J. H. Thomas, Labour M.P, for Derby, in tan address at Newcastle, said the coal strike Vould not result in syndicalism, which was horrible to contemplate, and assuredly would lead to disaster to the workers. He agreed that Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Balfour were right in their contention that the minimum could not be confined to miners. Mr. D. A. Thomas, managing director of the Cambrian Combine, interviewed, suggested that if the Bill were withdrawn the strike would end. Masters* and men in each district in South Wales would voluntarily agree on an all-round minimum living wage of 5s for adalts (except old and infirm men) and 2s for boys. SOUTH WALES COLLIERY MASTERS. IN EXPLANATION. GROUPS OF MIT'S FAVOURING DELAY. GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO PASS THE BILL. LONDON, 25th, March. The. colliery masters in South Wales explain that 2s a. day for boys is a email matter, but 5s for adults is an important one. The men merely fill tubes with rubbish. The demand is really intended to secure the raising of wages of skilled day labourers, and the latter will afterwards demand that the present margin between skilled and unskilled workers shall be preserved. Many hewers are only paying adult assistants 3s 6d. The Daily News states that there axe I powerful groups of Liberal and Conservative employers in the House of Commons favouring delay as the best means of breaking the Miners' Federation and countering the menacing demand for more wages _in all industries. The present peril is that the crisis may unite the Conservative and Liberal employers in the Commons against Labour, which would be disastrous to the peaceful handling of the now urgent wage problem. The Times states that the Government intends to pass the Bill, whatever today's conference decides. THREE HUNDRED MEN RESUME NUMBER OF FATAL ACCIDENTS. MINERS T ~LOSSES. DEMONSTRATIONS* AGAINST TOM MANN'S ARREST. LONDON, 25th March. Three hundred colliers at Chirk, in Denbighshire, North Wales, have returned to wort. A number of accidents, several resulting fatally, have occurred among unemployed men getting coal from outcrop seams in various districts. One was killed and nine injured at West Bowling, Bradford. The miners have lost 23,000,000 working days and £5,850,000 in wages, and other trades 12,000,000 days and a total of £2,350,000 in wages. The daily loss in wages is now £700,000. Professor H. S. Jevons states that the strike is costing the nation the sum of £10,000,000 weekly. Demonstrations at Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, and Glasgow protested against Mr. Tom Mann's arrest. MR. ASQUITH'S HARD TASK. The subjoined messages were published in the Sydney Sun on the 19th inst. : — In his efforts to end the present industrial conflict Mr. Asquith has to decide on the course that will bring the least ri&k of disruption in the Cabinet, and whether he prefers -to live on Labour or on Unionist support. With the votes of the Liberals alone he will bo in a hoj>ele£6 minority. The defeat of the Workmen's Housing Bfll has^ already shown how destructive a Unionist-Labour combine way become. 1 -gKcaQ-.auihorita.tivA _ eftutcat..

it is learned that Mr. Bonar Law and his party have no wish to see tho Government defeated over a Labour problem. The Opposition leader and his followers, it is said, will vote' with the MinistTv, if Mr. Asquith will only grasp the nettle of syndicalism and impose the authority of the Government upon masters and men alike. Mr. "tfemon Hartshorn, the Welsh Socialist leader, in the course of a speech, said: "The strike will not close until the men are satisfied. One outstanding fact is that the workers possess the power, and all the power." Mr. George Barnes, one of the leading members of the Labour Partj' in the House of Commons, remarked to-day that he was " glad that the miners hive shaken the complacency of the wealthy classes." Another Labour member, Mr. G. H. Roberts, says : "W© shali not accept compulsory arbitration as an' enduring principle of industrial legislation. We can't allow a. national crisis to be utilised for striking a blow at the general activity of trades unions." Mr. Watts Morgan, the Rhondda miners' agent, addressing a meeting last night, said : "If the Minimum Wage Bill does not contain what we are out for, then I'm afraid that we are in for more war. A Compulsory Arbitration Bill will but settle the strike as far as the South Wales miners are concerned." FREIGHTS RAISED. TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. (Received March 26, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, 25th March. Owing to the coal strike, the TNorddeutecher and German Australian Lines have raised the freights to Australia and New Zealand hy naif a crown a thousand kilos (22041b5> for first and second-class goods, and a shilling for others.