COAL MINES BILL PASSED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1912, Page 6

COAL MINES BILL PASSED.

Tho possibility, which at ono time peemed not for from a probability, that the British Government would bo defeated on the Coal Mines Bill, lias fortunately not been realised. A General Election in the midet of such an upheaval as that which has now prevailed for more than four weeks would, as Mr. Balfoui 1 eaid, ha.ye been a calamity too perilous to be tolerated. But even tho change of Government which ho con- [ templated as the preferable alternative to a dissolution in the event of the | Aequith Ministry suffering a 1 defeat, , would have greatly complicated and embittered tho position. Even this minor calamity has been averted. The Government has got its Bill through, but by a very remarkable division. The second reading of tho Bill wae carried by 348 votes to 225. which gave tho Government its normal majority. The majority for th© third reading was even larger, but the increase was due to the entire abstention of the Unionists from voting. The Government was accordingly left with only the Labour party to fight, and its majority of 165 was no indication of tho true feeling of the House. The Route of Lords naturally took its cue from the attitudo of the Opposition in tho popular chamber. The case is one in which tho power of suspension for two years would have been just as effective an instrument of destruction as the unlimited veto that the House possessed before the passing of the Parliament Act — a point, by the way, that well illustrates the extravagance of the complaint of the Opposition that the effect of that Act is the practical abolition of the House of Lords. The Lords were wise in refusing to reject the Coal Mines Bill or even to embarrass the Government with amendments. The Bill was accordingly passed in quick time, and it received the Royal assent on Friday. The result is that the principle of a minimum wage for the miners has been given statutory recognition, but the fixing of the amount is left to district boards. These boards, which will be composed of equal representatives of the owners and the miners with an independent chairman, will consider the circumstances of their respective districts before coming to a decision, and we presume that they will be free to discriminate between different mines or groups of mines in their own districts, if they think' fit. The struggle will now be transferred from the Legislature and the conferences between masters and men which have endeavoured to shape legislation to the district boards., But though the mineowners have accepted the principle of the Bill the amount of the minimum will bo, in many cases, a difficult matter to determine, and in all cases it seems probable that the nature of the safeguards will present a very thorny problem. The Miners' Federation has. therefore acted wisely in deciding to submit to the men themselves the question whether work is to bo resumed pending the determination by thei district boards of the minimum wage in the various grades. It is remarkable that on such a question the executive should have failed to give the men, a lead, but the omission is obviously the result of divided counsels. The inaction/ of the executive has left both leaders and followers a free hand. The secretary of the .federation advises the miners to vote for the resumption, and some of the Labour M.P.'s have taken the same line, but there are men of equal authority on the other side. In Lancashire and Staffordshire the first ballots declared have gone against the resumption of work, but at Chirk, ■ in North. Wales, an opposite decision, has been arrived at. The difference is perhaps accounted for by the exhaustion of the funds of the unions in North Wales, while in the other cases, so far as the cabled reports allow us to judge, the unions may still be in credit. As even the irreconcilables of South Wales are reported by .the general secretary of their federation to be likely to favour the resumption of work by a large majority, the outlook ib at last distinctly hopeful. Ten thousand men have already resumed work in various part* of the country without awaiting the results of the ballot. It may therefore be expected' that the truce will have 'become general before the week is out. There will, of course, bo endless opportunities for trouble when the boards begin to settle the details, but the experience of the past month will surely exercise a sobering influence upon the rank and file, whatever any of their leaders may say. The terriblfc reality ha* been different indeed from the week's happy holiday which the men were led' to anticipate. A month of cruel suffering, which, has impoverished nearly every union, hae secured them a victory, but the victory ifi, nevertheless, so far from complete that the Labour M.P.'s would not even vote for it. The unfortunate miners will not be anxious for another such month, even it the district boards do not give them all they want.