The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1921. The Miners’ Choice.

Evening Star, Issue 17701, 30 June 1921, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1921.

The Miners’ Choice.

Broadly speaking, the terms of settle* ment to be submitted to

the British coal miners embody the principle of

UIIVIWBI VUJUVWJ f- £- - profit-sharing. There is thus an incentive for the men to increase the output. They are assured of a standard wage, and, if their efforts produce the desired result, they will be allotted their proportion of surplus profit. That the output is capable of great increase is indicated by the serious decline in production per miner employed which late years have shown, and by the discrepancy between the American and tho British miners’ individual outputs. On the other hand, it has been admitted that out-of-date appliances and methods in some British collieries make the latter comparison not altogether fair. If the new terms will help to induce the mincowners also to do what lies in their power to stimulate production, the industry should be resumed on more promising lines. To grease the rusty wheels for a fresh start the Government will assist to the extent of £10,00(5,000 from the Treasury. The principle of a State subsidy for industry is distasteful; but the circumstances and the need are exceptional, and the arrangement is only temporary.

Though there seems probability of the men accepting the terms, there is no certainty. The fact of their leaders recommending capitulation does not signify a great deal. The miners are not given to blindly following them, either into or out of a strike. The Labor correspondent of the ‘Economist’ in a recent issue explodes the theory that Labor unrest is the -work of a handful of agitators. This theory, he says, has always been an insult to the intelligence of the rank and file of British workers, who, with bread and butter at stake, are not easily led away by high faintin’. The unrest is based on a feeling that there is something wrong with “the system.” The introduction of ( profit-sharing is a recognition of the exist-

Mice of that feeing. Whether this concession will be enough to allay it remains to bo seen.

The mining population, wo aro told, is as various in its make-up as any other section of the people. The miner in South Wales is a different person from the Yorkshire or Durham minor. But on all the fields a considerable amount of adult education has been going on, that in South Wales having a distinctly Marxian tendency. The popular impression of the miner as one whoso spare time hobbies aro mostly the public-house or such sports as whippet racing and pigeon flying has to be modified. A largo section is strongly Puritan, some of the strongest centres of Nonconformity being found on the coalfields, while hundreds of miners aro local preachers, and many o? their union officials served their apprenticeship to public speaking in the pulpit. Thus it is easily credible that the vast majority of the miners aro in the centre and right wing of the Labor movement. The younger men in the left wing may be more vociferous ; but if the present offer is not accepted it is not likely that their irifluenca will bo responsible. The deciding factor will bo whether the great bulk consider that “ the system ” is being sufficiently improved.