THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14928, 28 February 1912, Page 6

THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

The long threatened strike for a! minimum wage in the British coal ! industry has actually commenced,! and unless checked by an amicable arrangement on the points at issue can hardly fail to develop into the -extensive and- disastrous strike.

known to the economic world. For not only is the entire coalmining industry threatened by the direct or sympathetic striking of the various miners' unions, but if the cessation of industry is prolonged there is every probability of the trouble spreading to the Continental and American coalfields. The Rhine and Westphalian miners are already moving to obtain higher wages, and tho strong market demand which must follow any cutting off of the main source of coal supply may easily induce tho great bulk of the German miners to override the attempt of the Christian Miners' Association to prevent the German fields from becoming involved. The American fields have long been seriously disaffected and nowhere has the advance in the cost of living been more seriously felt than in the United States. But even should the conflict be confined to Britain it will still be of vast proportions, and cause extraordinary, distress. For the British miners are not spasmodically and irregularly organised as were the transport workers who brought about the industrial upheaval of last August. Their unions are the most powerful in the United Kingdom, possessing large funds, and have heretofore displayed grim qualities of endurance and determination. It has never been questioned that they are able to bring coalmining to a standstill, and the voting on the strike-ballot taken early in January made very clear that there was an overwhelming majority in favour of proceeding to extremity, although a number of the most trusted of the old leaders deprecated the demand for the minimum wage. In usually cautious Scotland 55,000 miners voted for a strike and 15,000 against. In South I Wales— unionism is newest and the danger of lawlessness greati there were 103,000 for and only 18,000 against. In Derbyshire, where the strike has been commenced, the voting was four to one in its favour; in the Midlands, and in the Northern Counties of England, there was a somewhat similar expression of feeling. That the great mass of the British miners are stubbornly determined to establish a minimum wage must be recognised, but this is not the most serious feature of the present crisis. The miners' plan of campaign is to force the situation by a general stoppage, so that it does not appear possible for any section of colliery owners to make peace. In Derbyshire, for instance, there are non-federated owners who asked the miners' representatives if a Strike would affect pits which now conform to the minimum demanded, and were answered in the affirmative. The unions demand "a, distinct minimum wage over the whole coalfields of the United Kingdom without exception" and the prospect of a peaceable solution is therefore based upon the adjustment of the most difficult problems.

The " danger zone" in the British colliery dispute is admittedly in South Wales. In other parts of the United Kingdom there has been a tendency on both sides to come to terms rather than plunge into a conflict which must be disastrous to both sides, whatever the outcome may be. The Midland federation of colliery owners practically conceded the miners' demands in December, which explains the cabled report—published in this morning's Herald according to a Labour member of Parliament, "if the Midlanders could cut the painter they would get all they wanted in 24 hours, but they were unable to break away." In South Wales, however, there is a bitter feeling, largely due to the fact that the miners made a five-years' agreement in February last and have acted as though it did not exist. For some reason, possibly because of the national temperament operating on both sides, Welsh mining disputes assume an intensity and are coloured by excitements little known to the cooler tempers of the English and Scotch. If the South Wales district j minimum can be arranged there is i still considerable hope of the great strike being avoided, and to this the efforts of mediators are being specially directed. It should be stated in this connection that the chief objection of colliery proprietors to a minimum wage is based upon the ; difficulty of preventing malingering. They claim that a minimum wage would be followed by. a decrease of 20 per cent, in the output of the mines, and that this would have the effect of closing many pits and of disorganising the industry. The union reply is that any malingerer may be dismissed, but it is obviously not possible to apply that corrective if large bodies of miners simultaneously and unconsciously slacken their industrial energy. As stated above, many of the miners' leaders recognise this. Apart from the question as it affects colliery proprietors and coal miners the threatened general coal strike throws a gloom over industrial Britain. Every industry depends on this great source of motive power, and as coal becomes unobtainable industrial operations must cease. Already many mills and factories are preparing to shut down, and the most appalling effects are inevitable unless wiser counsels prevail. Indeed the illimitable extent of the disaster strengthens the hope that it will be avoided and that by mutual concessions the strike may be averted and the wheels of British industry <*ontinu e* topsrovolves