COAL STRIKE PROSPECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14930, 1 March 1912, Page 7

COAL STRIKE PROSPECTS.

MORE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.

MINIMUM WAGE PRINCIPLE.

ACCEPTED BY EMPLOYERS. " MORAL VICTORY " FOR MEN. MATTERS STILL AT ISSUE. By Telegraph.— Association.— Copyright. (Received February 29. 9.35 p.m.) | London, February 29. ! It is officially announced that the I Government has informed the coal i owners of its attitude on the follow- ! ing points : — Firstly, it is satisfied, after careful consideration, that there are cases where miners cannot earn a reasonable living wage from causes over which they have no control. Secondly, it is satisfied that power to secure such." "a wage should be secured by arrangements suitable to the special circumstances of each district, adequate safeguards being pro- | vided to protect employers against ! abuse. i Thirdly, the Government is prej pared to confer with the part ies_concerning the best method of giving | practical effect to this conclusion by means of district conferences between the parties, at which the Government shall be represented. Fourthly, in the event of any such conferences failing to arrive at a complete settlement within a reasonable time, the representatives and the Government should decide jointly the outstanding points, with a view to giving effect to the agreeJ ment in principle. I OWNERS' AND MINERS' ATTITUDE. The official communication adds .that the employers within the English federated area and in Durham and Cumberland have accepted these proposals, and the Northumberland, | Scotland, South Wales, Forest of • Dean, Somerset, and Bristol employers have refused them. The miners'concurred with the first two propositions and disagreed with numbers three and four. They are not prepared to regard the minimum wage on the scale adopted on February 2as open to negotiation. Further conferences will be held to-day. The Scottish owners explained to the Government that they would abide by an agreement made on July 30, 1909, to which the Board of Trade was a party, though they would be willing to be represented on a joint committee of masters and men as to remuneration for work in abnormal places, or in the event of injustice in exceptional cases. There is general satisfaction over i the Government securing the adhesion of the employers and 60 per cent, of the miners to the principle of a minimum wage, leaving the door open to further negotiation with the minority. The grave feature of the situation is 1 the J miners' insistence upon a definite scale of pay in place of the system of conferences suggested by the Government. STRIKERS NUMBER 115,000. There are now 115,000 miners idle, including 32,000 in Nottinghamshire. The export of coal from the Tyne, which is 20,000,000 tons annually, is at a standstill. The Times says there is no doubtthat the solution of the problem lies in conceding a minimum wage, with safeguards. j The Daily Mail declares that the : miners, having scored a, moral victory, ought to be willing to submit their case to negotiation in the various districts. Mr. MacPherson, chairman of the Mines Drainage Commission, has appealed to the miners not to allow themselves to be dragged at the heels Of South Wales when there is no dispute elsewhere. He adds that in the event of a strike, the majority of; the mines in the drainage a¥ea will be flooded beyond recovery. The Miners' Federation passed a resolution that after the expiration of the strike notices they would allow sufficient men to remain at work to attend to the ventilation and pumping and to feed the ponies. THE SYNDICALIST CAMPAIGN. The handbill urging soldiers not to fire on strikers, for distributing which a man named Cowley was arrested at Aldershot, was a reprint from the first number of a monthly paper published by the Syndicalists. This paper is published as a successor to Tom Mann's pamphlets on Syndicalism, and its Object is to prepare the way as rapidly as possible for a general strike of international proportions. It fixes on 1913 (as a trade boom year) as a time to effectively resist the encroachment of capitalists. The new. South Wales. Miners' Industrial Organisation isj says the Evening News, 'being assisted' by eight members of the executive council of the South Wales Miners' Federation. • The secretary of the new body, Mr. W. H. Mainwaring, a prominent advocate of Syndicalism, states that he hopes that the executive council of the South Wales Miners' Federation will adopt the scheme as a whole. " > .

[Apparently lie scheme referred to is that which was outlined in the recent cablegram announcing the advent of the newlyhorn South Wales Miners' Industrial Organisation, which has been formed independent, of the Miners' Federation. A pamphlet circulated in South Wales explains that the organisation's methods include so-called irritation strikes, whereby the men will reduce the output of working hours until profits disappear, when the shareholders will bo forced to relinquish the mines. The latter must then be carried on in the interests of the workers, who will choose their own managers and thus rid the industry of slave driving.]