THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1912. THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14932, 4 March 1912, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1912. THE BRITISH COAL STRIKE.

Despite the efforts of tae Asquith Government and the conciliatory attitude of a large majority of employers, .the British coal strike has been inaugurated and to-day it is unlikely, that a single mine in the United Kingdom will be uninterrupted/ Possibly not a ton may be lifted to the surface of the 700,000 tonsi that 'form the daily output of British coalmines; the stunning effect of this upon industrialism can only be grasped if we realise that the wheels of British industry revolve by means of coal —water-made electricity, oil and peat being comparatively negligable as fuels. Of the 10,000,000 adult males in the United Kingdom over 1,000,000 work under the Coal Mines Act; approximately, ten per cent, of the working population is employed in extracting fuel from the coalmines. The coal exporting trade of Britain is an important one, reaching over 65,000,000 tons in each of the three years ending 1909, this being more than was exported by all European countries, but the importance of the coal export trade is less apparent when we compare it with the consumption of over 200,000,000 in Britain. From a variety of reasons, prominent among, them being the desire to avoid unnecessary handling and the difficulty of providing storage in the densely populated and highly used centres where most of the coal is consumed, provision of coal is regarded as non-economical, and supply is of a hand-to-mouth character. This is very common in all parts of the world, and there is no cause to regard it as a peculiar weakness of. British industrialists, who practically regard, it as more economical to take the risk of immediate suspension in case of the supply of coal suddenly failing than to bear constantly the cost, waste and risk of enormous provision for exceptional emergency. The supply of wheat it may be. pointed out depends upon i similarly precarious conditions, the principal of which is that the granaries of foreign countries and the holds of the grain carrying fleets provide a wheat reserve which is more economically held and more economically drawn upon than it would be if local granaries had to be provided and if the bulk were to be rushed into England as soon as harvested instead of being forwarded throughout the year. In wheat there is the. recognised danger that the nation would soon be starved into submission were the supply interrupted by an enemy; but the coal supply is within the national territory and can only be interrupted by what is practically industrial civil war. Industrial civil war exists to-day in England, and its results we see in the instant slackening of all the dependent industries with the cessation of the coal supply. Among the great industries of Britain are the spinning of cotton, the weaving of wool, the building of ships, the making of tools and machinery. Once the little islands in the Northern seas were the workshops of Europe, and they are still the leading and the most completely equipped. It is the constant business of those great industries and their earnings won amid the keenest of foreign competition in the world's markets which enable our sheep farmers to sell their wool and their meat at remunerative prices, and our dairymen to obtain good golden coin for every pound of butter-fat they can produce. The blow given to British industry by the stoppage of coal getting has already reached our New Zealand dairymen, for prices on the London market have fallen in sympathy with the national depression and must fall mere if the stagnation continues. Fortunately for producers, prices have of late been sufficiently good to allow a margin for shrinking value before any serious local injury is felt. But this incident presents very vividly the meaning of the coal strike. It is not so much the million men who have left work but the many millions whom they must throw out of work. In this case there is no need for the so-called sympathetic strike of other industries. Other industries must close down automatically, until there I is a great mass of idle men in every English city, in every Scottish town, and in every manufacturing centre within the four seas. We are already informed that such famous yards as those of the Armstrong Company will be involuntarily closing down from" lack of coal if the strike is not settled, that the spinning mills will be smokeless after a fortnight, that the railways are already running reduced services, and are contemplating the drastic action initiated by the New South Railway Department during the last Newcastle coal strike— coal was seized in transit and paid for at market price. The seriousness of the question cannot be denied, and justifies the intervention of the AsqUith Government. But, unfortunately, the miners' unions, confident of their ability to make British industry helpless, and serenely indifferent to any other argument, so I far refuse, to listen to any terms but the acceptance of their own mini-

mums." The Government has offered to enforce the principle of minimum, leaving to conciliation

boards the duty of fixing the amount for each district, but this has been refused. Another attempt is being made to-day to arrange an amicable settlement, and in the interests Of the entire Empire it is to be hoped that the attempt will be successful.