THE GREAT COAL STRIKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14934, 6 March 1912, Page 6

THE GREAT COAL STRIKE.

If the British coal miners persist in their refusal to discuss the minimum in detail, even though it is admitted as a principle, the probability of an immediate settlement of the great coal strike is a vanishing one. Every consideration may fairly be given to the claims of a great body of men whose calling is a precarious one, whose work is exceedingly hard and who not only toil under most unpleasant and depressing surroundings, but habitually contract diseases which shorten their average length of life. But when all this is said there remains the fundamental condition of any permanent and general industrial arrangement that it must be reasonably satisfactory to both parties to the bargain. The miners' unions have within their reach an unprecedented gain, the establishment of the principle of a minimum wage in piece-work even though the requisite quantity of coal 'is not forthcoming. Many mineowners still maintain that this is impracticable, but the great majority of mineowners are prepared to give it a fair trial, and the Gov-, ernment is prepared to establish the minimum principle in coal mining as part of the law of the land. In the face of this it is impossible to doubt that the refusal of the union leaders to throw open the question of minimum details to discussion and arbitration arises from an inability to maintain the old-time discipline of the miners' unions. In the pre-syndical days, the representatives of great bodies of British workmen were trusted to meet the employers, and their recommendations were customarily accepted by the trades concerned as their agreements were customarily adhered to. But of recent years, as is admitted by old-fashioned unionists, the discipline which could loyally accept compromise has tended to disappear. In the case of the miners a million men have struck work in the common determination to insist upon the whole of their demands being granted, unqualified and unmodified; and there is no visible authority which can temper the decision which must necessarily have been reached without a full consideration of all the points involved. The situation is a curious and a serious one. But whatever may be the outcome it is plain that industrial arrangements cannot be permanently based upon conditions thus devised and thus imposed.