BRITISH MINERS' CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 8

BRITISH MINERS' CASE.

The British coal industry is in the throes of another crisis. Earnest efforts are being made to reach a basis of compromise which will satisfy in some measure the demands of the miners for increased wages, without at the same time increasing the cost of production to a degree which will cripple the whole industry. How serious the question is will be realised when it is remembered coal is an exceedingly important article of export, and export trade is the life-blood of British prosperity. The leader of the miners declares in to-day's cable message that some process of unification will provide the only final solution of the problem. This is one of the reasons why the. miners' organisations have so long urged nationalisation. One of the difficulties is that while the coal industry as a whole may appear exceedingly prosperous, there are many pits where the margin of revenue over expenditure is small and precarious. Any nation-wide scale of wages fixed without special reference to the weaker mines may put them out of action. Small though their return may be, their contribution to the national output is important. If they ceased operations there would be a serious addition to the ranks of the unemployed. The core of the miners' case is that with a proper organisation of forces, a closer co-ordination of effort, this key industry of Britain could pay better wages without any of the mines suffering the full effects feared for some. They sum it up by saying the industry should be treated as a single economic service. With that hope ahead they now feel a profound which i?. responsible for the development of successive crises in an industry where they can be least afforded.