THE BRITISH COAL DISPUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 12

THE BRITISH COAL DISPUTE.

Thk termination of the coal dispute at Home need not be regarded as any the less assured because the acceptance of the terms of settlement by the Miners’ Executive has not been immediately followed in every district by a return of the miners to the pits. The fact that in certain parts of the country— South Wales, Northumberland, and Scotland particularly—the miners are still quarrelling with the peace terras may delay the general resumption of work. But every day adds thousands to the number of those returning to work, and a full third of all the miners must now be re-employed. Past experience has shown the futility of an endeavour on the part of a section of the workers in an industry to continue a strike in the face of circumstances such as present themselves at this stage of the dispute at Horae. Whether the industry will bo able to re-absorb all who were engaged in it at the time the dispute began is doubtful. A few days ago the Home Secretary said it was the naked truth that a quarter of a million miners would never find work in the pits. Official figures have shown that the number of persons engaged in the industry prior to the stoppage approximated a million and a-quarter, and that by far the larger proportion of this total consisted of unskilled workers who were employed on the surface and in the underground workings. It has been pointed out that the increase in the number of unskilled workers in the industry of late years has been far greater proportionately than the increase in the number of skilled workers. And the contention has been advanced that it is essential for the restoration of the prosperity of the industry that the number of those directly dependent on coal mining for employment should be reduced by at least a quarter of a million, and also that from a quarter to a third of the existing number of collieries should be closed down for a considerable period of time. There is no escape from the conclusion pointed out by Sir W. Joyuson-Hicks that the miners have been engaged in a struggle against economic facts. They fought hard to secure a national agreement and failed. Had they secured such an agreement the results would have recoiled upon themselves. Under the operation of a national agreement many of the collieries could not possibly carry on. As they are not sound economic concerns, the proprietors of them would be forced into bankruptcy. The wages which the owners can afford to pay depend upon the production and upon the price of coal in a market in which foreign coal comes into competition with the British article. In such circumstances it is only a logical conclusion .that local conditions must receive consideration, and that district agreements must prevail if many of the pits are to be kept going and still offer employment to the miners on terms which are the best of which the economic position will admit.