BRITISH MINING STRIKE

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 33

BRITISH MINING STRIKE

SCOTTISH PITS TO BE REOPENED. DISTRESS IX THE POTTERIES DISTRICT. LONDON, April 1. Speaking at Motherwell, Mr Smellie, of the Scottish Miners' Federation, said the miners must not think that the fight had ended. They were looking forward to another fight shortly for increased wages. A.nswering a question in the House of Commons, Mr Asquith said he was not satisfied that a Royal Commission would meet the requirements of the industrial unrest. The Government was considering the question Mi- Lansbury (Labour) drew attention to the report that large bodies of Orangemen were said to be drilling in Ulster, and asked whether the Miners' Federation would be allowed to drill their members. The Prime Minister refused to reply to a hypothetical question. RESULTS OF THE BALLOT. LONDON, April 2. The latest totals give a email majority against the resumption of work. Northumberland, Durham, Lancashire, and Yorkshire voted heavily against resumption, but the Midlands and South Wales gave an effective counter vote. The latter's majority was 25,000 in favour of resumption. The sum of £4OOO weekly is being spent in relieving the misery in the Potteries district. The funds are almost exhausted, and another £SOOO will be required to tide them over Easter. SCOTTISH MINES TO BE REOPENED. LONDON, April 2. The Scottish owners will re-open all the pits on Monday. Including the men employed in Warwickshire and Scotland, there will be 20,000 at work. There has been a general resumption at Dudley, but the iSaltiwella colliery is flooded, and has been abandoned. Mr Ashton has issued the Miners' Federation's statement regarding the omission of the schedule rates from the act. It denies that the act is worthless, but says the miners have accepted it as the only instrument providing for a national minimum wage for the miners. The ballot so far shows that 123,000 favour resumption and 135,000 are against. The miners of Durham, Lancashire, Scotland, and South Yorkshire voted largely against resuming. April 3. The result of the ballot steadily increases the majority against the resumption of work, but a great proportion of the miners have abstained from voting. The northerners are apparently incensed at the action of their leaders in voting against the Minimum Wage Bill, and then the next day advising the acceptance of the bill. The King has given 1000 guineas for the relief of the sufferers, and Queen Mary and Queen Alexandra have given £IOOO each. HELP FROM SYDNEY. SYDNEY. April 3. The Lord Mayor has opened a fund for the relief of the sufferers, and has already sent £IOOO. The New South Wales donation helps to feed 12,000 children in the Potteries district for a week. IS SOUTH AFRICA ASSISTING? CAPETOWN, April 3. In replying to a question Mr Botha declined to contradict a statement that he was taking similar action to that taken by New South Wales for the relief of the British strike victims. PROSPECT OF SETTLEMENT. ENORMOUS LOSS BY THE RAILWAYS. LONDON, April 3. The figures are 158,836 for resumption and 182,747 against. There are large abstentions, including 36,130 Durham miners. The federation secretary, Mr Albert Stanley, at a mass meeting at Cannockchase, said it is now impossible to secure the necessary two-thirds majority in favour of continuing the strike. A resolution in favour of returning to work was almost unanimous, despite the. previous contrary ballot. Another leading miners' official, when interviewed, said he was doubtful if a two-thirds majority was necessary ; but the federation must wipe up the mess. The reason for the men's obstreperousness was the continuance of strike pay. The South Wales men were pacific because their funds were exhausted. The federation, therefore, must order a resumption, and ask the district executives to suspend the strike pay. Though only two-thirds of the miners have voted, an increasing number of pits are reopening. Mr Ashton states that as

a two-thirds majority produced the strike a two-thirds majority is necessary to continue it. Two thousand men and women attempted to hinder the non-unionists working at the Glencraig pit (Fifeshire). There were some wild scenes. Fifty policemen, mostly mounted, made several charges, the rioters replying with heavy j volleys of stones. Order was finally restored. April 4. There is every indication that the Miners' Federation will declare the strike off to-day. The decrease in the railway business ' through the strike amounts to £2,500,000. The owners and men in Lancashire and South Wales have appointed boards to fix a minimum wage. Additional men have resumed work in Scotland, and the miners in North Staffordshire and Walsall will resume, today. The miners' war chest in Durham, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Nottingham still holds £750,000. I The Prince of Wales has given £SOO to the fund for the relief of those who are suffering in consequence of the strike. April 5. Mr Ashton announces that the necessary two-thirds majority for continuing the strike lias not been obtained. THE OFFICIAL FIGURES. LONDON, April 5. The official result of the voting is as follows : For resumption of work 201,013 Against resumption of work ... 244,011 | There is no rule to cover the matter, but as there is not a two-thirds majority the executive suggests that a National Conference be called for Saturday to j recommend the resumption of work. i SURFACEMEN'S DEMANDS. LONDON, April 5. At a mass meeting of the South Wales surfacemen it was decided not to resume work >intil their demands had been conceded. The president denounced the miners' leaders for despising their claims. FEDERATION IN DANGER. LONDON, April 5. It is understood that the executive committee's decision to call a conference met with the strongest opposition. It was only Mr Enoch Edwards's (Labour member for Hanley)) appeal on behalf of moderation that turned the scale. The fate of the committee's recommendation at the national conference is uncertain, but The Times's Labour correspondent asserts that the extremists are able to carry the conference against resumption. April 6. There is a consensus of opinion that unless the conference orders the resumption'of work the federation will break up because those who are eager to resume decline to sta.rve indefinitely. ; The Scottish miners are divided. Thousands are eager to resume work, and unless the conference rejects the excutive'a recommendation they will resume on Monday. There is a prevalent feeling that in Fifeshire, where 40,CD0 men are employed, only absolute starvation will induce them to resume. | A meeting at Rotheram advised the men to imitate the boilermakers and overthrow the leaders, on the ground that the principle of a minimum wage was worth- • less until the boards fixed the schedules. I The continuance of the strike meanwhile will involve a month's hardship and semictarvation. I Mr Hartshorn said the continuation of the strike would involve the risk of splitting the federation into impotent sections. The ballot had emphasised the fact that unless the district boards fixed satisfactory minimum wages trouble would recur, and experience now proved that a national stoppage must be conducted, the executive possessing full power and responsibility individually and collectively to act in any emergency. Mr Haslam, speaking at Chesterfield, said the men must gracefully surrender. Nothing would be gained by remaining out. The surfacemen at Dinnington (Yorkshire) have resolved not to resume work until an equitable settlement is arrived at. Sixty-two thousand miners have resumed work. Many district meetings have censured the executive for its recommendation, and the men in Yorkshire. Fifeshire, aand Lothians have instructed their delegates to to-day's conference to oppose the resumption of work. Owing to some men being suspected of coal-getting at the Newton colliery, Dumfermline, a crowd of 10,000 smashed 1000 panes of glass in the pithead buildings, and damaged the machinery. I Mr Hartshorn appeals to all miners to resume work and to place their loyalty to the federation foremost, inasmuch as the existence of the federation is &r stake, DECREASE IN RAILWAY RECEIPTS. LONDON, April 5. As a result of the strike the receipts on 51 railways during the last week of March decreased £747,000 compared with 1911, and the receipts for the quarter ended March decreased £2,233,000. The Times states that the strike has only slightly affected the cotton industry,

as during the time of previous prosperity the masters accumulated enormous stocks of coal, thus enabling most of them to work full time. WORK TO BE RESUMED. LONDON, April 7. The conference decided by 440 votes | to 125 that work must be resumed in Scotland on Monday and in England on j Tuesday. Each vote represented 1000 I members. ACCEPTING THE INEVITABLE. LONDON, April 7. I A section of the conference sharply criticised the executive, but the general impression is that the situation must be accepted. The minority included the North of England delegates, except those from Nortluimberland. A party of strikers searching for coal :in a disused mine at Nantymoel were 1 buried by a huge fall. Two men and a boy were killed. I There have been several similar accidents recently in other places. The coal-owners declined further to discuss the demands of the Monmouthshire and South Wales enginemen and stokers. Mr Keir Hardie is distributing £IOO among necessitous miners. It was contributed by the Westialian Timber Workers' Union. The strikers at'Newbridge, Monmouthshire, invaded the pitheads and forced the strike-breakers to cease work, despite the police. I There have been disturbances at Rotherham, Midlothian, and West Fife, but they were not serious. j Many trade unionists assert that the railway companies, in consequence of the coal strike, are discharging prominent nnion leaders, particularly on the Metropolitan and Central London railways. A SERIOUS CONFLICT. LONDON, April 8. There was serious rioting at Pendlebury in consequence of an attempt to cart coal. I The excited strikers overturned the lor- ' ries and appropriated the coal. Thousands then invaded the pithead and stoned 150 r"Mce from behind a wall. Th jlice made numerous baton charges on the strikers, and many, broken heads resulted. A number were taken home on stretchers, and nine arrests were made. Many meetings in Yorkshire have commended the leaders for ordering the resumption of work until a minimum wage is fixed. THE MINERS' DEMANDS. LONDON, April 8. " Mr Keir Hardie, speaking at Doncaster, said a refusal to return to work would be suicidal. The miners were going to comj pel society to take over the mines, and j their next demand would be a fixed yearly salary. LABOUR IN ENGLAND. (From Ouk Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, April 4. " I am afraid we haven't seen the woist of the labour troubles yet by a long way," writes an ex-Aucklander now living in Chatham. England. "It seems { to me that it must end in revolution. Practically it is revoluton now, and what is the result? The poverty in the industrial centres is appalling. No one can say where this strike will end, or what it will end in. The cry everywhere among the workers is for higher wages j and better conditions, and really they j have cause for complaint as regards | both." I (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, April 8. The British coal strike has had an effect on New Zealand shipping, more especially that portion of it trading between the Dominion and English ports. It if, the custom for vessels trading Home via Montevideo and Rio to take in fuel at these ports in order to save the j trouble, time, and loss of space involved in conveying from New Zealand all the coal needed for the voyage Home. The effect of the crisis in Britain has been to practically put a closure on the supplies of coal sent out to these ports, and the consequence is that vessels homeward bound from New Zealand will for some time to come have to take coal for the whole voyage. The Admiralty coal depots have also been depleted, and quite recently a small fleet of large was sent to Virginia (U.S.A.) to buy American ooal to replenish the naval stores at Gibraltar, Malta, and other out-lj-ing stations. OPINIONS FROM BOTH CAMPS (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 1. What is called the coal strike has come uj/o/i us so gradually and with m> much preparation that in London at all events it is scarcely noticeable. Inhere are no troops al out, because wo are far removed from the area of strife. There is as yet little unemployment, because all industries which are dependent on coal have had ample time to get in stocks to keep them going for some weeks even if the strike continues. At the present moment there are a million eolliers idle, and probably almost as many mono workers in manufacturing industries; but of this London sees nothing. All that wo are privileged to seo is the comings and goings of the delegates to and from Downing street; the newspaper posters; and the papers themselves. If this strike can be compared with the railway strike last August it must bo admitted that the country takes less interest in it. Tho rca.son is obvious. There is no suddenness al>out it; thero is no apparent dislocation of tho whole activities of tho country. And finally, the public does not believe it will last more than a few day&.

The interposition of the State to endeavour to »oHle the dispute was forced on the Government by public opinion or rather by leading articles in iho press of both parties. There is a very general

recognition of the industrial unrest throughout the country; and it is rather remarkable with what calmness people have discussed State intervention and such intenser questions as compulsory arbitration, and oven nationalisation of the coal mines. Decisions, of course, await the subsidence of tho present excitement. It is sufficient to Bay that the principle of the minimum wage lias been received by the press with varying degrees of joy. In some quarters it is accepted as tho only way out of the present impasse, but with the fear that efforts may be made to apply it to all branches of industry, and the doubt, too, whether it will bo possible to compel the men to accept arbitration as to what the minimum shall be. Though tho Liberal papers aro inclined to accept the expedient as the prelude to compulsory arbitration tho Unionist press is moderately opposed to it, but unable to suggest any other expedient which will lead out of the trouble without committing British industry to the adoption of State interference. Mr Vernon Hartshorn, the miners' agent says:—" The people of Britain are face to face with one of the most solemn and dramatic moments in their history. A million miners are making a great human appeal. They ask to be assured of a living \vag>e. Do tho people of England quite realise what tho demand amounts to? The minimum wage would mean to thousands of homes a sufficiency of food where there is now want. It is not an appeal on behalf of the idle and vicious; it is a demand for justice and humane consideration for the honest and hard-working miner. It is a question with winch the nation ought to deal in a spirit of patriotism. The claim of the miner is a moral and humanitarian claim which no Christian nation can ignore. That cry of the workers cannot, be stifled. The human problem of which it is tho expression cannot be solved by a soulless commercialism. The claim of tho miner is a. challenge to all that is best in our national life." Mr Asquith, the Prime Minister, addressing tho delegates when tho strike was certain: "Wo are talking quite freely and frankly in what I may call the palace of truth, or at any rate tho palace of reason, which perhaps is a more important and stately structure. I think it is one of tho most satisfactory features of tho whole of this great dispute—it is a result which you aro trying to achieve not for the purpose of raising the wages of the coal miners as a whole, because the great bulk of tho coalminers already get more than the minimum wage. It is a result you are trying to achieve, I admit honestly, in the interests of a minority— it may bo 20 per cent., it may be 25 per cent. In that sense it is an unselfish demand on the part of the great bulk of the miners." It is not correct to call this the owners' view, because Mr D. A. Thomas is the leader of the South Wales coalowners, who refuse to fall in with the rest of the owners of England and Wales: "Speaking personally, any threats of a bill embodying the principle of the minimum wage will not in any degree influence us. Wo regard the struggle as one of life and death to the commerce of South Wales. The Premier's statement is the greatest triumph for Revolutionary Syndicalism that has occurred in this country, and I can well believe that my friend Mr Hartshorn will bo beside himself with joy this evening. We certainly shall not agree to the Government's proposals voluntarily. Not until an act it= passed by Parliament shall we cease our opposition to the principle " The War Office denies emphatically that troops aro being moved 1 in connection with the strike. Tho:i';li tools have been down 24 hours, everything is quite peaceful, and no orders have even boon given for troops to be moved. It is for local authorities to ask for held if they require it The Territorial force, it may be stated, it not liable to be called out in aid of the civil power in tho preservation of peace, though, as the King's subjects, officers and men are not exempt from the general obligation to use all reasonable endeavours to suppress rioting. "In cases of serious and dangerous disturbances," Tho Times explains, _" the civil authority may require his Majesty's subjects generally, including men of the Territorial Force, to arm themselves with a:id use weapons suitable to tin; occasion, and such weapon.-* may be used' according to tiie necessities of the case. It should further be noted that in the event of an attack upon their storehouses or armouries men of the Territorial Force may combine and avail themselves of their organisation to resist, and may use arms if the- necessity of tho accasion requires it." In a Stead interview, Earl Grey (ex-Govenior-genoral of Canada) expresses dismay to iind, on returning to England after seven year:-, men "hurrying down tho broad road that leads to destruction." lie makes no attempt to minimise the unrest in the labour world, and puts forward a bold plea for tilt general adoption of copartnership as tiie solution of the difficulty. Co-pa rtnerehip, he admits, is "a kind of &oc:alism —a Socialism applied piecemeal, a Socialism plus common-sense and the Ten Commandments. When we have brain enough and conscience enough," he adds, " we may be able to nationalise everything, but for that the time is nor ripe." It is chiefly on the experience of the English gas companies that Earl Grey bases his

confidence in this specific. The experiment bewail with the South Metropolitan Gas Company in 1889 as the outcome of Sir George Livesey's endeavours, and here, in Sir George's words to Earl Grey, is the rest'lt: —"There never was a prouder moment in my life than when I was able to fctand tin before my shareholders and tell them that, as the "result of co-partnership and the spirit of brotherhood which it engendered the company had been able '1) to pay (heir employees higher wages than weie paid to any other gas workers in the kingdom, (2) 'to pay the shareholders a higher dividend., and (3) to sell gas at a lover rate." The employees of that company have now accumulated £600.000 worth of capital in their hands, end at present 30 gas companies in the kingdom, representing nearly £50.000,000. or 50 per cent, of the whole gas stock are working under the co-partnership principle. Earl Grey does not agree that the nationalisation of the mines would solve the coal trouble, since it is no security against strikes. "The miners struck on the nationalised coal mines of New Zealand," he remarked. By way of preparing for the time when the "troops shall be called in to preserve order, a man was busy in the camp at Aldershot distributing literature amongst the soldiers incitina- them to disobey their orders and to refuse to fire on civilians The handbill, for the publication of which ho ie now awaiting trial, says:—"When we go on strike to better our lot. which is the lot also of your fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers, you are called upon by your officers to murder us. Don't do it. We stand out as long as we can, then one of our and your irresponsible brothers, goaded by the sight of his loved ones suffering misery and hunger commits a crime on property. Immediately you are ordered to murder us, as you did at Mitchelstown, Featherstone, and Belfast. Boys don't do it. Murder is murder, whether committed in tho heat, of anger or by pipe-clayed Tommies with rifles. Act the man, brother human The rich and idle class, who own and order you about, own and order us about also. When we kick they order you to murder us. Your fight is our fight. Don't disgrace your parents and your class by being willing tools any longer of the master class. You, like us, are of the slave class, and when we rise you rise; when we fall, even by your bullets, you fall also. Comrades, have we called in vain?" This document, it seems, is a reprint of an appeal to soldiers published in the January number of tho Syndicalist, tho organ of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League. Mr Tom Mann is president of the league, which also publishes tho Syndicalist Railwayman. The Syndicalist for February continues in the same strain, warning tho workers against the Territorial force. "Your country. Your Empire!" it says. " Let the people who make these appeals know that you will have no more of them. Toll them that when you have a country you will fight for it, but that while the country is theirs you aro going to fight them for it. Toll them that if military service ' will bo got compulsorily ' and they put a rifle in your hands, you will use it as tin instrument of redemption. The army that you are going to join is tho Syndicalist army, that stands for the organisation of the workers to fight their own great battle against the capitalist class upon tho industrial field; the army that means the general strike and the world for the workers."The Dawn which is published in Derbyshire, is rather more inflammatory. It says: "The special police are drawn from your own ranks to bludgeon and butcher you on behalf of the master class. Strikes and lockouts may still continue for years and the worker pay his 6d per week into his union. Why not save 3d per week for a revolver? The time will surely come, if it is not already here, when you will need it. Therefore, Arm! Meet tho soldiers and police on more equal terms. They have proved themselves to be the enemy of the worker, and when tho time comes, take Seely's advice and shoot low, not too low, but just low enough. If blood has to bo shed I do not see why it should always be tbo workers' blood. Let Us see how the master class like the operation of blood-letting. If it would take too long to get, a shooter by saving 3d per week, ask that tho unions get them for you." After a reference to the Socialist victory in Germany, the writer says: "Perhaps God had fallen asleep and so the naughty Socialists got elected. Off with the Kaiser's head. Let him keep God company. Wo have had enough of him here." This son of language is fairly general in the- Labour press. Even the British Socialist party, which might bo expected to bo a little more responsible in its utterances, makes this appeal:—"Fellow Workers, —The rapacity of the owners drives you to withdraw your labour. Profit-mongers and royalty-owners live upon the fruits of your labour. To them you are mere beast's of labour, useful only as profit-makers for their class. They care nothing that you are maimed and killed. They boss and bully you in the mine, and bamboozle you in Parliament, in conference, and in arbitration. Have nothing to do with intervention, eonciliation. or arbitration. Refuse to accept any binding contracts. Keep your revolutionary weapons bright, sharp, ami leady for use." Here is un extract from Mr Kcir Hardie at Taunton —"If Parliament would not establish the minimum wage by law the workers would establish it by a strike. The day for the worker to be content to go on grovelling in poverty had gone past for over. ... If a broke out here it would not only be a British strike, but it might, involve the whole of Europe and stretch across the Atlantic to the American Continent. There is only one agreement that can bo accepted, and that is for the. employers to concede the men's demands. The colliers are not going to be 'Lloyd Ceorgod ' as the raihvaymen were. South Wales supplies _ the navy with coal, and if the strike continues the navy will be helpless, and the Germans may at any moment step in. Soldiers wili be perfectly useless in the way of compelling tho men to return to work. All that a strike means is for the men to stay abed in the morning instead of going to work. . . . My constituents are prepared to obey the" law; thev will fight their fight to a clean finish, and they will do it all the better if there is no soldier there to irritate and annoy them by his presence. There is to be no compromise. If there is to be war if is to be a revolutionary war to a finish. What that finish may be remains to be seen. Happily in this strike there will be no blacklegs." According to the returns for 1910 tliero were then in England and Wales 3253 mines, employing altogether (above and below

ground) 1.049,000 men, and raising in tho year 264,417,000 tons of coal. The funds of the unions available for strike purposes, as nearly as can be ascertained, arc £2,167,000; and there are 610,000 members of unions who would have to be provided for in the case of a general strike. This would mean probably about five and a-half or six weeks' strike pay. The money is not, however, evenly divided amongst, the unions. Cumberland, for example, has less than one week's funds available, while Derbyshire has more than 20. THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES RELIEF FUND. The Otago Daily Times has received the following contribution to the fund for tho relief of the distress caused by the strike in Great Britain :—£1220 2s lid (including 9s from a Celtic Scotch Household). COLLECTIONS ELSEWHERE. GISBORNE, April 4. The sum of £l7O has been contributed by the Poverty Ray Herald's fund. That amount, has been forwarded through the Prime. Minister. HASTINGS, April 4. The sum of £SO lias been contributed by the Tribune fund for the relief of tho strike victims in Britain. Mr G. P. Donnelly has also given the Mayor £IOO for the same object. CHRISTCHURCH, April 4. The sum of £IOO has been contributed so far to the Christchurch Press fund for tho relief of the distressed people in Britain. DISTRIBUTION OF THE MONEY. LONDON, April 5. Sir William Hall-Jones has received £1196, chiefly from Otago. The money is being distributed amongst the women and children who are suffering as a result of the strike in Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Grimsby, Stoke, Chesterfield, Leeds, and other centres of distress.