The Daily News SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1929. MINERS’ DEMANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1929, Page 8

The Daily News SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1929. MINERS’ DEMANDS.

That the coalminers in Australia have failed to profit by the disastrous outcome of the action of the British miners in 1926 is evident by their deliberate boycott of the New South Wales Government’s efforts to reopen the Rothbury mine. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the motion carried by the combined unions in favour of a general strike was part of a general general scheme dictated by the Federal authorities to enable the Federal Government to obtain control of the situation —a motion which was supported by men who were entirely opposed to any course that would result in throwing the mines idle throughout the State and so cutting off the Federation doles on which unemployed miners are now depending. Developments of that policy are being anxiously awaited, particularly on account of the bait which is apparently to be held out by the Government in the form of a subsidy of a shilling per ton for the first two million tons of coal produced after the mines resume, thus permitting the miners to recommence work at the pre-stop-page rate. Important side lights are cast on the coal mining industry by recent happenings in the Old Country. A recent cablegram from London announces that Mr. Tom Richards succeeds Mr- Herbert Smith as president of the Miners’ Federation, an event that is considered will facilitate the Labour Government’s scheme for dealing with the coal industry. It is said that the new president of the federation prefers peace by negotiation rather than strikes, but it must not be forgotten that the federation secretary (Mr,' A. J. Cook) is still a force to be reckoned with. When speaking at Chesterton (Staffordshire) last month, Mr. Cook said the country had been flooded with appeals for a new spirit in industry—a spirit of co-operation and good will. He then rabidly denounced 4 ‘the false and hypocritical mature” of such appeals as exemplified in the refusal of the coal owners to meet the miners to discuss a wages agreement on a national basis, as distinct from a district basis. Mr. Cook asserted that the owners, who “imagine we are weak and look upon all our appeals to them as a sign of weakness,” want war, but that the miners want peace, though not a peace at any price. It is significant that he added: “Let the owners beware that theii’ shortsighted attitude’ does not again raise the combative spirit of the miners to a degree when it can no longer be controlled.” In view of such a threat, it is certainly reassuring to learn that the new president of the Miners’ Federation is a man of peace and conciliation. Possibly at the root of Mr. Cook’s outburst against the coalowners and the Government is the grievance that the federation is not sufficiently taken into the confidence of the Government, a piece of neglect that acts as a .blow to his vanity. He claims that the whole country (which in this case presumably means himself) expects the Government to deal with such mining problems as unemployment, reorganisation, hours, minimum wages, pensions and a national agreement, and that in dealing with the whole problem courageously, constructively and speedily the federation must be taken more into the confidence of the Government, as well as given “its rightful place in any legislative proposals, its advice sought and assistance invoked, instead of running to the owners at every opportunity.” Demands such as these may be regarded more as tending to flatter the vanity of union officials than as legitimate aims for furthering the interests of the miners, besides which they are calculated to antagonise the mine owners and any self-respect-ing Ministry. It is by adopting tactics of this nature in the past that incalculable harm has been done to industry and inflicted much loss and. suffering on innocent people. Persistent obstinacy may engender a feeling of spurious independence, but that only makes matters worse. The new president of the Miners’ Federation has a unique opportunity of changing such reactionary methods, and will do immense service to industry generally by opening up the way to co-operation and conciliation.