LONG, DISASTROUS COAL STRIKE ENDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17771, 15 February 1926, Page 12

LONG, DISASTROUS COAL STRIKE ENDS.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association. NEW YORK, February 12. The coal strike just settled after lasting 165 davs is estimated to have cost a billion dollars in its effects, which have been felt throughout the entire nation. It was the most disastrous that the Pennsylvania region has ever known. One most important feature of the agreement is the substitution of collective bargaining for arbitration in the settlement of future disputes, this having" been the stumbling block to many previous efforts to settle the strike owing to the miners’ firm opposition to arbitration. Widespread bankruptcies were imminent at the time the settlement was made, many business houses remaining open only as a matter of form. In Pennsylvania buying was completely stopped, business credit had disappeared and thousands of clerks, store workers and others were unemployed, besides the miners themselves. Many of the latter were on the point of starvation, with suffering from hunger and cold. The business paralysis had never before been equalled.

Notwithstanding all this, the strike was conducted in an orderlv manner till this week, when some show of ii>rce occurred in Scranton, necessitating police intervention.