TOPICS OF THE DAY
THE CRISIS AND THE ROYAL COMMISSION
THE evils due to the coal stoppage are far greater than is realized by the country at large. Many people seem to think that you have only to blow a whistle and the pits could start at once. It is not so. After three months of idleness, an immense deal of work has to be done before a single ton of coal can be won. This process of deterioration proceeds at an intensifying pace. Many of the mines which closed down on the first of May will never open again, and if the dispute lasts another month or six weeks, the tale of ruin will be further augmented. It is not only uneconomic mines that will not be worth restarting. That might be a blessing in disguise, but a considerable number will not be reopened which, but for the prolongation of the stoppage, would have just been able to tide over the bad times. What makes this the more tragic is the fact that we are probably on the eve of seeing the process of distilling, oil from coal become a commercial possibility.
But. it is no use merely to deplore a terrible haemorrhage. The .thing needful is to stop the bleeding. If the mine- owners and the miners would agree to make peace on their own terms, all would, of course, be well. But there is no prospect of such an agreement, for there is no common ground. • The mineowners, who grudgingly accepted it'once, object to the Report of the Commission, in part and in whole, though hitherto the miners have brought the odium of rejection on themselves. As a matter of fact the miners now seem ready to accept the Report subject to its recommendations being put into operation in a certain order, i.e., that recourse shall not be had to a wages cut in advance, but only if after re- organization it is still found to be necessary in order to prevent insolvency. Till the result of reorganization is seen, they ask that the status quo ante of wages should be maintained, if necessary by Government help. The leaders of the miners are vague and difficult in the state- ment of their conditions, are in fact very bad negotiators ; but it has become less possible to say that they reject the Report. They now seem to go as far as any of the parties concerned in the direction of accepting it. But, be that as it may, we have reached a state of trench .warfare unless the Eight Hours Act breaks it up. Nobody can move !
Nevertheless, we arc confident that the people of this country will not stand by and see themselves ruined while they are spell-bound. Sooner or later, the pot, in which there is not at the moment a visible bubble, will boil over, and the country will insist that the Govern- ment shall govern. If the miners and the mineowners will not agree. the Government will be forced to act by an overwhelming outburst of public opinion.
" How can they act ? " The nation as a whole will soon answer this query-,--" A plague on both your Federations ! Make.peace or we will force you to do so."
" But how ? You cannot compel men to go down a mine by an Act of Parliament." That is true, but you can refuse to give them unemployed pay if they reject the offer of work endorsed by the Government. " Further, you cannot force a settlement on the owners to which they object." That is not true. If the owners imagine that they have an absolute right of veto in regard to the Report of the Commission, they are living in a fools' paradise.. If there comes a sufficient awakening of public opinion in favour of enforcing a settlement, one will be obtained. To believe that either the miners or the mineowners, or both, can defeat the Report of the Commission against the will of the majority of the British People is as foolish as to imagine, as did the authors of the General Strike, that the nation_ was Coercible or that there was not sufficient power in the Constitution to enable us to save oursehres.
This being so, it may be as well to point out to both combatants the realities of the situation. The British people are beginning to say. " There was a deadlock in the coal industry. We decided that the issue should' be tried before an impartial jury. We got our jury together. It listened to all the evidence, and it gave-a verdict whieh cost us twenty-three millions to obtain. We mean to put that verdict into operation, and woe to anyone who tries to prevent us ! The plea that neither litigant likes the verdict or is willing to accept it does not move us. It is seldom that any verdict is accepted by both litigants, or even wholly by one litigant. But you cannot pick and choose in a verdict. You must take it as 'a whole." The most that the COurt will do is to say, " We will postpone execution of the decision for a day or two to see whether the litigants can come together with an agreed plan, and so render it unnecessary to carry out the verdict." Failing such agreement, the verdict stands.
Now comes the last ditch of those who declare that• you cannot enforce the Report. It is alleged to be too vague. That is a delusion. There are a dozen different ways in which the Government can give statutory "force to the verdict. To begin with, they might dO what they did during the War—take over control of the Coal Industry for as long as they liked. Again, they' can by a short Act of Parliament compulsorily acquire, not merely the mineral rights, but the leasehold rights, and release them to a statutory trust. Finally, and this is probably the best way, they can by a short Act provide for the statutory implementing of the 'Report. Already a Bill of three or four clauses, which we have seen, has been privately drafted by unofficial perions for effecting this.
The recommendations of the Report, so far as amend- ments to the existing law are necessary, are set forth in a schedule of the Bill. These recommendations are next given the force of law on and after an appointed day. It is further provided that the remuneration of no person employed in a colliery shall be on a lower scale than that in operation in the said colliery in April, 1926, " without new and express enactment." Further, the status quo ante as to hours—here, of course, following the recommen- dations of the Report—cannot be altered from that of April, 1926, without " new and express enactment.'! If it be urged that even this would not give the recommen- dations in the Report the force of law, because those re- commendations are ambiguous, we reply, " In that case reappoint the Commission, or one member, as a referee, to interpret any clause needing interpretation." As a matter of fact, we do not believe that such a nee d_ would arise. The Commissioners, at any rate, did not regard their Report as merely advisory, for they described it in so many words as "_ a series of definite, constructive pro- posals."
The way of peace is to carry out the Report under conditions which enable the pits to be reopened. If the old wages basis must be adopted during the period of reconstruction, let this be limited in time. As an auto- matic result the Eight Hours Act, which or course is only permissive, would not be applied. There would also be the need for Government aid to enable the unprofitable mines to meet their obligations during reconstruction. If Mr. HOdge's proposal for a loan is rejeCted, could the Treasury not apply the sum which the French are expected to pay us on debt account this year ?
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