On the whole, it Seems to us that all this
is a mere matter of form ; if the " will to settle " exists, as we believe it does on both sides, only fools would wreck a fair prospect and plunge the country into an immeasurable catastrophe for a punctilio. The substantial point was conceded by the owners when they offered, as they still do, to treat the whole dispute as an "open situation." This surely is good enough. Although Mr. Cook, the Secretary of the Miners' Federation, and some of his fellow-extremists have been using violent language it is certain that the mass of miners do not want another disastrous stoppage like that of 1921. Their chances of success would be smaller than they were then, as their unions are now poorer. This remains true even though there is talk of developing the Triple Alliance of evil memory (which failed the men after unnecessarily alarming the country) into a. much more formidable alliance, and though the General Council of the Trades Union Congress has promised its full support to the miners.
