The Coal Commission continued to take evidence till Monday night,
and then sat in private to consider its Report. The most interesting witness was Mr. Straker, the Northumberland Miners' Secretary, who on Friday week revealed the miners' idea of nationalization. His proposal, which, he admitted, had not been considered by the Miners' Federation, was virtually that the State should take over the mines, and that the Federation should have an equal share of the management. The miners, he said, wanted to be free. Their idea of freedom was that the mining industry should be controlled by them and the State for their own benefit. They wished, Mr. Straker declared, to know the commercial side of the business. Mr: Straker naively exhibited his own need of such knowledge by arguing that, as the mines had yielded an average war profit of 25 per cent., the coal- owners should be paid 5 per cent, on their capital and with the remaining 20 per cent, the whole capital cost of the mines should be repaid in five years. It would be a pretty exercise for the young student of economies to point out the numerous fallacies involved in this argument.
