Direct Action in South Wales
Public opinion has been deeply stirred by the fact that the immediate consequence of raising the minimum wages of miners has been a strike on a formidable scale in South Wales and a policy of dishonest ca'canny adopted by some piece-workers in Durham. The latter, involving palpable and contemptuous shirk- ing, appears to have been dealt with by disciplinary measures. The former at the moment of writing threatens a stoppage of production in the whole Rhondda Valley and even throughout South Wales— and this at the time when the country is preparing for invasion, when war industry is at full stretch, and hundreds of thousands of persons are suffering from shortage of fuel during the coldest spell of the year. The reason for the strike is that the Porter Wage Award has raised the minimum wage, endorsing the principle of a national minimum for which the miners have long struggled, but has not at the same time increased the piece-work rates of higher- paid miners. Major Lloyd George on Wednesday was already meet- ing representatives of the industry to discuss the question of a general overhaul of the wage structure, but the men in South Wales, disregarding their leaders' advice, refused to wait. Whatever their past wrongs, on this occasion, in the eyes of the community as a whole, they have put themselves disastrously in the wrong, and are acting with violence in the interests of the enemy at a moment of the country's great need. This issue, unless it is resolved by the miners' return to work, overshadows the wages issue which Major Lloyd George's conference met to discuss. It may prove to be a matter for the Government as a whole, which is faced with the question whether the country is to be held to ransom because the better-paid miners will not wait till the wages question has been settled. Major Lloyd George's new four-year plan for the stabilisation of wages looks promising, and may satisfy the strikers. On the general issue public opinion should be solid behind the Government—and the miners' leaders—and is likely to be.
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