Sir Robert Horne on Saturday last elaborated his proposal that
the miners' claim for wages should be referred to the Industrial Court. He was ready to add some coal-owners and miners' representatives to the Court under the permanent impartial chairman. If the Federation would not go to the Court, Sir Robert Horne suggested that the miners' wages might be re-arranged and made dependent on output., as they used to be. " Increased production would justify a reconsideration of the whole wages question." To this suggestion Mr. Smillie replied on Sunday that it could be considered " when the present wages and other claims are finally settled "—as if there were a limit to what Mr. Smillie is prepared to demand. It became clear that other Labour leaders disapproved of the double claim put forward by Mr. Smillie. Mr. Clynes, for instance, said at Portsmouth that the miners " had an unanswerable case so far as wages were concerned," but he was careful not to say that their demand for a reduction in the price of coal was equally " unanswerable."
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