NEW REPRESENTATIVES IN THE COAL DISPUTE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—Your correspondent, Mr. C. H. Miller, says, in reference to the coal dispute, that "the Government is in a position - to .demand that other representatives of the two parties. should be chosen to negotiate." It reminds one of IlotSpur" 's reply to Glendower when the latter declared that he was "in a position" to summon spirits from the vasty deep.. The Practical question was, and is : Would they come ? .-
Ineidentally, Mr. Miller's suggestion is a curious sidelight on What most people commend as democratic tendencies in industry. I cannot, of course, speak for the Miners' Federa- tion, but the Mining Association is nothing but a Federation of District AssoCiations and has no powers other than those conferred upon it by those Associations. The members of its Central Committee sit on that body as the elected repre- sentatives of their districts, and the voice of the Mining Association is, therefore, as far as it is humanly possible to arrive at it, the collective voice of the colliery owners of Great Britain. All but very few owners are members of the District Associations, which represent about 95 per cent. of the tonnage raised in the United Kingdom.—I am, Sir, &c., PHILIP GEE. - 40 King Street, Covent Garden, W.C. 2.
[None the less we feel that the negotiators on both sides are necessarily " stale " and are hopelessly committed to old policies and cries which may have to be abandoned.— En. Spectator.]
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