But though this is the situation to-day, it must not
be sup- posed that all hope is abandoned. In the first place there are indications that the public opinion of the working classes is steadily, if slowly, developing against the extremist party among the miners. Men all over the country, thrown out of work through no fault of their own and no desire of their own, are asking whether it is reasonable that the miners should not only refuse to earn the very good wages which admittedly they were earning before the strike, but should also refuse to let anybody else earn his daily bread. This feeling is strong in many unionists who are in receipt of strike pay from their unions, partly because such pay is much lower than work pay, and partly because the unions are being depleted of funds to which the men naturally look for protecting their own trade interests. But if the discontent with the strike is strong among those who are getting strike pay, it is infinitely stronger among the still larger body of non-union labourers who have lost their work and their wages.
