When we look at the matter from this point of
views we must recognize that if the miners will not yield, all that remains is for the Government to choose the moment when they can intervene most effectively. Naturally enough and properly enough, they will delay such action as long as possible, but they clearly will not delay it till the point of national starvation has been reached. Those who have experience of the conduct of public affairs realize in a way perhaps which the ordinary public does not realize the great responsibility that all Governments feel in regard to keeping the national machine running. The gradual, and in a sense slow, manner in which the situation has developed has tended to make the task of the Government easier. They have not been taken by surprise, and they have had plenty of time to make their plans as to what to do if the worst comes to the worst. The miners, on the other hand, have by the nature of things no plans of this sort. They have been relying and, as we believe, relying much too much, upon the belief, "The country cannot get on without us, and therefore we can make what terms we choose."
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