The annual conference of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain,
which opened at Llandudno on Wednesday, was remark- able for a very frank speech by Mr. Herbert Smith, the miners' Acting President. Ho declared that the tactics of the miners' leaders in the coal strike had been wrong from the beginning. They ought to have concentrated upon the wages question, and they would then have had public sympathy which they entirely lost when they took up the political cause of the pool. He con- fessed that these mistaken tactics had brought ruin and misery not only upon the miners but upon millions of their fellow- countrymen. He attributed tho disaster to the " excessive loyalty " of himself and other leaders to their fellow-leaders. There was only a very small majority for the extreme course. But the power of this majority was magnified by all kinds of invisible action and wire-pulling behind the scenes. The truth seems to be that the majority of the executive allowed thetn- selves to be absurdly influenced by the delegates' conference ; and the delegates' conference could always cite the decisions of the miners' lodges which were more or less in the dark and only supposed themselves to bo supporting a carefully-thought. out policy from above. Thus it is impossible to say where authority really resided. Everybody allowed himself to bo intimidated through " excessive loyalty " by everybody else, and a catastrophic policy was pursued for which there was never a real majority.
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