Both sides. however, will expect guidance from the Government if
only because ultimately little can be Idone without the Government's help. Meanwhile, it is clear that the crux from the men's point of view is the proposed temporary reduction of wages in certain grades. Their objection was only to be expected. For our part we always deplore any proposal for a reduction because industrial progress is hardly ever found in the • company of falling wages. In America a reduction of wages is regarded as the last resort, indeed, as almost a confession of failure ; every other means of reducing the cost of production is canvassed first. Wage-reduction seems to the workers to be a blow at the heart, and it is useless to say, however true it may be in fact, that you are staunching the victim's wound by causing a fall in prices and so leaving his real wages untouched. We shall not be easily persuaded that most of the causes of waste in British mines have yet been removed. No doubt there are many mineowners and mining engineers who believe that in their particular mines nothing remains to be improved. Yet the truth is that there is always something more, if only a little, that can be done.
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