Though during the week a good many more miners have
gone back to work at the old rates, the vast majority are still out—the men kicking to their old demand, and the masters requiring a 15 per cent. reduction as their irreducible minimum. They—the owners —met at Manchester on Wednesday, and definitely refused the offer of the Birming- ham Conference of Minerp, reaffirming, at the same time, the 15 per cent. offer. In addition, however, they proposed a joint•committee, with an independent chairman, to discuss whether or no there should be a reduction. Meantime, the -controversy over the actual takings of the average miner is as -inconclusive as ever. What the public wants to know is not elaborate scales of pay per day, but how much in cash, and -free of all deductions and forced payments, the average-miner brings home on pay-night. But apparently, this is what no one can or will state. It should be noted that this week the prices of coal in London have been greatly reduced.'';: This is a significant fact. It means that above a certain price the fires are put out, and the demand shrinks till prices shrink also. This seems to show that the miners' contention that the owners can get an artificially high price out of the public if they will only agree to ask it, is a delusion. We do not urge that therefore the miners cannot get their demand; but it is, at any rate, a fact of importance. During the week there has been a recurrence of rioting—at St. Helen's—and -on Friday the latest reports describe the situation as " very ,critical."
Previous page
