The Miners' Ballot The result of the ballot in the
coalfields is to empower the leaders by an overwhelming majority to call a strike if they think fit. They will no doubt use the authority thus conferred on them as a bargaining weapon in a further appeal to the Prime Minister to intervene in the dispute, with the object of forcing the owners to agree to national agreements for an increase in wages. The result of the ballot was never in doubt. The owners therefore have no doubt made up their minds already, and there is no reason to suppose they have changed their ground. As the Government cannot force them to negotiate nationally, and as no action, other than direct subsidy, open to the Prime Minister, could make an immediate national increase in wages on the scale demanded (2s. a shift) possible, the only course left to the miners' leaders is to call a strike, which would ruin the exporting districts and gravely injure our foreign trade, or make temporary district agreements involving an increase in wages wherever possible, until the Government can devise machinery satisfactory to both sides. The Miners'. Federation funds are not extensive and strike pay would necessarily soon cease. .Great burdens would, therefore, fall on the local authorities in those areas .. already distressed, and bitterness which militates disastrously against a calm settlement would be intensified. The strike is not immedi- ately imminent. But the .situation is serious enough to make it essential for Mr. Baldwin to give it his personal attention. * * * *
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