Further we believe that it would have a good, not
a bad, effect upon the strike if it were made clear to the men, what is no doubt the case, that the preparations in view of a strike have been ample on the part of the railway companies and the gas companies, and that -want of coal will not paralyse the train services or prevent the lighting of our cities. The truth is that it is easy to exaggerate the effect of a strike. If it comes, the result must be to throw thousands—nay, millions—of men out of employment in the great industrial centres, and to bring misery into working-class homes throughout the country, owing to their inability to get fuel. That this is a most serious matter and will almost certainly lead to disorder and bloodshed we fully admit, but it is a delusion to suppose that the strikers will be able to " hold up " the nation. The conditions may become those of civil war, but not of chaos. If it comes to fighting, the forces of order will prevail; and, though vast injury will be done to the material welfare of the nation, when the strike is over those whose interests will have been most injured will be the miners. Many of the pits will have closed never to open again, and there will be a serious and permanent diminution of the demand for coal, with the inevitable consequence that there will be fewer miners at work than before the strike, and that they will be earning less wages. We must never forget that though the miners' unions can do much, they can never obtain per- manently for the men more than the wages which the economic conditions permit. The masters cannot be bluffed into making two and two equal five, even if they were willing to make the attempt.
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