When Mr. Smillie and his colleagues, at their own request,
met Sir Robert Horne on Thursday week, they virtually withdrew their " indivisible demand " for higher wages and lower prices, and insisted solely on an increase of wages by two shillings a day. They declared that the price of home-consumed coal should not be raised, and that an inquiry should be held to determine by October 31st whether the price of " domestic " coal should be reduced. Another committee should inquire into the cause of declining output. Mr. Smillie accepted Sir Robert Home's proposal for a reconsideration of the present confused methods of fixing the miner's wages, partly by output and partly by time. Mr. Smillie said that he desired a larger output of coal ; he even went so far as to admit--what is obvious to ordinary minds—that, if the output continued to decline, the miners must suffer, and also that, if the miners were paid at piece-rates, they would get more coal.
