Mr. Lloyd George pointed out also the advantages of-a revision
of the rates of wages on the basis of output. He inadvertently described this proposal as an alternative to the other, though Sir Robert Home had put forward both proposals as concurrent. In -the course of a somewhat confused conversation, Mr. Lloyd George urged the miners' executive to postpone the strike for a week or a fortnight and confer with the coal-owners about measures for increasing the production of coal. If the output were likely to increase, the miners would earn the additional two shillings a day and, in the near future, perhaps a great deal more. The Prime Minister declined, however, to pay two shillings more a day en the mere assumption, contradicted by the experience of the last two years, that higher time...wages would cease.to mean lower output. We have yet to see how far Mr. Smillie's plans have been disarranged by the Prime Minister's firm but not unconciliatory attitude.
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