Peace in the Coal-Fields
A step of the first importance towards the stabilisation of condi- tions in the coal industry is indicated by the announcement that the miners have by a large majority accepted the conciliation scheme, including provision for a national wages board, prepared by the committee appointed last year, under Lord Greene's chairmanship, to deal both with an immediate wage-dispute, and with the creation of permanent machinery for settling wage-differences. Though details of the new scheme are not yet available, it is known that it is accepted by owners as well as miners—a significant fact, since the owners have in the past regularly opposed the settlement of questions of wages and other matters on a national basis. The Greene Committee made a useful contribution to a solution of the problem of output by proposing bonuses for fields whose production exceeded a fixed target figure each month. The adoption of its new conciliation scheme by owners and men lays the whole community under a considerable debt to it.
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