News of the Week
The Coal Bill.
ON Thursday, December 19th, Mr. Lloyd George took up the debate on the Coal Bill where it had been left by Mr. Graham and Sir Herbert Samuel. He has never spoken with more vivacity or with a more dazzling range of, quip and metaphor ; yet_ it was a disastrous speech. He gave a new turn and polish to everything which had been said by Sir Herbert Samuel, but added, we think, no new ideas. Sir Herbert Samuel had struck gloom into the Labour Party by his deadly analysis, but Mr. Lloyd George produced an audible agony of misery. He, of course, approved of the reduction of hours and the National Wages Board—both borrowed from the Liberal policy. The Bill, he went on to say, called itself a marketing Bill, but it was really a Bill for fixing prices and limiting output at the word of the coalowners. There were only two possible policies for saving the industry—an increase of prices and complete reorgani- zation. The Government had chosen the first.
