Mr. 'Macdonald, the working-class Member for Stafford, in a speech
at Glasgow on Tuesday, advised the Miners' delegates to limit the output to the utmost, and so keep up the price of coal, and with it miners' wages. He argued that manufacturers always did this when markets were glutted and profits low, and why should not the miners? There are just three " whys," but each of them seems to us a final answer to his advice. Because the miners have the monopoly of digging an article of primary necessity to the community, and manufacturers have not. Because their implicit contract with their employers is to work hard for wages agreed upon by themselves. Because the system of light work involves violence to all competitors who would work hard, and who must be driven from work if Mr. Macdonald's advice is taken. His recommendation is not that they should fight the masters, which is or may be fair, but that they should plunder the community for their own advantage, which is not and caanot be justifiable.
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