The Miners' Federation at a delegate conference on Thursday, March
24th, rejected the coal-owners' very liberal proposals for a temporary agreement on wages varying with the districts. Yorkshire, Northumberiand,and Leicestershire, where the mines are almost solvent, favoured an agreement ; South Wales, Lancashire, and Scotland, where the pits are being worked at a heavy loss, were hostile to the proposed terms. The Federa- tion leaders are concerned to uphold the national scale of Wages, irrespective of the question whether the industry can pay the high wages fixed during and since the war. As the coal-mines in February showed a net loss of
24,500,000, without allowing anything for interest on capital or profit, it is apparent that the miners' wages are greater than the industry can bear. But the extreme men who unfortunately control the Miners' Federation care nothing for these plain facts. They would, we fear, prefer a strike for the unattainable to a friendly agreement such as their sober colleagues from Yorkshire and Northumberland would gladly bring about.
