But if, on the other hand, as we believe to
be the case, the miners are refusing the offer of very substantially higher wages because they are unwilling to guarantee more coal, the Government cannot possibly give way without failing as national trustees and treasonably yielding to the pretension of the miners to dictate to everybody by means of tfireats. To make such a surrender, so far from settling the crisis, would open up a prospect of an indefinite number of crises in the future. Revolutionary ideas would be encouraged, instead of being deprived of all reason as they easily can be if the situation be properly handled. Possibly it may be found that another general ballot by the miners is the only way out of the difficulty. We will now summarize the negotiations which led up to the situation of Wednesday night.
