There are rumours that leading men who are directly interested
in the mines are ready to follow Lord London- tlerry's lead?-to renounee the .mineowners' official' seheme of depressing the miners' conditions to what may be called the Continental level, and to try to bring about direct • negotiations by districts between employers and men. Nothing but good, so far as we can see, would come of such a move. Whatever the Coal Commission may report, time would not be wasted in developing a temper of conciliation and in convincing both sides that unless there is a readiness to co-operate no settlement can be reached by any means—not even by a wonderfully ingenious scheme from the able brains which have conducted the Coal Commission. There is not much time to lose as the Commission will report within a few weeks.
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