Miners and their Trade The annual conference of the Miners'
Federation of Great Britain last week reached two decisions of considerable importance. By the first, reversing a previous decision of the Conference, a resolution approving the " United Front " with the Communists was rejected ; by the second the Conference accepted, in principle, a proposal for " one big union " for all the miners, in place of a federation of district associations or unions. The proposal will now have to go before the district associations, but its realisation has been brought appreciably nearer. The executive claimed that a centralised union for the miners, with common dues and rules, is necessary to meet modem conditions in the industry. Those conditions appear, in some respects, under the pressure of " speed up," mechanisation, and increased production, to be actually deteriorating. In a debate on the mining industry in the House of Commons on Monday, Captain Crookshank, Secretary for Mines, stated that during the first six months of this year 387 mine-workers were killed and 1,618 seriously injured ; that the accident rate among boys is increasing ; and that the number of injuries in mines in 1936 was 2,000 more than in 1935. As Captain Crookshank said, " something is very wrong somewhere."
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