The Miners' Congress, held this year at Aix-la-Chapelle, was remarkable
for the total absence of the hostility usually shown to the English delegates, who have hitherto annoyed their colleagues by insisting on sticking to business and leaving abstract discussions alone. Indeed the Continental miners declared that the English had taught them how to discuss, and that the success of the present Congress was due to their practical ability. The only resolutions passed of Interest to the general public were in favour of the eight- hours limit of work, of suppressing all female labour in mines, of limiting output until the price of coal allowed of high wages, and of the universal "nationalisation" of all mines on the same plan as the German railways. This last vote was carried by a vote representing 737,000 miners to 126,000, but the German miners abstained. They thought the State too little democratic to be trusted. The next Con- gress is to be held in London.
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