We have not that confidence in the British support to
which the Muscovite leaders pretend. Most reas- suring evidence of the sanity of British Trade Unionists was given at the meeting of miners' delegates at Blackpool last week. The Lancashire and South Wales delegates tried to persuade the conference to disregard, if not to wreck, the joint enquiry which is now being held by masters and men, by prosecuting a hopeless demand for higher wages at once. Instead, the meeting by a large majority passed a resolution instructing the men's representatives to continue the investigations in the joint enquiry. This means that the intransigence of Mr. Cook has not prevailed over the men's most reason- able dread of soon receiving no wages at all. Summer is here, reducing the demand for domestic coal in a market already invaded by gas and electricity : oil is increasingly used for locomotion on land and sea ; without a great increase in industrial use, now gravely handicapped by the high price of coal, there is no hope of a growth in the home demand. The export trade can be re-won only by lower prices. In the meantime the pits working by piece-work On co-partnership lines are doing well.
Previous page
