The Coal : Dispute A TTEMPTS are-being made afresh to grope through
the darkness of the coal dispute. - It is true that in the House of Commons on Monday the Prime .Minister said plainly that the Government_. had ex- hausted their attempts at mediation, that they had received no help .or encouragement from - either side, and that they could not risk making a new proposal .which would be no more likely than the others to succeed. Settlement must come within the industry. It may be assumed, however, that if there should be a conciliatory movement inside the industry, and that this involved asking the co-operation of the Government, co-operation would not be withheld. Let us look, then, at the problem from this point of view—look at it as a matter of hard practical politics, admitting that after all that has happened some second-best course has become inevitable.
It would be an unnecessary tragedy if the miners--- though their leaders haire undoubtedly asked for it— should have to accept- viii victis terms. The-result would be that they would nurse their grievances, imagined or real, till they had the opportunity of once more upsetting the whole industry. The best thing seems to be to save as much of the Royal Commission's Report as possible. We wish it were possible to save it all, but that cannot now be hoped for. It is possible, however, to save what is essential in it. Several pro- posals have been made during the last few days that are well worth examination. For instance, Mr. Arthur Pugh, Who during the general strike was chairman of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, wrote to the Times of Friday, October 22nd, to plead for the application of the Report. He recognizes, of course, that events have made the immediate application of the Report impossible, and he therefore suggests that there should be some " temporary arrangement," which he dOea not define. It is notable, however, that he does not ask for any financial help from the Govern- ment as part of the temporaryarrangement.
The religious leaders who tried to mediate three months ago have sprung to life again, and in a letter to the Times of Tuesday pointed out that Mr. Pugh'i virtual repudiation of the subsidy idea has removed the Government's one reason for rejecting the offer of mediation. But this fact, if it is a fact, does not remove all the difficulties. District agreenients without reference to any national standard have come into existence during the past few weeks. Again, longer hours ' have been accepted in most of the districts. These acts can scarcely be undone. It is tragic 6 think that a Labour leader has now to .plead for terms which are worse than the miners could -have had for the asking at the beginning of -the dispute. May -the Samuel Memorandum, which the miners refused, actually proposed a fresh temporary subsidy; and the Prime Minister himself voluntarily Offered' the same thing in the House of Commons. '
Although the Report strongly deprecated increased hoUrs, it did not ignore the possibility that the mine might, after all, prefer longer hours to reduced pay The Eight Hours Act as such -therefore does not stultif the Report in principle. As for a subsidy, the Repo was, of course, tremendously strong in its condemnatio of every kind of subsidy. - Mr. Pugh's dropping of t subsidy tells against the miners, but not against th' Report. What is most important in the Report can y be saved if the district arrangements can be fitted int some kind of national frameivork. On this subject • .was a great pleasure to read the speech which Capta' Streatfeild, himself a coalowner, made in the House Commons on Monday. He believed that in standi out for a national agreement the miners did not by an means insist upon a rigid type of agreement. Owners, in his opinion, had made a mistake- in requir district agreements before they had informed themselv as to what the miners really meant. He thought tl there ought now to be a conference of the owners a the miners, - and that the owners ought to- drop the demand for district settlements without reference a national standard. The miners, for -their part, mig renew their offer to discuss a national agreeinent wi a " reduction in labour costs," and the conference coo consider wages in relation. to output. There The is no reason in the world that we can see, exec ill will, incompetence, or weariness, why there shoo not be a conference on these lines. It is unlikely, course, that Mr. Evan Williams would ever agree in Mr. Herbert Smith and Mr. Cook, but cannot there new leadership on both sides ? The Mining Associatio has never fully represented the owners.. There in be many _owners who are as accessible to reason and sensitive to the interests of the nation' as, say, Lo Londonderry and Captain Streatfeild. If owners this kind would eoine. forward something could be do As for the miners,a breakaway tram the Federal is now an everyday occurrence, and if there were breakaWay in-the direction of ACcinfere nee (even thou, -the conference' were at first unofficial) something value might emerge.
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