THE Report of the Coal Commission is a long and complicated document, which needs careful and detailed study before the value of its recommendations can be estimated. Broadly, it appears to us to suggest a thorough re-organization of the coal industry on lines of co-operation and common sense, and so far the Report should give Mr. Baldwin full justification for a measure of re-organization and reform. The Commission takes the miners’ view in condemning any increase in hours, but we feel compelled to say that we view with grave misgiving the recommendation concerning the reduction of wages. It has been almost universally admitted that the miners’ wages are already low enough to make discontent inevitable, and their leaders have made it clear that they will resist to the utmost any reduction. Unless, therefore, the Government rejects this recommendation, the country will be faced with an industrial crisis of unprecedented gravity, and the subsidy, contributed to avert disaster, will have been entirely wasted. The difficulty of the situation can hardly be exaggerated. The problem is to find some means by which a depressed industry can provide its workers with a decent life. If ever there was a time when Christians should unite in prayer for peace, it is surely now.
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