AS WE write there is no settlement of the coal dispute, and there is grave reason to fear that the mines generally will close down before the end of the week, and that the country will be faced by an industrial struggle which, if it begins, will almost certainly spread until hundreds and thousands of workers in other key industries are involved. This is the prospect at a time when unemployment is rife, and national conditions unprecedentedly difficult. Mr. Baldwin is making every endeavour to avert what may be a terrible calamity, but both miners and coal-owners have been unwilling to recede one inch from the positions that they have adopted. It is only fair to remember that the Report of the Court of Inquiry, instituted by the Government, is on the whole a justification of the miners and a condemnation of the masters. It was a unanimous Report, signed by a Scottish barrister, an eminent economist, and a trade union leader. They reject the owners’ demand for longer working, hours, they support the miners’ demand for a minimum wage, and they find that this minimum wage should be the first charge on the mining industry. They are mildly hostile to the system of mining royalties, and they repeat what has been said over and over again in these columns that by collective action and modern methods the coal industry may be made much more prosperous, and the miners’ wages thereby assured. It may be quite safely assumed that with this document before them the public generally must sympathize with the miners, particularly as the owners have taken what the Times calls “the surprising course” of issuing a petulant criticism of the Court’s findings. We have no hesitation in saying that if the owners refuse to withdraw their notice in order that further negotiations may take place, and that the Government may bring forward proposals for the re-organization of the industry, then the responsibility for the loss, suffering and trouble that will follow will primarily be theirs.
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