TRANSPORT-WORKERS' STRIKE 527 



At last, after the Government had made a further unsuccessful attempt, by a con- 

 ference, to bring owners and miners to agreement^ on March igth Mr. Asquith intro- 

 duced in the House of Commons a Minimum Wage Bill as their last resort. It provided 

 that, in the coal industry, every contract for employment should involve the payment 

 of a minimum rate, to be settled for each district by a joint board set up under the 

 auspices of the Board of Trade. The Bill was read a second time on March 2ist, after 

 a motion for its rejection by Mr. Balfour, on behalf of the Opposition, had been defeated 

 by 348 votes to 225, and it had passed both Houses on March 28th. Having made their 

 protest against a piece of revolutionary legislation which introduced so novel and far- 

 reaching a principle into industrial economics, the Unionists left the responsibility to 

 the Government, and the only Parliamentary difficulty was caused by the Labour party, 

 who fought for the inclusion of a precise definition of the minimum in the shape of 53. 

 a day for adults and 25. for boys; as the Government refused this and insisted on the 

 rates being fixed by the district boards, the Labour party opposed the third reading, 

 which, however, was carried by 213 to 48. There was acute dissatisfaction among 

 the miners at the failure of the Labour party to get their own minimum schedule of rates 

 adopted, and for a time the result was doubtful; but it was decided to take a ballot 

 (April ist) on the question of returning to work, and though a majority still voted for 

 staying out (244,011 to 201,013) it was not large enough (two-thirds being required by 

 the rules) and the abstentions were significant. 



The fact was, the funds were exhausted and the men had had enough of the struggle. 

 The conclusion of Sir A. Markham, the Liberal M.P. and coalowner, writing in the 

 Quarterly Review for April 1912, is probably the verdict of history; he considered that 

 "the ground of attack was ill-chosen ; the men should have stood to their original demand , 

 the payment on account of abnormal places or losses due to bad management. If in 

 addition they had asked for an increase of wages equivalent to 10% on the basis rates, 

 to meet the increased cost of living, they would have occupied strong ground. The 

 great mass of men came out to obtain higher wages, and for no other reason; and when 

 they voted for the formula 'minimum wage ' nine-tenths did not know what they were 

 voting for." The result, as the year went on and the minimum rates were settled, not 

 without friction, was a profound disgust among the coal-miners generally with the 

 operation of the new Act, which was found to do very little to increase the amount paid 

 in wages; but it had done its work for the moment, the crisis being over. In October 

 moreover an agreement was arrived at between representatives of miners and coal-owners 

 of the English Federated area, by which about 400,000 workers would at once receive 

 an advance of a shilling a week in wages. This was the outcome of discussions before 

 a Conciliation Board, which had been in existence for some years and was now renewed 

 for a further period; and this addition of about 1,000,000 a year to the wage-fund was 

 worth more than all the haggling about minimum rates. 



The Transport-workers' Strike of 1912. In connection with the opening phases of 

 the railway strike of 1911, allusion has already been made to the sporadic strikes of other 

 sections of " transport workers " earlier in that year; and the general dock strike which 

 began in London on May 20, 1912, was really the concluding phase of the unrest which 

 had only been partially quieted during the previous August. First the lightermen came 

 out, and then a " sympathetic " strike involved all the other unions of transport workers 

 connected with the Port of London. The nominal reason for the lightermen ceasing 

 work was their objection to one man employed as a watchman having no " -Federation 

 ticket ;" he belonged to the Foremen's Society, a union not affiliated to the Transport- 

 workers' Federation, but refused to join the Lightermen's Society, which was so affiliated, 

 and when the lightermen demanded his dismissal, on the ground that they would work 

 only with men who belonged to the Federation, his employers naturally refused. This 

 was however in reality only the culmination of a number of " grievances " put forward 

 by the men, who complained of being victimised under the terms of the existing agree- 

 ments. Unsuccessful negotiations had for some time been going on between their 

 secretary Mr. Gosling (himself actually a member of the Port of London Authority) 



