228 



The Review of Reviews. 



Ministers, appalled at the prospect 



Action Qf fi^y welter of anarchy and star- 



of ... 



the Cabinet. vation into which the country may 



be plunged, have taken steps which, 

 as Mr. Asquith said, are in defiance of convention and 

 tradition and custom, in order to compel the mine- 

 owners to concede what, in the impartial and unani- 

 mous judgment of the Cabinet, the men might fairly 

 demand. Mr. Asquith said : — 



We do not intend that the resistance of what I liope is a 

 •dwindling minority of tlie employers of labour shall indefinitely 

 delay the attainment of an object which we have satisfied our- 

 selves is consistent with justice and the best interests of the 

 community. 



If that object cannot be obtained by agreement, "our deter- 

 mination is that, by whatever appropriate means we can command 

 it will become part and parcel of the organisation and of the 

 working of the coal industry of the country." 

 They are now up against the question whether, if the 

 miners persist in demands which in the Ministerial 

 judgment are unjust and unreasonable, they will 

 endeavour to compel the mine-owners to yield for the 

 sake of the community. They naturally shrink from 

 taking so extreme a step. For once let it be admitted 

 that the miners have only to ask in order to have, and 

 to be supported by the Government in enforcing their 

 demands, no matter how unjust they may be, then the 

 whole nation lies enslaved before the miners' union. 

 Nor is it only the miners who would promptly profit 

 by such a demonstration of the power of organised 

 labour. Neither, let me add, is it only in Great Britain 

 that such a complete surrender of authority to the 

 blackmail demanded by Labour would bear fruit. 

 Representatives of the French and German miners 

 were in consultation with the British miners, promising 

 them to follow suit. And it does not appear unlikely 

 that the force of that example will make itself felt 

 across the Atlantic. 



The miners admittedly have a 

 The Economics giant's Strength. It remains to be 

 the Dispute. seen whether they will be tyrannous 

 enough to use it like a giant. If 

 they rlioosc they can smash Society and knock the 

 bottom out of civilisation. Any fool with a lucifer 

 match can burn down a farmsteading. But how much 

 better off they will be when they have smashed Society 

 and knocked the bottom out of civilisation is a question 

 which they will do well to ponder. The economic 

 margin of profit on coal-mining in Britain is very 

 narrow. Out of every pound realised for coal at the 

 pit's mouth the miner receives from 12s. to 14s. The 

 balance has to cover cost of machinery, rents, rates and 

 taxes, cost of management, and many other charges, 

 so that the whole profit of the coal owner does not 



average five per cent., or about SM. per ton, and ten per 

 cent, increase in wages would wipe that out altogether. 

 The total extra amount demanded if paid in wages 

 on the latest official output would be approximately 

 £7,500,000, which would bring the present aggregate 

 net profits of £8,795,711 los. down to less than 

 £1,300,000. Of course, it may be said that the con- 

 sumer may be made to pay more, but in that case the 

 miner is striking, not against his employer, but in 

 order to increase the cost of a' necessary of life paid 

 by every working-man in the country. Besides, the 

 price of coal is fixed by competition in the international 

 market, and any material rise in the price of English 

 coal would immediately divert much of the trade to 

 America, Germany, and other coalfields. 



There is a cry in some quarters 



Remedies for the nationalisation of the 



that . . 



are no Remedies, mines. But as the experience of 



New Zealand shows, strikes can 

 take place in nationalised mines, and the cost of pro- 

 duction goes up when the mine is removed from the 

 stimulating atmosphere of private management. On 

 the other hand, there is a demand in some quarters for 

 vigorous measures of coercion, and it is noted with 

 grim satisfaction that orders have been issued for everv 

 available man in the British Army on Salisbury Plain 

 to be armed and equipped ready for immediate action 

 — cavalry, infantry, artillery, and engineers. But these 

 measures of precaution cannot break the strike — 

 cannot even maintain a semblance of order when famine- 

 stricken mobs are looting London as the Chinese 

 soldiers have been looting Peking. 



The railway strike of last summer 



.u „ ,!^'^^'c. „ ""1^' l=«ted a couple of days, but 

 the Railway Strike . • '^ . •' ' 



Taught Us. 't brought the great industrial 



towns within a week's distance of 

 starvation. Local authorities warned the Home Office 

 from all the great industrial centres that there was not 

 a fortnight's supply of food in their towns, that the 

 starving people would break into the shops to find 

 bread and meat, and that after that was consumed 

 the community would find itself face to face with 

 famine. Short as the strike was, shops were broken 

 into in Leeds. In Li\erpool, where the strike lasted 

 longer, the lack of milk and fresh food was reported to 

 have caused the death of thousands of infants. 



It is idle to talk of importing coal. 

 A Commune "php Transport Workers' Union ha\-e 

 on a 11, 



National Scale. |)lc(lgc(l themselves to treat coal 



as contraband of war as long as 

 the strike lasts. The railways will keep running a 

 limited service as long as their stock of coal holds out. 



