342 



The Review of Reviews, 



Thr Coniifii: Sati' 



Kansas, U.S.A. 



A New Magna Charta signed by this King John. 



the miners .similar demands would be pressed by all 

 either trade unions, and there would be no end to it. 

 Having constituted the district boards, it would not 

 be wise to withdraw from them the right to fix the 

 rates of district wages as well as the rates to be paid 

 for hewing. The miners threatened to continue the 

 strike unless their demands were conceded, but ultim- 

 ately they consented to refer the question to a ballot 

 of the men, which is now (April i) being taken. 



The more the Minimum Bill is 

 The Magnitude considered the more immense will 

 Minimum%iil. be seen to be the new departure 

 which it initiates. Henceforth, 

 two principles become part and parcel of our industrial 

 life. First, that the worker must have a reasonable 

 living wage, and, secondly, that when men and their 

 employers cannot agree what that wage is to be, the 

 Government, through the Board of Trade, must step 

 in and either organise representative district boards 

 with an independent chairman to settle the question, 

 or, if that is impossible, it must appoint its own repre- 

 sentative to proceed to the district and fix up the 

 dispute. It is not compulsory ari)itration. No 

 penalties are prescribed in case either party disregards 

 the award. But public opinion, which is a vague 

 but potent Chief Justice, will mete out sharp punish- 

 ment to those who, after free and full hearing, repudiate 

 ;in award cither of the district board or of the iJoard 



The Condition 



of the 



People Question. 



of Trade. It is in trades disputes as in international 



arbitration. The award cannot be enforced either by 



law or by force. But the public has in its hands the 



Boycott, A strike persisted in after an award has 



been given would dry up strike contributions, would 



paralyse charity and cut down credit. On the whole, 



the Minimum Wage Bill is a maximum stride towards 



industrial peace. 



The indirect consequences of the 



Minimum Wage Bill are even 



greater than any resulting from its 



provisions. The miners, after all. 



are but a million men and bo)s. There are forty-fi\e 



millions of people in these islands. The Minimum 



Wage Bill affects the million directly and the forty-iive 



million indirectly. Mr. ArtJiur Mee, writing in Fublic 



Opinion, remarks quite truly that " on every hand 



it is freely admitted that nothing will ever be the 



same again after this crisis. The nation has entered 



upon a new path." And the first outward and visible 



sign of the new departure is that the Condition of the 



People Question is now the first order of the day. 



The declaration of the Government at the close of a 



brief debate on Syndicalism was perhaps of more 



i nportance than even the passing of the Minimum 



Bill. Mr. Hobhouse said there was an amendment 



bv Mr. Sherwell which more nearly expressed the 



views of the Government than the motion before the 



House, and which they would be much more willing 



to accept. This amendment ran as follows : — 



The Interests of the Slate and of social order could best be 

 secured Ijy linniedlate consideration oi the causes of the unrest 

 now and lately prevailing among tlie working classes. 



Mr. Hobhouse went on to say that other countries 



had already caused inquiry to be made. He 



continued : — 



The Government were prepared and indeed had begun to 

 make inquiry, some limited inquiry, as to the rise in prices and 

 the cost of living in this country ; but he thought it would be 

 far more satisfactory to get a far wider inquiry than that which 

 had been carried out in other countries, and the Government 

 would be prepared to assent to souk; wider inquiry than was 

 going on at present. If his lion, friend the member for 

 Huddersfield moved his amendment the Government would 

 accept it. 



If we turn to Mr. .Sherwell for 

 information as to the scope of 

 this " far wider inquiry," he leaves 

 us in no doubt as to its far- 

 Speaking a day or two after Mr,. 

 Hobhouse, he said : — 



1 believe that the time has come when Parliament must pre- 

 pare for the new responsibilities which the needs of the times 

 are thrusting upon it, by thoroughly and systematically invesii- 

 gating the c-onditions of social and national life, especially in so 



' A Far Wider 

 Inquiry." 



reaching scope. 



