The Press. Thursday, February 21, 1918. Coal Miners and the Law.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16142, 21 February 1918, Page 6

The Press. Thursday, February 21, 1918. Coal Miners and the Law.

The only meaning of tho oxcliange of telegrams between tho West Coast miners and the Government which we printod yesterday is thnt the miners are contemplating another strike with tho object of preventing the authorities from calling Mr P. C. Webb, M.P., up for sorvice in the Expeditionary Force. Our own opinion is that a strike is not very likely, and it is certainly our desire, for everybody's sake, and cspccially for tho sako of the miners and the organised workers generally, that there should I>g no strike. Lest in saying this wo should be understood by tho men as fearing tho power of organised labour, we may as well add that any strike undertaken on such grounds must and will bo crushed very speedily. "We would much, rather believe that the threat of "induslrial revolt" is used with tho object of keeping here a member of Parliament whom tho

miners—most erroneously, in our view —regard as a valuable 'advocate of Labour's cause than that tho miners' real purpose is a strike against the Military Service Act itself. Thero is a difference between the two eases which wo perfectly understand, but it is a difference which ceases to matter, which ceases even to exist, the moment that intentrtm is translated into aotion, for a strike from either motive would be a strike against the enforcement of the Act, i.e., an attempt to repeal by force one of the most vitally important of our laws. But even if the minors feel aggrieved at tho impending loss of Mr Webb as an advocate in. Parliament, their grievance is not 0110 that calls for specially favourable treatment. Very soon tho married men will be called up, and men will bo, summoned to bid fare-

well, in. some eases for over, to their wives . and children. Can it be expected that these wives and children will be,regarded as losing less tSan the Blackball miner, whose only

loss will bo tho abscnce from ''Han-

sard" of Mr Webb's speeches? That would be to set upon political representation and upon public advocates generally a value which common-sense would instantly write down by 100 per cent. It is the miners' misfortune that their particular advocate is a single fit man of military age. They arc entitled to complain of their ill-luck, but thev cannot in dcccncy go beyond

that; and we must express our surprise that Mr Webb himself has not told them so. If., as some Labour advocates have on occasion declared, there havo been exemptions made Military Service Boards on insufficient grounds, that furnishes no reason why Mr Webb should be exempted. Ihc first effect of the miners' threat of

•'industrial revolt" must be to make the. calling up of Mr V»cbb doubly neenssarv. As we havo said, we. do not think tho risk of a strike is very serious, but it is deplorable that the threat should be made. Mr Scrapie recently explained that the miners hate the idea of a strike, and do not desiro to strike; but he left it to be inferred that the men feel they have no other resource, and we are not likely to err in supposing that upon this last point lie agrees with them. Surely tho minors and all organised workers ought to have learned by now that tho strike policy is fatal, and that- no strike can snocecd or can be other than injurious to the workers which is not undertaken in defence of a liigh principle or in protest against a real human grievance. The sooner tho organised workers can get leaders who will instil into them sounder ideas concerning "industrial revolt" tho better it will bo for them. If they were wise they would consider whether they ought to lift a finger to retain the services of an advocate who is passively encouraging them in a course which will bring them into disastrous conflict with public feeling.