The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1920. BRITISH LABOUR AT THE CROSS-ROADS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 25, 25 October 1920, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1920. BRITISH LABOUR AT THE CROSS-ROADS

To-day's cablegrams dealing with the miners' strike in Great Britain raise some prospects of an early settlement. The position, as Mr. Bonae Law has stated, is still very grave, and the Government is asking for such powers under emergency legislation as suggest that it anticipates a life-and-death struggle unless industrial peace is speedily restored. The drastic provisions of the Emergency Powers, Bill in regard to the suppression of disorders are doubtless aimed less at the strikers themselves than.at the undesirable and criminal elements which are always brought to the surface by industrial upheavals on a great scale. While the situation 6till holds extremely dangerous possibilities, hopes of a settlement seem to be distinctly brighter than they were a day or two ago. Following upon informal. discussion, Mr. Lioyd George has invited the executive of the Miners' Federation again to confer with the Government; and the miners, besides accepting this invitation, have apparently joined with «he Parliamentary Committee of the Trado Union Congress in urging the _ railwaymen to refrain for the time being from anything in the nature of a sympathy strike. There docs not seem to be any doubt thati the mora responsible of the British Labour leaders are earnestly co-operating with the Government in its efforts to bring the strike to an end/ The chief danger is that revolutionary extremists and strife-mongers may be able to block the settlement which would be a comparatively simple matter if reason and eood sense were allowed to prevail That a settlement is quite feasible is evident even from one of Mr. Smillie's latest statements on behalf of the. miners. He said, amongst other things, that he would guarantee that the coal output would be increased by twenty million tons in five months if the wage-increase of ; two shillings a day were granted. On behalf of his Government, Mr.' Lloyd George has offered freely to concede an increase in wages if the output.of coal is increased, and it follows that if Mr. Smillie spoke sincerely and with authority ' in what he had to say about guaranteeing a bigger output there ought to be no great difficulty in arriving at a basis of agreement., The miners may be entitled to'' ask that they should be enabled, jointly with the owners to exercise some control over the causes of low output, but the Government's refusal of an unconditional increase in wages is fully justified by the,, fact that all recent wage increases have been followed by a serious reduction of output.

While the detail issues in dispute doubtless require careful handling the real question now. raised in Britain is whether big industrial organisations are to persist in a policy which is undermining and threatening to overthrow national prosperity. The miners' strike is the most, glaring example yet afforded of tactics, devised nominally in the interests of organised Labour, which quito obviously are as diametrically opposed to the interests of wage-earners as of all other classes in the community. Even at the narrowest view it is apparent that the strike weapon as it has been developed and is now being used by the miners is one that sane men cannot afford, to use on any pretext or for any purpose. The strike is costing ' the miners £.1,500,000 a week in wages; it involves the country in a loss of 4,500,000 tons of coal per week. Apart from the merits of the dispute, it is quite evident that whatever the terms of scttldment may be, the strike will work out in loss to the miners themselves, while the harm they are doing to their fellow-workers and the rest of the population in stifling production, paralysing industry, and occasioning widespread unemployment, destitution, and misery is almost incalculable. It is on the face of it absurd to suggest that such things are done in the interests of any part of the wage-earning population. The true explanation of such conditions, and the resort to such tactics, of course, is that many of the industrial organisations in Britain, as in some other countries, have been swept off their feet by revolutionary extremists who give as littlo thought to the welfare of the working population as to any aspect of_ constructive reform. In its futility and heartless cruelty and as an absolute negation of sound effort in the interests of industrial and social betterment, the miners' strike gives new prominence to the fact that inßnitely the worst enemies of labour are to be found within its own camp. The next few days should show whether organised Labour in Britain has profited by its bitter experience of tho disastrous policy of the extremists and is capable of shaping a policy better calculated to 'pro-

mote the welfare and happiness of its rank and file. It is likely that the negotiations about to open will, decisively test the whole industrial situation, aiid show just how far organised Labour has succumbed to the influence of the wild reactionaries.