Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, FBRUARY 27, 1920. THE COAL CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, FBRUARY 27, 1920. THE COAL CONFERENCE

The settlement reached at the Coal 'lndustry Conference on Saturday is in the form of a draft which is to be submitted for ratification to the various miners’ unions. Good prospects are raised, however, says the Dominion, of the complete settlement of a dispute which has been costiy to those engaged in the coal industry and \ery much more costly in the aggregate to the people of the Dominion generally. If expectations are realised in the mat. ter of the immediate abandonment of the “go-slow” policy a. full agreement will no doubt follow in natural sequence. To the miners such an agreement means taking up the opportunity they have all along been offered of earning good wages in return for a normal output of coal. To the public it means some hope of relief from conditions of industrial dislocation, and also from the prospect of a winter of severe hardship ocaesioned by a' coal famine. Measured with an eye to attendant circumstances. the “go-slow” strike which has been in progress in the coal mines for nearly six months will rank pro- ’ bably as one of the costliest and most futile in the history of the Dominion. The reduction of the coal output / occurred and was continued during mouths in which all sections of the population had even more to gain than at normal times from a brisk and wedsustained industrial effort'. Rapid progress in making up the leeway of the war years and expanding all forms of useful production is a primary condition of .‘prosperity for the whole community. By their limitation of the output of coal, the mine workers succeeded iu hindering this process or recovery to a. yen’ serious extent. The total loss incurred w a resuU by , mm.mn.ity can he estimated only vaguely, but was certainly enormous. The shortage of coal hampered or dislocated more or less seriously nearly all forms of transport and productive industry - The building trade m particular has been heavily affected, notably bv the reduction to a minimum of the output of cement', one of the most important materials used in building operations. Here and in all other directions the evils of the coal shortage have ‘been felt most severely by the fellow wage-earners of the miners, and by their dependants. At the same time the miners have sacrificed thenown comfort ond that of their families for a period of close on six months by restricting themselves to something (jlsp half wages. The terms of the draft agreement are withheld lor the moment, but there is no reason to suppose that it contains anything that (might; not have been as well arranged in August last year. I* I? to b e hoped at all events, that no unjust concessions have been extorted by direct action,” and public opinion from the outset would have solidly supported the miners in obtaining such concessions as they have a fair right to claim, Apart from the direct hardships they invited under the “go-slow" policy, the miners, in adopting it, took the best means of retarding the satisfaction of I such legitimate grievances as they are able to show in regard to housing Jiving conditions.