The Coal Strike

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 217, 12 March 1912, Page 5

The Coal Strike

EARLY SETTLEMENT EXPECTED. INCREASING BUSINESS STAGNATION. MANY ON VERGE OF STARVATION. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, Marcn 10. There is some expectation among the delegates at last week's conferences of an early settlement of the strike. Five thousand railway clerks employed by various lines have received notice, with a promise of reinstatement. Guy Bowman and Benjamin Buch, printers, are charged with publishing treasonable matter in the Syndicalist. Tho locomotive engineers and firemen's executive voted against a sympathetic strike. There is increased stagnation in business. One 'hundred thousand notices terminated yesterday. ■

Lord Ashton's mills have been closed until Thursday, affecting ~ 6000 hands. ! Many woollen operatives at Coln'e Valley have been rendered idle, and 20,000 at Colne Valley and Huddersfield have bee?: put on short time. Tangyes, at Birmingham, will suspend work on Wednesday, affecting 3000 hand's.

Many of the poorest in South Wales are on the verge of starvation. Including miners, there are 250,000 unemployed in South Wales. Will Crooks, speaking at Taunton, said he saw the miners and owners before leaving London, and he would not be surprised if the strike was settled in another week.

Lord Robert Cecil, in a speech at Se! by, advocated giving the workmen j: share in the profits and the management of industries.

Mr. G. A. Barnes, speaking at Croydon, said that having already inflicted considerable loss on the community, the men had won a notable victory over capital, and he hoped that the miners would not consider it necessary to inflict humiliation on Parliament. The final solution lay in the co-operation of the masters and workers.

Syndicalist members of the Amalgamated Railway Servants' Union are endeavoring to promote a demonstration in Trafalgar Square as a protest against the executives not? interfering with blackleg coal transportation by troops. Labor members of Parliament and the Miners' Federation disapprove of the demonstration.

THE BUNGLING OF THE PREMIER. RAMSAY MACDONALD HITS OUT. Received 11, 10 p.m. London. March 11. Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, M.P., speaking at Bedcliffe, said the Premier had bungled the negotiations. But for the bungling the dispute would have been on a fair way to settlement. The first (and foolish)' mistake was in asking the miners to accept compulsory arbitration. Then he said it was absurd to put tlie miners' schedule into his bill, though no body asked him to do such a thing. Afterwards Mr. Asquith made a speech on a Thursday and published it on Friday, though the others were pledged to secrecy. Instead of considering the miners' facts proving the schedule was reasonable, the Premier again asked the miners to meet the owners to discuss the reductions. The miners declined. Hence the deadlock.

Mr. Macdonald added that if they secured the minimum it would only .be the first step towards obtaining an adequate miniman -vag? for every trade. If the Government- introduced' a Bill which would hamper trades unions and lead to compulsory arbitration, the Labor Party would oppose it, and the strike would be finished by sheer exhaustion before the Bill passed. Mr. Barnes, M.P.. interviewed, said that if the coal strike lasted another month the engineers and other trade unions would be in "Queer street." Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., at Aberavon, declared that the House of Commons should pass a Bill repealing the wages agreement in connection with the whole coal fields. That would bring settlement within measurable distance. TROUBLE IN GERMANY. MINERS TO STRIKE TO-DAY. Received 12, 1 a.m. Berlin, March 11. A conference of the so-called Triple Alliance Socialist miners' unions at Ruhr it was decided by 507 votes to 75 to strike to-day. Two hundred and twenty thousand men are involved. The Government notifies its determination to use every means to protect willing workers.

The strikers' demand amounts to a 15 per cent, increase and a 7y s Hours bank- to-bank shift, instead of the present 8y 2 . They also ask for a seven hour shift where the temperature is over 71 fahr. The demand will cost owners seven and a half million sterling; equivalent to 1 mark 61 pfenning a ton. The present profits average a mark per ton.

The Catholic Evangelical unions oppose the strike. The Union of Christian Miners at Ruhr, in a pamphlet, state that the strike has no chance of success. Its only advantage would be to British industry, and it would bring misery and want to hundreds of thousands of miners' families.