The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1912. THE COAL STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 241, 11 April 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1912. THE COAL STRIKE.

Not many years ago the suggestion that an industrial strike would cost Great Britain in a few short months a sum of £50,000,000 would have been met with contemptuous laughter. But the great coal strike which is just ending, and which will go down to history as one of the most immense labor upheavals ever chronicled, has also been one of the most expensive. The progress of the strike has been watched with intense interest in New Zealand, and the men who have been fighting for the principle of a right to receive a living wage have had not only sympathy but practical financial assistance extended to them in the freest possible manner by the Dominion. The cables have kept us fully informed of the details of this industrial upheaval, and while many pitiable aspects have had to be chronicled, and the fight has been attended by the inevitable personal suffering and misery which attach to all such differences, it has to be admitted that the ultimate purpose gained has, to some extent, justified the extreme protest of the men. Labor conditions at Home are very different to those that obtain on our happier shores, and in no industry are they more trying than in that of mining. The coal-miner hews his weekly pittance from the earth under the most hazardous and nervewracking conditions. His labor saps his strength, undermines his constitution, and generally condemns him to an early and useless old age. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that long yiears of practical slavery have resulted in an aggressive and solid revolt agains't a scheme of things, whWh, at a small expenditure on the part of the mine-owners, would have enabled him to "rebuild it nearer to his heart's desire." As a means to an end a strike is not always justifiable, and there is little doubt that had the miners held their hand the Government would, at an early staged have legislated for their relief and their protection. It is difficult, at this distance from the scene of the trouble, to judge whether the drastic remedy of revolt was justifiable or not, and the end desired by the workers appears to have been bought at a fearful cost in both misery and money. Still, desperate diseases require I desperate remedies, and if the strike' results in permanent improvement in the coition of all classes of labor at Home its cost may yet be justified. In any event, there will be nothing but satisfaction expressed at the clearing away of the clouds and the end of a painful and impressive incident in the history of the labor movement in Great Britain. Living as we do in happier climes, and subject to legislative, ameliorations that have made the Dominion the working man's paradise, it is not easy to grasp the full significance of the seamy side of life in the congested centres of the old world; but even the bald facts and figures that have reached us by cablegram speak very emphatically of the necessity for the vigorous cleasing of more than one industrial Augean stable.