THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1912. A GREAT COAL STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10572, 1 March 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1912. A GREAT COAL STRIKE.

England is just now on the verge of one of the greatest industrial upheavals ever known in the history of the world. Jf the coal strike which is threatened is not averted, hundreds of thousands of men will be thrown I out of employment, industry will be paralysed, and incalculable misery and suffering will follow in the train. Jn view of the interests involved, it is well to recall the last great struggle of the kind. This was in 1893, 'when, owing to the owners giving notice of a reduction of wages, rendered necessary, so they said, by the fact that the price of coal left no profit, 300,000 men went on striken.. In these days the Miners' Federation did not ©mibraee all the coal-fields, as it does to-day. -Th© fight lasted four months, and of course affected a large numberof industries. Coal went to famine prices. Tu London the best coal,

which before the strike was Eelling at 23s a ton, was quoted later on at ■lis, and the cheapest grade rose from 17s to 355. in Lancashire canals were dredged for the refuse from the barges, and even bowling greens were rooted up to collect the cinders laid for drainage. The funds of the union were soon exhausted, distress prevailed over a wide area, and public feeling was deeply moved. A contributor to the Daily Chronicle, who saw every phase of the struggle in Lancashire, writ-es an impressive account of the distress it caused. Produetio n-had practically ceased, and groups of thin, haggard, half-starved men hung about the streets. All the assistance brought to the aid of the strikers could give the women and children only one good meal a day, while men had often o be content with one meal in two days. " The sight of the crowds thronging to the soup-kitchens was enough to draw tears. "Gaunt, hollow-cheeked women, whose babies moaned on their breasts; ragged and pinched children, barefooted and ravenous— ' a weird array of hungry faces, all sniffing up the rich smell of the steaming food which might or might not be theirs. .- • . The men out-

side were told that twenty of them could have a meal, and the chivalry with which the worst cases were put forward by - the other hungry men for this treat was inspiring." The misery' in the' homes was pitiable. Families lay on sacks on the floor; every; stick of furniture had been, sold for food. A family would have for food soup one day, and a loaf of dry bread the next. Eventually, Mr Gladstone, then Prime Minister, brought the two sides together, and terms were arranged in favour of the miners. "Surely," says the writer, "there is a pointed moral and a grave warning in this narrative for those who bear the responsibility for peace or war to-day."