South Yorkshire Times, Saturday, April 1st, 1944
Chaos in the Coalfield
Far from there being any improvement in the coal situation in South Yorkshire the position is a good deal worse than it was last week. The strikes, which flared up at many pits on the home coal issue raised by the Porter Award, have not only been renewed after a move at the beginning of the week towards a resumption of work, but are more widespread than ever.
In the first place the miners were up in arms against the anomaly of a three and six penny charge against the wages of certain of their colleagues in respect of home coal which they did not directly receive. Now that point has been conceded and the charge against the minimum wage of those who do receive the coal has been reduced to two shillings.
The response of the men has been to repudiate the leaders who have negotiated the concessions on their behalf, and to stand out for the complete withdrawal of all charges against the Porter minimum in respect of allowances, which include home coal. The situation is unconstitutional, illegal, and completely chaotic.
At a time when every pit in the coalfield ought to be winding coal to capacity the majority of them stand idle; authority is flouted – whether it be that of the State or of the miner’s own properly elected leaders – and the democratic principle of collective bargaining is trampled underfoot by those who have fought hardest to establish it.
It is a deplorable state of affairs and serves, among other things, to accentuate the dismal record of the Ministry of Fuel and Power since it came into being. Without in any way seeking to countenance the conduct of the miners in resorting to the extreme course of striking, we cannot say that the tortuous and indeterminate policy of the Ministry has been calculated to solve the war-time problems of the industry. Instead of presiding over a badly needed simplification of the wage system the Ministry – if current evidence is any guide – have watched new complications introduced. Where firmness was required, they have failed to grasp the nettle and the result is the present unholy muddle; the miners disgruntled and defiant, colliery managements infused with an exasperating sense of frustration, and public opinion hovering betwixt bewilderment and indignation.
With things at such a pass it is different to decide which way to turn, but it may yet come to the point of following resident Roosevelt’s precedent. He cut the Guardian knot in a similar emergency in the mining industry in America by taking over the mines on a war footing for the duration of the crisis, subsequently settling outstanding grievances in a firm but generous spirit. Sooner or later something of the sort will have to be done, if things are allowed to go on in the present ruinous fashion, wider credence will be given to fantastic rumours already being given currency in the coalfield that the nation does not want the coal and that the Government does not care whether South Yorkshire pits are idle for a few weeks or not.
Miners, with their well-stocked cellars, are perhaps better able to credit such astonishing stories than are householders anxiously husbanding a meagre fuel ration. But the very fact that such a crisis should blow up savours of a dangerous readiness to take victory for granted.
It should not be forgotten what internal discussion and disunity did to Germany in 1918.