Calmer Miners

Not long ago (TIME, Oct. 5) "Emperor" A. J. Cooke incendiary Laborite, declared that, as a protest against the lowering of certain wage scales since the Baldwin coal subsidy went into effect (TIME, Aug. 31), the miners would refuse to testify before the Royal Commission* which is now gathering data on the coal dispute. Last week, in the meeting of the British Miners' Delegate Conference, at London, this recalcitrant stand was voted down, five to two.

As finally passed, the resolution on this point directs that the miners' case shall be presented as forcibly as possible before the Royal Commission, and that another direct appeal shall be made to Premier Baldwin urging him to accept the miners' interpretation of the coal truce agreement as forbidding any decrease in wages whatever. Should the Premier again declare that the operators have a right to lower certain wage scales to the base rates of the 1924 agreement, which is now continued under the subsidy, the miners' executives are instructed that they may "call on the Trade Union Congress to enforce the miners' interpretation."

*The Commission is headed by Sir Herbert Samuel, and is attempting to investigate the situation impartially and to clear the way for a permanent coal settlement.