"I Can't Discuss Details"

In Southport's Floral Hall Britain's real rulers gathered last week. There Government Ministers faced the rank & file of the T.U.C. (Trade Union Congress) who saw their Socialist dream of high wages and short hours slipping away in Britain's crisis. The big, unpleasant question, posed by the Government, was this: Can there be real "planned economy" unless the Government has the power to plan and control labor?

Reluctantly but overwhelmingly, T.U.C. approved Government power to fine or imprison workers who refused to take jobs the Government directed them to take. Labor Minister George Isaacs told delegates apologetically that it would be only "limited direction." "What do you mean . . . ?" yelled delegates. Isaacs hedged: "I cannot discuss details now."

No resolution would actually give the Labor Government control of the coal miners who could make or break Britain. Last week, at the peak of the wildcat coal strike that started at Grimethorpe in Yorkshire, 70,000 miners were out of the pits. Already the strike had cost Britain 400,000 tons of precious coal. When the National Coal Board asked Grimethorpe miners to increase their daily stint (from digging 21 feet of coal daily to 23 feet) the strike began.

Miners at the Brynhenllys mine in Wales struck for an even more trivial reason. There 300 men wildcatted because Will Rees was assigned a new pit pony, named "Britton," instead of his five-year favorite "Bomber." They returned to work only when Rees got Bomber back.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.