The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-07-15
MUST HAVE MORE!
COAL! MEANING
INCREASED PRICE.
England Getting Worried Over
Situation
MINERS PLEDGE HELP
Sir Auckland Geddes Makes State
ment of Grave Import in
House Of Commons
MINERS PLEDGE HELP

Lendon, July 14.-Justifying the
Governments decision TO increase
the price of coal by shillings ton,
Sir Auckland Geddes made state
ment of grave import in the House
Of Commons tonight. Not only was
the six-shilling increase necessary,
he said, but he feared 1t might have
to be shillings and pence unless
England could maintain her markets
and prices for export in the face of
American competition and the use OF
oil. and improve her output.
The debate was full Of dramatic
surprises, and there was no more
dramatic moment than when, from
the Crowd Of owners of mines, came
the shout of Never" in reply to the
labor plea for instant naturalization.
Never! Not in this House!" came
the shouts, but it is to be recorded
that the great body of members sat
very still, watching the conflict with
out passion.
Through the confusion and cross
purposes of the House debate one
might imagine for few hours the
fearful outlines of a social conflict
There were all the elements there
workmen, angry and suspicious; en-
ployers, militant and confident. Out
of the space between these two par
ties stepped Sir Auckland Geddes.
the man who had boldly thrown
down the apple of discord in that .
shillings increase. BY his side sat
his brother, Sir Eric.
There is a most pernicious doc
trine being preached that il man
does less work there is more for 9TH
ers. The very opposite is true. The
more work one does, the more there
is for others for every industry af-
fects every other So, Sir Auckland
argued, the higher price of coal
meant an all-aronnd rise of prices for
all manufactured goods, and that
meant--as he showed with immense
wealth of figures, the certain ruin OF
Britains export trade, its decline as
an industrial nation, and the triumph
of America, unless the cost of coal
was put down by increasing the out
put
IF the output goes up" he said,
Eve will be only too ready and will
ing TO meet that rising output by fall
ing prices. But unless miners and
men in other industries will do all
they can to get free circulation OF
goods in the country and get up the
supply of goods required, we shall
have great difficulty"
William Brace, the Welsh mining
leader, made definite offer OF the
miners cooperation with the Govern
ment in increasing the output. we
offer ourselves TO cooperate, he
said. "hecause we do love our coun-
try" His practical proposals were
then set forth:
First. that the Governoment sus-
pend the six-shilling increase until it
discovered whether by cooperation
it could increase the output.
Second, that the Government, with
out the slightest delay" carry out
the Sankey report and nationalize
tho mines.
The present system, he said, was
neither one thing nor the other; but
he solemnly rendered, on behalf of
the miners, the promise that If the
mines were national lied they would
endeavor to make the increase of out
put permanent and abiding.
1t was at this point that the great
ferment of protest broke out among
the employers group below the gang
way. but when Mr.. Brace sat down
there was an unmistakable feeling in
the air that he had achieved the dis
tinction of placing the whole de-
bate on higher and more hopeful
level.