The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1923-10-05
BOB SMILE ON COAL
NATURALIZATION
By LAWRENCE TODD

u.
Plymouth, Mathematician of
the coal mines is today supported bv
every section of British labor, but the
hostility of British capitalists to the
miners plan is so deep that action will
PROBABLY await the time when the La
Dor party has an overwhelming ma
Jority in parliament.
So Bob Smile told me, in an inform
al interview for the Federated Press.
And Smile, who attained world fame
when he crOss-examined the coal-land
owning dukes in the Sankey commits
sion inquiry in 1919, ought to know.
/ No man in Britain will question his
Judgment or his information on this
central theme of the miners struggle.
The miners want naturalization in
order that the industry may be run
Tor service rather than for profit. and
IN order that their own lives NAV be
made more bearable through an ade-
quate and uniform wage scale, regu-
larlty of employment and improved
working conditions. Their demands
led Lloyd George to create the Sankev
commission, with the understanding
that its report would be taken as the
program of the government. A ma
| Jority of that commission reDorted
after an exhaustive investigation, that
private exploitation of coal mines in
Britain should be abolished in favor of
naturalization or some other plan.
Lloyd George failed to make good.
The miners then drew up their own
proposal, calling for the confscation
OF all mineral deposits, since these
were not created by human labor, and
for the condemnation and purchase by
the nation of all mines, since mines
are the produce of human labor
These demands were made the object
OF strike, but the government sue
cessfully resisted the miners. 1t in
stinctively defended the private own
ers of coal lands in their claim for a
toll on industry.
Today the British miners are in pro-
cess of recovery from the wage cut
ting lockout of 1921. Smile saws thew
will soon be back to a 80 per cent
basis in many districts. But thew
know that their plan for natiOnaliZa-
ton must come up next time with the
whole force of the British working
class behind it.
eve must fact the fact" he said.
that no capitalist government will
grant our demand. Nor would we he
safe in bringing it forward in a Labor
party government which held power
by only moderate majority in the
house of commons. Reaction is or
gained nationally through the Fed
Grafton of British Industries and
otherwise, and l feel sure that it is
internationally organized as we'll. We
have see reaction in armed revolt in
Italy and elsewhere on the European
continent, and we know that British
reaction might also take desperate
steps. If it had the support of the
army, and had the guns, great losses
might be inflicted on the unarmed
workers. We might be crushed out in
spite of our numerical majority.
i do not look for sudden indus
trial revolution. / look for peaceful
growth and steady building up of the
power of the workers of Britain. NV
greatest hope is that they avoid fac
tionalism and misunderstanding be-
tween right wing and left. Unless we
all stand together for the working
class emancipation we shall be beaten
here as the Italians have been beaten"
Smile inquired as to two men in
the American labor movement. They
were John H. Walker and Duncan Nc
Donald of the Illinois miners. Hel
had watched the attempt to establish
Farmer-LabOr party in America in
which these men had a part. (McDon- |
aid is still in the fight while Walker
gave up at the 1923 convention of the
Illinois State Federation of Labor.) In
his own recent triumphant campaign
for election to parliament, the veteran
leader of the British miners had the
distinction of being opposed by a can
didate supported by all the capitalist
parties, under instructions from the
respective headquarters in London. A |
feature of his campaign was a dem
OnstratiOn planned in the city of Dur
ham and carried out by 10000 women
members of the Labor party.
All through the fight Smile cheer
fully acknowledged the charges hurled
at him by the enemy press, that he
has all his life been in revolt against |
capitalistic society. His majority was
the largest ever polled by Labor in
the constituency.