The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-07-24
BY MILTON BRONNEK
NEA Service CORES DOndcnt

London. July H.-The mcnacing
picture Of n complete paralysis of
her industrial life now hangs over
England as the result Of the dispute
between the British miners and mine
operators.
The situation appears more serious
than the threatened anthracite strike
in the United States. In n frank and
timely interview, A. J. Cook. the
militant secretary Of the British
Miners Federation, says that unless
the government can find some way to
solve the problem more than $780,
900 workers in essential British in
dustries will join the 100000 min
ers in great strike soon after
July 81.
Cook predicted that the army of
railroad men, the transport workers
and the engineering--each an essen
tial class to Britain's industrial life
would strike to back the miners
in their fight.
Wage Dispute
As in America. the British mine
trouble centers around the deter
mination of the mine operators to
reduce wages. The British operators
also want the miners to work longer
hours and to substitute district wage
agreements for the national wage
scale put into effect during the war.
In both countries it is "a postwar
read djustment problem.
'"Unlcss the British government
can find some way out, Great Britain
at the end of July will face the
gravest national crisis since the dark
days Of 1918, when it looked as if
the Germans would win the war"
Cook told his visitors.
Then 1t was an external danger.
Now it is internal danger-thc stop
page Of all our leading industries 5
ana paralysis of our national life.
THAT, without exaggeration, is
what the coal mining companies
have brought about by notifying the
miners that on July 81 they would
terminate all existing contracts and
demand that our men work longer
hours at lower wages"
Cook was in the mines for 70 years
and is intimately in touch with the
workers.
"By comparison to many Of our
men, l am conservatism ITSELF, he
says.
nave H0IV 1bWC
"The miners now have hard time
making ends meet. They are tax
ing themselves to support 20O,0 900 Of
their fellow workers unable to OBJ
tain employment. How could | go to
them and tell them they must agree
to wage reductions?"
Cook admits that many British
mining companies are not making
money, but he insists that there is
one class which could easily make
q sacrifice in its profits and avert a
national calamity. This class Is the
British nobility and the rich land
owners.
"1he dukes and earls and other
great landowners who own coal lands
are sitting in idleness and drawing
coal royalties that runs into tens of
thousands Of pounds sterling every
year." says Cook.
"By their toll. their sweat and the
dangers they daily face, the miners
support this class. Why not compel
the rich to accept a cut, before reduc-
ing the pitiful wage of the miners
"Per man we have about half the
output per shift that you do in the
United States" the miners leader
said. "This is due in part to your
thicker coal seams, but also to the
abundant use in America of cutting
machinery.
u. 8. Wages Higher
"In the United States wages repre-.
sent more than IS per cent of the
cost of mining coal, compared to 65
per cent in Britain. Your wages are
about three times ours and yet the
coal costs the American consumer
less than it does here. That's be-
cause 60 per cent of your coal il
mined by machinery, compared with
40 per cent in Scotland and 16 pei
cent in England"
Here and in America, labor il
throwing every ounce of its power
into the fight for, national wage
scales.
"Other British workers know that
an attack on the national wage scale
in the mining business would be just
a prelude to similar attack on their
SCALE" he says. For that reason
they will join US in the fight. Al
ready the railroad directors are de.
manding that their employees accept
q wage cut"