Evening star., 1925-08-02
BALDW|N'S ACTION
AVERTS CIVIL WAR
Gardiner Credits Sop to
Miners With Prevention
of Outbreak.
BY 4. G.. GARDINER.

BY Radio to The star.
LONDON, August While Lon
don society has been concluding the
season at Godwood, preparatory to
flying north to the moorS, Downing
Street has been the center of an alb
sorbinS drama, involving the gravest
possibilities of civil war.
The daily and hourly developments
OF the drama recalled the emotions
of the last week of July, 1914. Hap
PLY, at the eleventh hour. immediate
catastrophe has been avoided, not by
surrender of either combatant, but
by surrender of the government.
= At midnight Thursday Prime Min
lister Baldwin offered the coal mine
owners the bribe of state help to in
duce them to withdraw their lockout
notices. This desperate eXpedient
was employed only as a last resource
TO prevent a calamity unprecedented
in the industrial history of the coun-'
try. Neither side would yield an inch
and they never reached the point of
negotiating.
The mine owners in certain areas
had suffered such losses that they
preferred to close the mines rather
than continue under present condi-
tions. on the other hand, the miners
refused to discuss new terms which
. represented an attack on their stand
ard of living, and as the masters de-
clined TO withdraw their notices. all
mir. Baldwin's attempts to bring the
parties together failed
Struggle Alarming.
AS the week advanced, the dimen-
sion of the struggle assumed an alarm
ing character. An unexpected measure
of support for the miners was declared
throughout the labor movement. The
most serious fact was the declarat tion
Of the railway men and transport
workers that they would refuse to
handle coal in case of strike. The
trade union congress decided unan-
imously TO support the miners to
the full extent of its powers and re-
sources. In word, the masters
challenge had consolidated the labor
movement more formidably than in
any previous experience, and the
country, on the eve of a great holiday
exodus, was threatened with immediate
paralysis of the whole mechanism of
Its corporate existence.
Future Regarded GraveIy.
Mr.. Baldwins eleventh-hour expe-
dent of purchasing peace out of the
kpockets of the taxpayers gives relief
to the feelings of the public at the
expense of grave misgivings as to the
future. Coal has been the basis of
y.
the idea of being compelled to sub
sidize the basic trade of the country
creates widespread concern. 1t offers
breathing space for inquiry but
II is drug, not a remedy. 1t will
not cheaper coal. but only add to the
burdens of taxation, and until the
cost of coal is reduced the great in
dustries of the country will continue
to languish and decay.
Iron. steel and Shinbril6inp indus
tries are stagnating. British ships are
filling their bunkers in Holland with
German reparations coal, with which
France is able to undersell British
coal.
One of the chief causes of the des-
perate situation is the effect produced
by the return TO the gold standard
That has raised the price of British
commodities abroad, and the corollary
is reduction of wages at home. The
experience of this week has shown
that such a reduction will be desper-
ately resisted
Attacks Gold Standard.
John Maynard Keynes, the econo-
mist, whose forthcoming marriage to
the Russian dancer, Lepoukova, has
just been announced, has published a
furious onslaught on what he calls
the premature return to the gold
standard.
1t is entitled the economic conse-
Quences of Mr.. Churchill" The evi-
dence goes to show that the rise in
the pound sterling abroad has been
accomplished by the fall in foreign
trade and an increase in unemploy-
ment. In June British coal in Brazil
sold 43 cents below American coal.
Today American coal is So below
British. This change is entirely due
to the appreciation of the British
pound, and illustrates the widespread
effects of Mr.. Churchill's policy.
The press is almost unanimous in
deploring the government S method of
buying peace by putting the mine
owners and miners on the dole The
surrender of Mr.. Baldwin is all the
more astonishing in view of the fact
that as late as Thursday afternoon he
said he would not consider a subsidy
As rational leader in great
emergency he is entirely discredted
and the end of the first session of par
lament finds his government lament
ably weak. With another bad Winter
Inevitable, anything may happen to it,
Con- rFl