Montana labor news., 1948-07-22

actually serious and permanent unemploy-
ment would be inevitable if coal production
could not be brought back to the pre-war
level"
But in this connection, "the new govern
ment had to face the fact that our two essen
tial industries, coal and agriculture, were
manned with workers who were insufficient
in numbers and largely unwilling"
However, if the miners were unwilling to
produce heavily, and if new people were un-
willing to enter the mines to meet the nation
al emergency need for coal to make mass pro-
duction of consumer goods possible. ma
tionalization would end all that. Once we
had the mines for the nation, the miners
would give of their best, in a general honest
thought and common good for ALL The no.
ton consoled millions of well-meaning peo-
pie, but responsible men in the Labour party
must have known that the miners disliked the
nation nearly as much as they dislike the mine
owners. They felt that the people, even the
common people, had let them down in the
past. State ownership did not appeal to them
in the least. What they wanted was the
mines for the Miners and what they would
do with them, if they got them, was literally
nobody's business"
Our tory critic contends that there is no
more pathetic figure in British public life
than a miners Member of Parliament. He is
not a representative. He is hardly even a
delegate. He is simply an employee. He is
paid to shout angrily in Parliament if anyone
ventures to suggest that miners are open to
criticism on any count. He must demand
that the critic should at once go down into a
deep and dangerous mine and work there for
u I0rn Kinon hnfo~A hD ho 0ro&k L. ~,
what everybody knows to be true. There is
no grievance so ancient, no allegation so un-
substantial that he can be permitted to let it
rest. If it is proved beyond argument that the
miners have broken an agreement, the Men,
Der of Parliament for the miners, who was
himself a party to the agreement, is bound to
shout loud and long that no man has a right to
criticize a miner, except another miner-and
miners never criticize miners"
Brogan has much to say about the conduct
Of u~nionists other than miners. He feels that
in general the LabOur government and the
labor unions have difficulty in getting along
together:
"The miners leaders have their own spe-
cially ~grievous difficulties, but, in all the un-
ions, the official leaders are losing their grip
to an extent that must be very alarming to
themselves. An obvious reason for loss of un-
ion authority is the new technique of securing
industrial advantages by way of political bar
gaining. If Parliament fixes wages and con-
ditions, the ordinary worker is apt to think
that his union is rather a useless organization,
and he also suspects that his highly political
leaders allow politics to influence their bar
gaining to the benefit of the Labour Party.
but to the detriment of the ordinary worker.
We have quoted enough to show how
trenchant is this tory's criticism, and how
close to home, home right here in America,
some of it hits. Most of us in the ALL would
undoubtedly vote for the Labour Party if we
were in Britain. Most of us realize that it is
necessity, very real necessity, which compels
us to enter political life in our own country
far more energetically than we have entered
1t as members of organized labor in the past.
1t is also to be hoped that most of us real
ize how wholesome it is at times to consider
such criticism as that which this British tory
has heaped upon our labor brethren in a
country so closely allied to us in the effort to
save democracy from totalitarianism.