Coal Industry Commission Bill,

Part of Orders of the Day — Coal Industry Commission. – in the House of Commons at on 24 February 1919.

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Photo of Mr James Brown Mr James Brown , South Ayrshire

Which will practically mean the same thing as far as the catastrophe is concerned. What most Members won the election on was the promise to us of a new Heaven and a new earth, and very much better conditions under the earth. We, who work under the earth, are going to try to claim those better conditions now that they are coming before this honourable House. Let the House think what the miner has to undergo. The Prime Minister has already stated the adverse conditions under which he works and lives, and he admits that those conditions have given cause for a great deal of the discontent which has arisen throughout the country. I think we are entitled to claim this 30 per cent. and six hours a day. If the country and this House knew what a six hours working day really meant, I am perfectly sure that they would need no inquiry whatever. In Scotland, it will mean, in a great many instances, eight hours a day, and if we had gone to the country and said that we were claiming an eight hours day from bank to bank, I dare say every Member of this House tonight would have said it was a fair and a reasonable proposition. That is all we are claiming. A six hours working day means that men may be underground from seven to eight hours per day. That is to say, we get the six hours on the same method that we got our eight hours, and you must not imagine that it is so easy for a miner, as soon as he has got down the pit, to got to his work as it is for an ordinary tradesman travelling to his occupation. For men getting on in life, for a man like myself, who has not so long ago left the mine, it was the worst part of the day's work to get to the workings. If hon. Members will remember that, I do not think there will be any difficulty at all in their at once supporting this Amendment to eliminate the wages and the hours question from the Resolution before the House.

I want to impress upon the House that we are not willing to take the blame for anything that may occur from the refusal of this reasonable Amendment. We have heard of the horrors that will accrue from a national stoppage of the coal pits. I perfectly agree that there will probably be disaster following a na-nional stoppage of the coal miners, but we do not want to take that blame. If, on the one hand, it is said, "Why not wait a fortnight?" we say, on the other hand, "Why not concede these two points, and give yourselves leisure to examine the question of the nationalisation of the mines and the question regarding the demobilised men and the wages they are to get?" On every count, I think the Mover of the Amendment has made out his case. I think, taking the willingness of the miners all through the War, even to allow themselves to be set aside occasionally so that the country might not be embarrassed by stoppages of any kind; taking into account that we gave the men, and that very often, against the wishes of the men, we kept them at work in order that the Government might defeat our enemies—taking all these things into account, I think it would be unreasonable not to expect this House to accept this Amendment to get rid of the hours and wages question and to give the Leader of the Opposition the promise that the principle of nationalisation will be conceded. Then everyone of us will be quite willing, and indeed happy, to have this investigation set on foot as quickly as possible. I would plead with all right hon. and hon. Gentlemen of this House to think once and twice before they refuse this Amendment, because this is not a leader's movement; it is a men's movement. After the last conference at Southport, when I reached my home in Ayrshire, I discovered that some thousands of men had been idle the day previously, and when I asked the reason they said they stopped "to protest against the undue delay which you leaders are putting upon us." I also ask the House to remember that during the unhappy trouble in Glasgow a short time ago—I am a constitutionalist, and I wish everything to be done constitutionally, and have no desire to see my country in any danger at all; I would rather forego anything that would cause trouble to my country—we had unconstitutional methods thrust upon us. We refused to accept those methods, and we issued manifestoes warning our men that they were to keep at work, because we would not tolerate any unconstitutional methods. But we did that, and the men obeyed us, knowing that this claim had been before the country so long, and in the faith that, seeing that the cost of living had risen so much, and that the miners were entitled to a fuller, higher, better, and a more leisured life, and that they were entitled to a shorter working day, there would be very little doubt when the time came that large concessions would be given to us. That was the reason we were able to keep these men at work. I trust that this Amendment will be accepted by the House so that all difficulty may vanish for the time being, and that then this Commission may be set to work to investigate the highly important matters of nationalisation and demobilisation. I hope they will accept this Amendment, because I am afraid—I am not threatening at all—that, in spite of anything we might do, the strike will occur. The figures speak for themselves. The figures are there, and they prove to this House and to me that nothing short of this concession from the Government will be able to prevent what, in the opinion of all of us, will be a calamity for the nation.