Whether the Chief Constables were wise to act on the
powers vested in them is, of course, open to question. In general our feeling is that the expectation of incitement to violence should be based on exceedingly strong evidence before it becomes desirable to suppress meetings. It is always possible for the police to attend a meeting and to take action on the spot if the limits of what is proper are transgressed. The greatest help Mr. Cook could possibly receive in his crazy campaign would be an excuse for saying that he had been victimized. He would then become to many people who are now wavering a martyr and a hero. As it is, he is rapidly sickening even those who believed in his leadership. If he is given just enough rope he will hang himself surely enough. The most valuable object lesson in the cause of industrial peace would be that the miners should feel in the end that though Mr. Cook had always had a fair field he had led them utterly astray and would have brought them to final disaster if others had not intervened to save them. On Wednesday there were more than 260,000 miners at work, an increase over the previous day of more than 7,000.
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