The mineowners think it necessary to call for further sacrifices
from the miners, and the miners are determined to realize a higher standard of life. It will be hard indeed to reconcile attitudes so divergent. We fear, too, from a reading of the speeches made at the Conference of the Scottish Independent Labour Party by the miners' leaders that it will be idle for the owners to point out to them that the industry cannot bear the satisfaction of their demands, such as the demand that their " real " wages shall be raised at any rate to the 1914 level. The miners !mow well that this is so under the present organization of the industry, but they do not accept that organization as a satisfactory one and are pleased rather than otherwise if what they demand should necessitate reorganization of the industry on a new basis which they believe, erroneously as we think, would allow it to secure for its workers a higher standard of life. Hence in spite of reassuring statements by Mr. Evan Williams, the spokesman of the owners, and by Mr. Herbert Smith for the miners, we cannot but regard the situation as anxious.
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