We must wait for another week before we attempt to
estimate the results of the strike, but may point out here one or two considerations of prime importance. In the first place it is clear that the cornering of coal by the miners or by any one else and so holding the country to ransom is much more difficult than was supposed. In reality the nation is not at the mercy of the miners, as they fondly imagined. If only our plea for the systematic storing of some two months' supply of coal by its users is carried out, the miners in future will have no more chance or temptation to put a pistol to the heads of the general public than the textile operatives have. But though this is a fact which ought to make very strongly for public confidence, and though the country, on the whole, bore the strain of the strike wonderfully well, it must not be supposed that there has been no loss. On the contrary, the loss has been very large, for the nation has had to live for six weeks largely on its capital. Not only have manufacturers had to liquidate reserves or to borrow, but there has been undoubtedly a great using up of small private savings among the poor—not only a matter for 'regret, but an economic injury.
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