Hopeless Struggle
As the Mercury goes to press the unhappy situation in the coalfields remains as it was a week ago. In the confusion of charge and counter charge, it is difficult to form a well-based opinion on the merits of the case. Employers are accused of injustices that ought to be easily explained or remedied. Employees are accused of ignoring the handicaps uner which the lignite industry suffers. There is some probability that within the next few hours direct action will be taken one way or the other, and the public will wait the issue with grave anxiety. It is possible that conciliatory efforts may effect an amicable settlement of differences, and it is just as possible that inflammatory influences will precipate a physical clash that will stain the good name of the district and leave unhappy memories. It is impossible to believe that, whatever the outcome of the tie-up may be, either employees, employers, or the lignite industry will gain any advantage to compensate for the distruption of the good relations that have existed since the openings of the coalfields forty years ago. The investigation instituted from Ottawa may possibly uncover the influences that have been at work to set masters and men at daggers drawn, but that is about all it can accomplish. The damage cannot be remedied.