The mill situation

THE terms of settlement of the British coal dispute, provincial though the settlement is, have a momentous significance in the history of the struggles of labour for the assertion of its rights as an indispensable and the only human factor in production. They clearly constitute a step towards the recognition, in howsoever tardy a manner, of the principle of the right of labour to a minimum subsistence wage. The settlement is, in the words of a labourite, “going to lead to an acknowledgement that the workers are entitled to adequate subsistence before any other charge on the industry.” This, undoubtedly, is a positive achievement and augurs well for the success of legitimate demands on the part of wage-earners. The matter has a special importance for our country just at present when the Bombay mill industry is passing through a severe crisis due to the notices given by mill-owners to mill-hands that their wages will be reduced by 11½ per cent on the ground of the accumulation of huge unsold stocks resulting in enormous deficits to themselves. The situation thus created — the mill-owners persisting in their determination and the mill-hands showing unwillingness to agree to a reduction of wages for a cause for the existence of which, they say, they are not to blame — gives room for serious thought both as to the rights of labour under the circumstances and the claims for protection put forward by the industry affected by the depression. The mill-hands complain that it is nothing short of inequity and injustice to deny them the price of their efficiency in times of depression which are not brought about by any fault of theirs.