ABSTRACT
In all coalfields the “missionaries” from the Rhondda and other valleys had found a response: within the solid structure the molecules were astir. The question of “abnormal places” had first come up for national consideration from South Wales in the Spring of 1910. The story of the minimum wage and of the great strike of 1912 has been told fully elsewhere in its national aspect: and only the aspect as it presented itself to the miners of the South Wales coalfield need be narrated. The speech of James Winstone in support of the minimum wage resolution at the Annual Conference had been an example of the more general argument from Wales. Meantime, in most districts there had been negotiations with employers. Alarm was manifested in parliament, and questions were asked that day in the House of Commons. There was some ambiguity in the Scottish owners’ resolutions but Scotland was regarded as having entered a refusal.
