ABSTRACT
Soon after the signing of the Rosebery agreement the miners’ leaders turned their attention to the establishment of the Board of Conciliation. It was decided that the fourteen delegates who had attended the Rosebery conference should continue to represent the Federation until it held its annual conference in January, 1894. The main business of the first meeting was to appoint an independent chairman. Four names were submitted by the coal-owners and one by the miners, but it proved impossible to reach agreement. Whilst the Speaker was deliberating, a second meeting was held, at which the miners submitted their draft rules of procedure. Their most important proposal was that there should be a ‘standard rate of wages’, which would be 30 per cent. The Derbyshire leaders were much more cautious than Bailey in their comments on the situation.
