Whether it is better to have a set of rules which requires that the Committee of picked men (responsible year by year to the will of the members) should have a knowledge of, and be called in to assist in, the settlement of disputes before a large colliery is stopped, and a serious expenditure thrown upon the Association; or whether a lodge shall have a free hand to stop a colliery at will, and then run a chance of creating a favourable feeling, and receiving large sums from the funds, when, if the Committee had been consulted, the matter might have been settled; or if not, a strike entered upon legally. Another lesson is that, having received the sanction of the courts to our rules, and having lifted them out of the uncertainty by which they were surrounded, we shall do well to keep them in the certainty in which they have been placed. It is very clear that an attempt will be made to alter the rules which guide this matter. If so, a lax (and ruinous) state of things will be introduced. For the last two or three years the same attempts have been made, and again this year resolutions with the same object are sent in. The rules which place the affairs of the Association in the hands of the Committee (before a stoppage) have to be erased or mutilated, and rendered useless. Surely it is better, and more conducive to the welfare of the Society, to have our affairs placed on business lines, than to have a code of rules which will admit of loose procedure, and spending illegally large sums of money, which will be wanted whenever the depression of trade sets in. My advice to you is to consider carefully every amendment which may come before you. Trades organisations will prosper most when they are founded upon, and guided by, business principles. 1898 The Wages Question--The Compensation Act The uncertainty which the Federation Board had pointed out as the inevitable result of the abolition of the Conciliation Board soon made itself manifest. There were continual demands being made upon the Federation Board to seek advances, but they felt how difficult it was to get reliable data upon which to found a claim. On March 22nd they gave the county an account of an interview they had with the employers on the 12th of that month. The suggestion as to the claim for an advance being made was not supported by any data, and when they met, the employers pointed out that the indications were in the direction of depression more than the expansion of trade, and therefore the Wage Committee could not recommend to the owners to concede an advance. That refusal the Board advised the workmen to accept until there was some better trade prospects. "Like prudent men, and, acting upon the lines you would have us proceed upon, we are convinced it will be more hurtful than useful to initiate or press a demand for an advance unless the state of the markets warrant such a course."