British cabinet created the Sankey Commission as a hasty cooling-off measure against radical miners

Evidence

Cabinet evidence shows that most ministers were hostile to the miners’ claims. But given the circumstances, “in much haste and alarm” (Morgan 1979, 62) the cabinet opted for a reconstructionist approach and suggested that miners’ demands be investigated by an impartial government commission under the neutral chairmanship of Sir John Sankey, a judge of the high court. Th e Times detailed the tense setting from which this commission emerged, how it represented a “breathing space” that might allow the nation to avoid the perennial menace of a resurgence of strikes: “A week ago the atmosphere was highly charged, and there were all the signs of an approaching storm so devastating and so farspreading that none of the people would escape its eff ects. Today the air is clearer … [t]he danger of an industrial upheaval has not been removed; but … [t]he miners will have full scope for providing the justice and practicability of their claims at the inquiry of the Coal Industry Commission which opens today” (“Lull in Labour Strife,” Th e Times, March 3, 1919, 11). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 389

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘reconstructionist approach’ — the conciliatory response Mattei contrasts with later austerity — and the Sankey Commission itself.
• XREF: connects to: Britain’s 1919 cabinet conceded a commission under duress despite hostility to miners. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 389

Broader Connections

• Britain’s 1919 cabinet conceded a commission under duress despite hostility to miners. #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 389