EDITORIAL PAGE Desperate measures

It is sad to watch one of the country’s great mines, now fallen on hard times, become the battleground for a bitter labor dispute that threatens to prove tragic. The Dome gold mine in South Porcupine has outlasted the mighty Hollinger and the McIntyre, two other great Timmins gold mines. It may yet have many good years ahead. But these days it needs help, not just from astute miners and managers, but from the price of gold, too.

So it is difficult to watch as a labor dispute idles this remarkably productive operation. And as that labor dispute drags on, the feelings of bitterness that inevitably accompany a protracted dispute mar mine’s twilight years.

It is an indication, perhaps, of how desperate things are that a bomb was recently discovered that, if it had been detonated, could have crippled the mine altogether.

There’s no indication who planted the bomb, but desperate measures of this nature serve no purpose. They certainly won’t hasten a settlement.

It may seem like a lark to whoever is responsible, but four sticks of dynamite could lead to tragedy that can never be undone. No labor dispute can justify that.