BUNGLING ALLEGED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1386, 12 March 1912, Page 5

BUNGLING ALLEGED.

COAL CRISIS. LABOUR LEADER ATTACKS 0 AIR. ASQUITH. is >- GREAT STRIKE IN GERMANYy By Teleffraph—Press AESoclatlon-Oopyrlgul >' (Ree. March 11, 10.25 p.m.) ( l London, March 10. s Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, Leader of the n Labour party, speaking nt Redcliffe, said 0 Mr. Asquith had bungled the coal strike i, negotiations, and but for tho bungling a tho dispute would have been in tv fair way to settlement. Mr. Asqnith's first . foolish mistake was in asking tho miners 1 to accept compulsory arbitration. Then . he had said it was absurd to put the min--3 ers' schedule into his Bill, though nobody had asked him to do such a thing. . Mr. Asquith afterwards made a speech on , Thursday and published it on Friday, . though the other members of the confer- , once were pledged to secrecy. Instead of ! considering the miners' facts, proving that [ tho schedule was reasonable, the Premier again asked tho miners to meet the owners to discuss reductions. The miners replied "No," and henco the deadlock. Mr. Macdonald ndded that if the miners secured a minimum wago it would be only the first step to an adequate minimum wage in every trade. If the Government introduced a Bill which would hamper trades unions and lend to compulsory arbitration, tho Labour party would oppose it. ,' The strike would be finished through . sheer exhaustion before the Bill could bo , passed. MORE WORKS CLOSE. I BUSINESS STAGNATION INCREASES. • THOUSANDS THROWN IDLE. London, March 10. There is increased stagnation in business owing to the termination of a thousand notices yesterday. Lord Asliton's cotton mills havo closed until Thursday next. Six thousand workers are affected. Many woollen operatives in Colne Valt ley are idle, and 20,000 in the Colne Val- > ley and Hiiddersficld are on short time, j Messrs. Tangye's engineering works at . Birmingham will suspend operations on 1 "Wednesday next. This affects 3000 work- ; ers. j Many of the poorest workers in South x Wales are on the verge of starvation. [ These include miners, i There are a quarter of n million unem--1 ployed persons in South -Wales. 3 Among delegates to last week's confer- " once thero is expectation of. an early strike settlement. 1 I'ive thousand railway clerks on various - lines have received notices, with a promise 1 of reinstatement. !j The locomotive engineers' and firemen's e executive voted against a sympathetic I strike. \ LABOUR ADVICE'. • SOLUTION IN CO-OPERATION. r EARLY SETTLEMENT EXPECTED. ' London, March 10. \ , Mr. G. N. Barnes, Labour ■ M.P. for ■ the Blackfrinrs ri Division , Glasgow, . speaking nt Croydon, said tlin't having al--5 ready inflicted considerable loss on the ' community, and won n notable victorv | over capital, ho hoped tho miners would j not consider it necessary to inflict humilia- \ tion on Parliament. The final solution ■ lay in co-operation between the masters • and workers. I Mr. Will Crooks, Labour M.P. for . Woolwich, speaking-at Taunton, Somers set, stated that he had seen miners and owners before leaving London, and would ' not he-surprised if the strike was settled [ in another week. ' Lord Robert Cecil, speaking at Sclby, . advocated giving the workmen a share in • the profit and management of industries. ' (Rec. March 11, 10.25 p.m.) \ London, March 11. I Mr. G. N. Barnes, on being interviewed, ; said if tho coal strike lasted another , month tho engineers and other trade ' unions would bo in queer street. ' Mr. Keir Hardie, Labour M.P. for Merthj'r Tydvil, speaking at Aberavon, declared that the Hoiiso of Commons should pass a Bill repealing the wages agreament over tho whole of tho coal fields. That would bring a settlement within measureablo distance. SYNDICALISM. A PROPOSED DEMONSTRATION. London, March 10. Syndicalist members of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants are endeavouring to promote a Trafalgar Square demonstration of protest ngainst the executive's failure to interforo with regard to coal transportation by black-leg labour , —namely, by the troop 3. i Labour members of the House of Commons and the Miners' Federation disap- \ prove of the proposed demonstration. '. Guy Bowman and Benjamin Buch, printers, are being charged with pnblish- : ins treasonable matter in the "Syndical- ■ ist." GERMAN MINERS STRIKE. 220,000 MEN TO COME OUT. ANOTHER GREAT STRUGGLE. (Rec. March 12, 0.5 a.m.) Berlin, March 11. At a conference between tho so-called "triple, alliance" of Socialist Miners' ' Unions on the Ruhr coalfields, it was decided by 507 votes to 75 to strike to-day. The strike will involve 220,000 miners." The Government has notified its determination to use every means to protect willing workers. Tho strikers demand a 15 por cent, increaso in wnges, a shift of seven and a half hours from bunk to bank, instead of the present eight and a half hours. The miners also ask for <• seven-hour shift where tho temperature was over 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Thc;e demands would cost the owners ■£7,s')n,nnO, which would be equivalent to 1 mark 01 pfennig per ton of coal mined. The present profits average 1 mark per ton. The Catholic Evangelical Unions oppose the strike, and (lie Union of Christian Miners of the Ruhr, in a pamphlet, lie dare? that the slrike has no chance c,f siiccew, and will only be of advnntage to British industry,' find bring misery and want '.0 hundreds of thousands of miners' families. . NEWCASTLE CRISIS. A TEMPORARY TRUCE. FURTHER CONFERRXCK. Sydney, Mnich 11. Both sides concerned in the Newcastle coal rrifis have declared si. Irui-p and u temporary poMpoiK-mviif. of hostilities a? iho immediate r>?.-u|i of a propo.ml by (h<? chairman of llm Conoilintinn Cnnunitti-n j ;Mr. Chnrks Hihhl?. Hnf Mopsiti* from j each side should meet, mutually confer!

on tho position, and then report to the chairmnn. Tho proprietors agreed, and tho men eventually agreed conditionally on arrangements being made- to hold special urgent meetings of all lodges throughout the district. DELEGATES INSTRUCTED. (Rec. March 12, 1 a.m.) . Sydney, March 11. Miners' lodge meetings at the Stanford, Mcrthyr, Pelaw Main, Hepburn, East Greta, South Greta, and Cossuock collieries have adopted the. Delegate Board's minutes authorising n conference on the afternoon shift question, and have, appointed delegates to attend. The delegates wore instructed to favour an open conference, with an independent chairman, and taking only oral evidence. COAL-OWNERS PREPARED, (Rec. March 11, 9.25 p.m.) Sydney, Starch 11. The Newcastle coal-owners aro prepared for a strike. Many thousands of tons of coal aro stored in Sydney. It is rumoured that somo of the colliery proprietors will welcome a stoppage in order to cancel unprofitable contracts. COAL PROFITS AND WAGES, MINER!?' PLEA FOR a' LARGER. SHARE. Some interesting calculations on the relation between dividends and wages arc contained in a pamphlet "Profits and Wages in the Coal Trade," by Mr. Tom Richardson, M.1 , ., and Mr. Arthur Walbauk, F.C.A., which was published in England recently. Reviewing tho pamphlet in tho "Daily Mail," Mr. Charles Huguid, the well-knoivn financial writer, says: For tho purposes of a statistical comparison tho basis interest on capital is taken as 3 per cent., and tho basis wage as 19s. 9'd. per week. It is calculated that, taking the period from 1898 to 1910, the wage.s average 45 per cent, above the basis, while tho ordinary dividend avernges 220 per cent, over its basis. It may be remarked, however, in passing, that while it is admitted in tho pamphlet that the basis wage is that of tho highest-paid class of labour, the basis for the scrcener being only Us. 10! d. per week, a basis of 3 per cent, in tho case of coal milling investments seems ridiculous. The very highest class securities yield more than that. If coal mining investments never yielded more than .'I per cent, capital would hold aloof, the industry would, not exist, and there would bo no wages at all. The pamphlet gives interesting figures regarding two or three individual companies. It is shown, for instance, that tho Pearson and Knowles Coal Company employs 0117 men, to whom it pay's .£631,000, and that the shareholders number 11G0, and receive ,£39,088 in dividend. Tin's means about ,£G7 a year for each workman and about .-KM for each shareholder. The writers of the pamphlet, by counting the total profits .instead of the profits distributed to tho shareholders, make out that tho profit for the year for each shareholder is about .EG!); that rather more goes, therefore, to tho shareholder than to tho miner. In the case of tho Broomhill Collieries tho chairman stated that for tho year tho miner had had the lion's share, for out of every realised sovereign ho had received Is. Bd. more than in the previous twelvemonth, while capital had received less. The writers of the pamphlet retort that the chairman did not mention the amounts put to reserve for the benefit of tho. shareholders in that year, anil in preceding years, and then add that "it must not bo forgotten that the average dividend paid on tho ordinary shares for the ten years to 1910 is 3'j- per cent, after allowing for the fact that no dividends whatever were paid on these shares in 1903, 1901, 1905, 1900, and 1910." " NECESSITY FOR RESERVES. In such a retort as this, it may be pointed out, (he writers of the pamphlet ■remind tho public, apparently 'unwittingly, of a factor in the situation in support of the shareholders' case. A moment's consideration of the retort shotvs how necessary the reserves are, and that even with their aid tho shareholders may go on year after year receiving nothing nt all, although tun miner is receiving his regular wages ail the time. In concluding its discussion of tho financial aspect of the case the pamphlet thrown a flood of light on the situation. It points out that according to the latest available statistics the annual profits of mines assessed to income tax were J!16,614.322 and the number of miners employed was 997,708. It fakes its total profit of 11.8 per cent—already mentioned as profit including allowance for depreciation, and therefore too high a percentage—and calculates from those figures that "an average of about ss. a week can bo added to the miners' wages all round and still leave nn average return on tho total capital sunk in tho coal trade of nt least 3 por cent per annum." Of course, the pamphlet points out, every miner would not receive ss. a week more'; n large proportion would go in establishin'' the minimum wage. Obviously, even judging by this case for the men, the amount indicated is absurd, for to reduce the return ou capital sunk in coal mining to an average of 3 per cent would be impossible. As wo have already said, there would bo no capital for coal mining, and therefore, no wages for coal miners. But the next proposition of the Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants comes nearer the bounds of reason. His statistical calculation is that an average increase of about 2s. Gd. a weak in wages would merely absorb' undivided profits and leave the average return on ordinary share capital of the ninety-two companies dealt with at 9.G per cent. Of course undivided capital must not bo absorbed, the coal companies must have reserve; a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants would be the first to admit that. But an average return of 9.G per cent indicates that something might be done for the miner if it is necessary, even after providing for proper reserve funds. THE CASE OF THE CONSUMER. Finally onr pamphleteers, in their undoubtedly vahnblo contribution to tho controversy, offer some curious comfort to the coal consumer. They show that, according to official statistics, the average price of coal at the pit's mouth is Bs. u tun. The average consumer for domestic purposes tnking his coal direct from the colliery pays at. least 12s. Gd. for this. Tims they argue, with some cogency, the question of the cost of production is not allowed to enter into (he calculation which fixes the price for the consumer for domestic purposes. It does, as they show, enter into the calculation in tho price charged to other consumers. They aro big buyers, whereas (ho domestic consumer is only a certain buyer! He is one who is compelled to buy in a protected market. And as the cost of production does not enter into his price the establishment of a minimum wage would not alfect the domestic customer. So runs the argument—which, however is not to the effect that the domestic consumer would not have to pay more. It is cynically observed that if'in the protected market it bo considered expedient that tho domestic consumer shall l>3 charged more in connection with the fixing of a minimum wage he will be charged more; but tho minimum wage would have nothing to do with it, because he will lie charged more whether wnj;es are increased or decreased, if in the protected market it be considered expedient. CHARLES DVOUJD.