LABOUR ON THE RAND.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1825, 11 August 1913, Page 6

LABOUR ON THE RAND.

The trouble with tho militant mino workers on tho ltand and other unions federated therewith is by no means ended. There is an element amongst the leaders of the agitation which is bent on mischief-making, and at any suitable moment there may be a recurrence of serious trouble. Many charges have been directed against the mine-owners, or magnates, of tho Rand. It is probably true that they are blameworthy for some of the ills which afflict a proportion of their thousands of employees; but that they are altogether indifferent to the health and tho fate of their workmen is a charge which has yet to be. substantiated. Viewing the present situation from the hard, business, and unsentimental view, it must, bo evident that many accidents and 'an excessive mortality are strongly antagonistic to the financial welfaro of the mine-owners themselves.' A high percentage of accidcnts, the prevalence of disease, and deaths from miners' phthisis seem to be considered in some quarters as the real reasons for a general strike, not only among the miners of the Rand, but also on the part of the Government railway servants. Accidents, disease, and death are possibly the most powerful, being the most, affecting, of all arguments that can be employed in favour of considering, and of ameliorating, the condition of any, and all, classes of workmen. But being thus powerful, their use should lie free from tho devices of exaggeration and inaccuracy. At this distance from the scenes of tho strife it is scarcely possible to weigh with nicety every claim and every charge made on behalf of tho. Rand workers by their paid officials and spokesmen. Nor is it necessary to accept as Gospeltruth every statement which emanates from directors and mine-man-agers, issued, or .uttered on behalf of the so-called magnates. On the Transvaal goldfields a Workmen's Compensation Act is in force, likewise a Miners' Phthisis Act. i Under the provisions of these measures for all accidents and all deaths on the mines compensation must be paid by the mine-owners. The Union Government is not over-lavish in its publication of official hand-books, and considerable research is frequently called for in newspaper files to secure the latest reliable information bearing on South Africa. It seems, however, that when a native dies from a mining accident, £10 compensation, at all events less than two years ago, was payable by tho employers. General Shuts, Minister of the Interior, then speaking in the Union House of Assembly, favoured double this amount being paid. In tho ease of _ miners phthisis appearing, the white workmen affected received compensation to tho extent of £250, and should this disease be in conjunction with tuberculosis of the lungs or respiratory organs, the sum of £500. with respect to accidents, no ono can question the faot that on' the Rand they are abnormally numerous. Compared with English mines, for example, the Transvaal's deathrate per thousand employees, through accidcnts alone,-appears to be more than double. Thus for the year 1311 the death-rate in England was 1.91 per thousand, and, in the Transvaal, 4.29 per 1000. Fortunately, for the purposes of allocating the blame, this very subject was discussed, not many months ago, by the Chemical, Metallurgical, and Mining Society of Johannesburg. The members of that socicty were not merely content to tabulate tho list of accidents and indulge in more or less vague generalities. They proceeded to investigate what had led to the extensive casualty list, and that with full scientific rigour and precision. A period of seven ycar6 was covered, and the results wcro almost as surprising as the yearly totals. For tho year 1903 they found that, in every hundred accidents, 50.98 had been specifically due to the inherent danger of the mining operations: 34.82 to the personal carelessness of tho miners: 4.35 to defective plant; and 9.85 to causes others than these stated. For the year 1910, the accidcnts caused by defective plant had been reduced to .87, and those due to workmen's carelessness to 22.35, while from inherent dangers the percentage had risen to 69.22. For defective plant tho mine-owners may be held responsible, but they cannot be saddled with the results of the workers' perso'nal carelessness. The inherent danger item remain's heavy; but, for it, neither tho men nor the magnates can be blamed. The high mortality of Rand nativo workmen has been the subject of interminable discussion, it being impossible, apparently, to reach unanimity with regard to its real causes. For these numerous deaths the Labour leaders evidently would hold the magnates as solely culpable. In face of the investigations with which we have just dealt, com-, bined with the compensation which has to be paid, it is hard to believe that the mine-owners are callous on this subject. In the one breath, the Labour agitators represent the mineowners as animated merely by greed of gain, and,' in the next, pour obloquy upon them for causing deaths, each of which necessitates tho payment of compensation claims.

With reference to disease, ■ the truth scorns to bo that tho South. African natives are widely and dangerously affected with tuberculosis, and that, on the mines, they are peculiarly liable to pneumonia. Nor is it difficult to adduce perfectly trustworthy evidence with respect to the two maladies, and evidence free from the possL.c reproach of having been tampered with for personal or political purposes. Thcro is in

existence the South African Health Society, which was founded some four years ago at Lovcdale, in the Capo Province. From the recoras of a recent congress held in eonnec-, tion with that society, we extract the following sentences, which bear strongly on this subject: — Mr. MucVicar, in tlio course of his presidential address, gave fctntistica regarding tho spread of consumption among natives in 35 towns in tho Capo Province, and said the mortality from consumption amounted to 14 whites and 72 natives per ten thousand, in 52 villages tho native mortality amounted to 58 per ten "thousand, in the country districts of the Western Province tho coloured mortality was 50 to 70, o.r.d in the Eastern Province 30 to 40 per ten thousand. [I'llo native lints and conditions obtaining in the 'town locations were largely responsible for the spread of consumption and bettor housing was necessary for health and morals. The different issues which may be raised by the Hand Labour leaders in their attack on the mine-owners, it will be readily realised, are capable of being given a highly contentious and extremely virulent form.