WHAT SYNDICALISM DID.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2012, 20 March 1914, Page 10

WHAT SYNDICALISM DID.

FOR THE WELSH WORKERS.

In- the last five years, during which the trade had tocii more than usually prosperous, the' arfloailt distributod' in dividends to ordinary shareholders .in ■South Wales ce-Hieries- was only about 8 pel- cent, of the amount paid in wages tq the colliery workmen., said Mr. D. A, Thomas,'the "Labour leader, in'a recent speech on the position of the coal trade. Moreover, the total amount paid in. dividends to shareholders ffivo had risked their capital, in .'what ivas..essentially ft'' hazardous. enterprise aliiostuted only to about a. soveuth of tho inereased earnings received, by the workmen during tho past twenty-seven years. Dealing with the movement, Mr. Thomas characterised the- local leaders qf that movement as a suspicions and shallow-iftimdtd body of men. As he had "been severely attacked by them, ho ■contrasted some of tho results of his notions with theirs since 1007, when the .Cambrian Combine- acquired the Glamorgan Collieries. .

' Tho population of the district in wh.k;h the Cambrian Coftibino Collieries was situated, 'and which had about a third of the inhabitants in this admitiistratiyc area of the. Rhojidda Urban District Co-uucil, had increased by over, 22 per cent. The number of wor-kinen cmployed m tlie four eombined collieries hacl grown from 10,500 to over 12,700, or by about *2l' pet c'eirt., ' and' tho amount of wages'paid at those colliericu had increased by tnoro than 25 per eeat. The Coffifaine's annual wage bill amounted to "about £1,250,000, and since ISO 7 the average weekly earnings, of every man and boy eniployod above and below ground had increased'from 375..5 d. to 42a. The increase in the. average wage had not been accompanied by a proportionate mcreasß in the efficiency of the workman. / On' the contrary, and ni spitei of an. additional capital expenditure of 5370.000, tho pioduetioli po? Workman, owing partly -to legislation and .partly to less energy on the part of tho workmen, had decreased appreciably, for the total, output.of the eoi-ii-hiitod collieries had grown only 7 per rent. The result had been a oa-nsid-urabiy augmented cost of production, and'as an ultimate consequence higher' prifce to the consumer.

Those wow sotne of the results achieved by capital, What, on ths othor •hand, had the Syndicalists done? They ; had engineered' a strike which lasted | twelve months, and cost, the Cambrian .Combine workmen, nearly a million it I wanes, had entirely depleted the coffers ! of the South Wales Miners' Federation, : and in the cmd the workmen had returned to work on Hie tersis tlicy had 1 when they left it. ' Then camo the national strilw, in which the Cambrian. 'Combine workmen alone lost another£l2s,ooo. Ho estimated that it would | take, the- workmen ten years to recoup ! themselves for that loss out of the- in« creases they had obtained under tho Miiiitmim Wa,{ro Act.._ Further ~eoi.n* ment than that implied in this simple statement of facts on tlia futility of the policy of the Syndicalists was' Unnecessary. He declared as it sound economic proposition that he individually—and the,- samo might; be said of any large colliery owner—had doiso more to improve tho material condition' of ' the workmen mid to provide means of snl>> sistence .For their wives and families : iliou all the minors' leaders together j had done or iverc likely to d<i, i