The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1919. THE MINING DEADLOCK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 174, 17 April 1919, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1919. THE MINING DEADLOCK

No one who lias followed the recent course of events in the coal mining industry in this country will feel surprised at the action just taken by the Mine Owners'- Association. The position reached is an unpleasant one for all concerned. It is particularly unpleasant from the point of view of the public, who are denied adequate supplies of coal at the time when these are most needed, and can hardly afford much satisfaction even to those who are responsible for bringing id about. An apparent deadlock has arisen, not by the failure of the parties engaged in the industry to conclude an agreement in regard to wages and working conditions, but because an agreement between the Mine Owners' Association and the Miners' Federation entered into as recently' as last September has been persistently flouted and disregarded by certain groups of miners. Facts which are not in dispute speak for themselves. The 'September agreement provided for the payment of an increased bonus to miners and that otherwise existing conditions should remain in force until six months after the declaration of peace. It provided also that a dispute arising at any mine should be referred in the first instance to a District Disputes Committee, and, failing a settlement there, to a National Disputes Committee. In practice, bo far as a number of mines are concerned, this agreement has proved to be not worth the paper it is written on. For a considerable timo past there has been an almost unbroken succession of disputes at one mine or another in connection with which tlife miners, instead of submitting their case- to a District Disputes Committee, or the Na- ' tional Disputes Committee, have stopped work or adopted "go slow" I tactics. In the- circumstances the Mine Owners' Association is obviously well within its rights in finally demanding that the executive of the Miners' Federation should carry out its : undertakings. The Federation executive clearly is bound either to secure forthwith the honourable observance of the agreement it entered into on behalf of the miners or to make one of two admissions. Failing enforcement of the conditions agreed upon it must admit either that it is unable to speak and act for the miners with authority, or that it is deliberately conniving at the violation of the agreement which it made ostensibly iu good faith.

The existing state of affairs is intolcrablß and cannot be cleared up too speedily, A firm settlement is demanded, as a matter not only- of justice and common honesty between miners and their employers, but of vital public concern. The overshadowing fact so far as the general public is concerned is that the coal nlining industry is at present being carried on under such conditions as to create and maintain an artificial scarcity of a commodity, adequate supplies of which are essential to public health, welfare, and comfort. To appearance, the mine owners of the Dominion are only too anxious to produce find market all necessary supplies of coal, That they arc not permitted to do so is not thoir own grievance only, I)ut that of the whole population of (ho Dominion, including all the wageearnors vho arc not miners bent on cutting down production. No really comprehensive figures in reeard to the recent reduction of output from tho coal mines are available, and' the controversy conducted towards the end of last year by the mine owners and the Miners' Federation tended in some respects rather to obscure than to illuminate the facts. Tho Mine Owners' Association, however, pointed out on that occasion that the official returns of the Mines De-

partment showed the position to be as follows— 1916—Output, 2,257,135 tons; persons employed, 3000; average output per person employed underground, 750 tons. 1917—Output, 2.068,119 tons; persons employed underground, 2893; average output per person, employed underground, 715 tons. This shows (the association added) that fur 1917 the average output per person employed underground in tho coal mines of the Dominion was 35 tons less than for 1916, which means that if the output of 1916 per person underground had been maintained, the output for 1917 would have been 101,215 tone greater than it actually was. Statistics apart, the existing state of affairs is made fully evident in the' extreme difficulty which is experienced locally, and in many other parts of the Dominion, in obtaining supplies of coal, and in the 'apparent likelihood that supplies will be far from adequate during the winter. The tactics lately pursued by the miners at certain mines, of course, must result in a serious reduction of the supplies that otherwise would have been available.

It !,'oes without saying that, tho sequel to the step now taken by tho Mine Owners' Association will he awaited with intense interest. The miners are bound to recognise' that the issue raised is as far as possible from coneerningonly themselves and their employers. The immediate charge laid at their door is that they have persistently violated an honourable agreement or permitted it to be violated by sections of their organisation. But tho larger question is raised .also whether they arc prepared, under the guise of industrial strife, to persist in wantonly inflicting serious injustice and hardship upon the whole community. If the miners in defiance of reason and regardless of fair dealing persist in this recklessly antisocial policv, the community of course will be driven to take whatever measures are necessary for its own protection. Even now, however, it should not be too late to hope that counsels of reason may prevail. The minors have nothing to gain and everything to lose by declaring war on the rest of the population. It is wholly' in their interest to produce, the greatest nutput of coal consistent, with satisfactory working conditions. The tactics which have nrovoked the protest of the associated mine owners can only tend to bring about conditions as ruinous to working miners as to their employers and the rest of the population. As an attempt, to ar insufferable state of affairs definitely to a hpad the action of the Mine Owners' Association is to be welcomed.