MINERS TO OWN COAL MINES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 299, 13 September 1919, Page 8

MINERS TO OWN COAL MINES

Sir,-Host of the dairy factories are owned bv the farmer suppliers, and aie capably managed by directorates e.ected from and by the shareholder «»pplw«In making the suggestion that ft solution of tho coal trouble might be iound a ong tho above lines it is only proposed that the successful sy.-tenu of small oivneisiiip in land might, with advantage, ba extended to our coal mines, as both the farmer and the miner me engaged *iu primary production. The great difficulty would, of course, be finance, and it is suggested that the dairy factory system might lie applied to the coal'mints. It is known;that many of the most succc?sful ujuvj iunus have been started on very largo sums of borrowed capital, by means of co-op-eration. A bank is.found (o advance money for-the election of the factory, and sume of the factories even limuicu the suppliers to purchase the cows, the macli-

inery for the farm, and secure themselves by payments deducted lrom _ ths batter-fat supplied to the lacluiy. .Many men have got a start in some =uc!i way, and are liuw succcssiul and . independent men, and our dairy lactones centres ol prosperous communities, a.id we.have yet io hear of a "sirikt''' or "gu-olow" policy in connection with any of tnesa w-upcratiYe dairy lactones. Would it not be possible to have somo such system at our coal Inincs? 'Lite coal owners have clearly shown tiiat the business is not a pruiiiable one. As a solution of tlie ihliieuiiy it is proposed tiiat tae mines be paiv'uasud, .-ay, by weans of tae Albania 10 Settlers' (Juice at a reasonable valuation. The - mints' should then bo sold to tue miners 011 a sysleni that would ajiow iuch working miner and employee at tlie mines to, hold a proportion 01 the shares inutuy dairv lactones confine the slure list to suppliers), tue interest and sinking fund to purcnase same being deducted irom the coal carniiigs (dairy lactories deduct from butter-tut; so mat in a snorv spato of time, dependent 011 tho indiviuuul energy mid earnings of each man, tlw mines would become tlie Vctual property 01 tlie workers, ' Supplier snareholders in dairy factoi'iLa manage tneir own business, elect directors arid chairman, employ manager, secretary, etc., many 01 aro ulso suppliers ot tho factory as well. Tlie - directorate buys and sells, and controls the business of tue laclory,. and does same usually most c:e<utabiy. Tliere should be 110 difficulty in applying the same syswm lo tiie coal mines. As the Stale would have, to advance tho whole of the money at ii.st, it would bo uecessary to secure the repaymenta by some method of lien 011 tlie coal output (some such arrangement is made by butter factories over the butter when neces--sary). In all other, respects tlie minors would control the /mine. Hours of labour, dwellings, rates ot pay, subject, of course, to two, Alining Act, for general surety. Tito difference between this proposal and Stato ownership is this: tinder State ownership the miner says he only changes from one boss no anotuer, ;,-hicn is true, and tho Stato as a boss is not a success either from the point of the Stato employee or too State concerned. Tho same old irritation remains, and tho sumo constant desire to amend the bargain. If tiie miners can run the mine amt eventually own it,.they will do so as our <Siiry factories are- run, with almost an -entire abscnce of friction, each feeling that under co-operation what is good for all must bo also good for tho lmuvidual. There is much more to be said; a great deal of detail to be filled in, but nope , the idea is clearly. given. _ it is made with tiie wish that those in our mines may become as contented, as free, and as prosperous as those who earn their living 011 tue surface of this country by cultivation of its soil and extraction Of it} products.—l am, etc., .BUTTER-FAT,