The Dominion FRIDAY, APRIL l5, 1921. THE BRITISH MINING CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 171, 15 April 1921, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, APRIL l5, 1921. THE BRITISH MINING CRISIS

The hopes of an early settlement of the British coal strike, which were raised at the beginning oi this week have been disappointed, and an extension of the trouble is again imminently threatened, workers engaged in other industries in the United Kingdom will show an extraordinary want of common sense, however, if they support the miners in their present stjvnd. inc deadlock now reported is due to the refusal of the miners to modify their demand for the establishment of a national pool in the coal industry, and no one can examine this demand impartially . without suspecting that the real aim of its authors is not to promote a satisfactory adjustment, but to tlie industry unworkable. The miners, or their leaders, propose that the whole industry should be treated as one financial unit, profits and losses being pooled. Under this arrangement, not only would the miners receive a standard minimum wage, but all mine o w nci'B and shareholders in colliery undertakings would receive a standard rate of- profit on their capital—assuming (always that any profit was earned. This assumption takes a good deal for granted. In its most recent operation, the industry has been- conducted at a loss ranging, in different districts, from a shilling or two to £1 per , ton of coal raised, and the establishment of a national pool would certainly oppose new and formidable obstacles to placing the industry on a paying basis. If the pool were established, large and small shareholders in mining companies which possess good and well-managed properties would be called upon to recoup the losses of concerns less fortunately placed. In other words, the minors propose a gigantic robbery. This aspect of the matter may be appreciated by considering whgt would happen if the miners Were asked to pool their Savings Bank accounts. Even if no question of property rights were raised, however, the pooling proposal would still have to >bc opposed on the ground that its adoption would wreck the industry. The results that would follow inevitably from treating the industry as one financial unit were effectively stated some weeks ago by Mr. Evax Williams, president-, of the British Mining Association : Where (ho asked) is the incentive to the, individual to manage his colliery efficiently so as to produce the greatest .output at tho lowest possible cost, to improve methods of working by introducing machinery, and to expend capital to get the best results if he knows that in. the event of a- loss it will be made up, and if he makes more than a. certain profit it will be taken from him? It is ji*st as if Ihe miner who ear/is more than the minimum wage had to contribute to make up the wage of those below tho minimum,., . W'hat output) do you think we should get on. that principle? What would the coal cost to got, and what would the home consumer have to pay? What chance would we have of competing with other countries, regaining our foreign markets, and working up again the export trade which is so .essential to the life of the nation? Industry would die and the community would starve.

This is by no means an overdrawn statement of the results to be expected in conditions which would abolish every incentive to enterprise and efficient management, but the miners appear to be quite indifferent to such considerations. In order to arrive at a full understanding of the present crisis it is necessary to remember that the, miners struck in the first instance against a reduction of wages. Although the issue at the m/ment is national or district control, their position on the wages question is presumably unchanged. Assuming so much, it follows that they arc not only attempting to reduce the industry, by the establishment of a national pool, to the lowest level of working efficiency, but are demanding that in these conditions it should pay wages which were only possible while export and bunker coal commanded prices they are unlikely to command again, at least for many years to come., It is not for a moment in doubt that if the industry were pooled, aind wages and prices remained on 'anything like their present basis, the recent deficit of more than two millions a week on the operation of the industry would be heavily increased. The really vital question raised, therefore, concerns the source of the wages the minors are demanding. Since the coal industry cannot, provide these wages, where arc they to come from 1 To the miners’ leaders this question presents no difficulty. Dealing with the matter at the, end of February. Mr. Hodges, secretary of the Miners’ Federation,

suggeslod that the only way by which the [coal] industry could be revived was bytreating the coat trade as a. national asset, coal being sold at lessjlmn cost, and tlw difference between ■ cost and price being paid by Government gratuity to-owners and workmen until, such time ns the industry was thoroughly restored. A reduction of 20s. per ton in coal would reduce the price of finished stool by £4 a ton.

The Government, of course, could only obifain 'the “gratuity” Mr. Hodges suggests by taxation, and the taxable wealth of a country is produced by its industries. What the Federation secretary proposes, therefore, is that other British, industries should be taxed in order to pay a considerable proportion of the wages bill in the mining industry—a proportion, too,, which would increase rapidly if the miners achieved their aim of establishing a national pool. The reference' Mr. Hodges makes Ito the Imaring of coal prices on the production of steel is a choice example of an argument turned upside down. Since the policy of the miners is di’rcctly calculated to raise'the price of coal to a maximum, what he should have said is that an increase of 20s. per ton to the price of coal would increase the price of steel by £4 a ton. Under the policy from which the British miners arc .now refusing .to recede, £he highest possible price would He, extorted from users of coal at home and abroad, of course with disastrously strangling effect on British industries and trade, and at the same time industries other than mining would tie taxed to meet the expanding deficit which even in these circumstances would be incurred in the operation of the coal industry. It is in support of this policy that the “Triple Alliance.” has decided to call a strike of its members to-day. The call

would be treated with derision if the workers concerned wore guided by the merits of the case, either broadly or with an eye to their own elementary interests.