THE COAL CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

Shannon News, 25 May 1926, Page 2

THE COAL CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

W.E.A. LECTURE. About 50 people were prase At at ilie Century Hall last 'evening when a lecture was given, under the auspices of the W.E.A., by -Mr D. O. Williams, M.A., F.E.S., lecturer m Economics at Victoria University College, Wellington. ' Mr P: W. Goldsmith presided. Mr Williams said the aim of the lecture was not to make a case in favour of any particular point of view, but >in conformity with the principles of the W.E.A. to* present such facts as will enable independent judgments to he fanned. To do this it is necessary to cast our net somei what wider thaai the immediate mattea’s that led up to the present trouble and to learn something of the significance and history of. the coal industry in Great Britain.

It was the. early discovery of industrial use of coal in England that launched her on her career of industrial greatness. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance to England of her vast stores of good, accessible coal. On the basis of cheap and abundant, coal England could make cheap machines, locomotives, steamers, etc., and she thus became the world’s workshop and forge. With cheap coal she could run her steamers cheaply and since no steamer lacked a freight owing ho demand for coal from overseas freight rates were low. She thus became .the world’s carrier as well as the world’s workshop. Goal was king in the nineteenth century and most, of the great industries were .his willing, subjects. With cheap coal the great industries of England , can flourish; with dear coal they are in danger of eclipse. The importance of coal may be measured in terms of England’s industrial eminence.

In this industry of prime importance—this industry upon which England built her industrial and maritime supremacy—what were the conditions of those who hewed and hauled the black diamonds for her? The present dispute has its origin and its strength in over a century ;of misery on the part of the workers. The lecturer then traced the history of the workers’ efforts towards escape from the hruitalising and inhuman conditions which were characteristic of their lives and work in the earlier part of last century. They have gained much if we compare their present condition with that of a century ago; but these earlier conditions ware so distressingly bad that even bare subsistence would appear wonderful in comparison. They live now, many of them, in a state that is a disgrace to O'ur cherished civilisation. While many of .them earn What are ca!!<d “good” wages, many others are 'on the bare level of subsistence; and the work remains amongst the most arduous and dangeroits in the world. Can it be wondered at that they cling wijh a grim tenacity to such gains as they have been able to achieve, particularly when they see clearlythat there' is a. vast difference' between the lot of the man who gets the coal and the lot of him .who gets the profits? That the fundamentally .greatest of' England’s industries should 'Offer so little to its workers must appeal to men as being singularly strange and inequitable. The crux of the present trouble is the price of coal which, is too low to make the .industry pay with its present costs of production; costs are too high and prices are too low. The low prices are due to an increasing world production'in conjunction with a decreasing world consumption. The high costs of -production are due partly to the fact that England has mined much of her moist accessible coal;' many of her mines are old; many are very deep. Goal obtained under such difficult conditions nevertheless has to compete in the world’s markets with coal produced from better economic soiurces as In Germany and the U.S.A. These particular difficulties cannot be put to the blame' of anyone, so that to a certain extent the present trouble is the result of forces over which no individual or group of individuals has, or could have, any effective control.

But in addition, high costs of production in England are due to defective 'methods of production, transport and selling. There appears to have been an extraordinary reluctance on the part of the owners to introduce scientific technique and methods or to fake advantage of the methods' of large scale organisation so folly developed in oilier industries. To the •xtentt that the trouble is due to internal causes, the blame is put almost wholly on the owners. The workers are almost unreservedly defended by the Commission from illinformed charges made against them. The case lor drastic reorganisation was clear; but in ilio meantime tire workers were asked to suffer a foduotion of earnings in the higher paid groups, and the subsidy was to he discontinued. There was a hitter pill for each party; for the state in the recommendation that it nationalise the minerals; for the owners in the suggestions fotr (reorganisation; and for the workers in the cut in wages. The attitude of the workers to these pills is that they have swallowed all so far, that it is unfair to prescribe still another and that the owners will probably escape their medicine just as they have evaded it before. The opinion is undoubtedly forced upon us that these urgently needed reforms in the organisation of the industry will have to be forced on a reluctant industry by a very determined government. If the State fails now to. redeem its promises in this direction it will forfeit the respect and honour of the people. Moreover the State as guardian of

the people has to rehabilitate itself in their eyes, and has to repair the defects of a policy which apparently offers no better immediate prospect than,, a lowering of the standard ot life of a section of its workers. No nation can build permanent economic success on the basis of a depressed standard,, of life, j If this suggested lowering of the miners’ standard must come about to meet the exigencies of the moment, it should be a charge upon the State to see that it is temporary only and that with returning prosperity to the industry, a higher standard should be given to the miners as their right and that a= the fruits of industrial war. Many questions were asked at the conclusion of the lecture, and on the motion tof Mr H. McAllister, who stated that as a bov he had worked for eight years in a Scottish coalmine and could speak iroin experience of the difficulties of a miners life, a hearty vote of thanks .was passed to the lecturer.