COAL TRADE CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 202, 23 February 1912, Page 5

COAL TRADE CRISIS.

. GLASGOW STRIKE DECISION. THE MINERS' DEMANDS. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright London, February 21. Lord Mersey, who arbitrated in the Glasgow dockers' dispute, has decided in favor of the masters. The coalowners and miners have accepted Mr. Asquith's invitation for separate conferences with some members of the Cabinet. The executive of the International Miners' Federation discussed sympathetic aetion by French and Belgian delegates, and promised active co-operation. Many British collieries are barricading the. pits, and some have engaged exsoldiers to guard their properties, particularly the stores of coal.

The English miners have replied to the masters' offer, and demand the following minimum wage for coalgetters: Yorkshire 7s 6d, Lancashire 7s, Midlands 6s to 7s, Derbyshire 7s iy„d to 7s fid; the minimum for other than adults, ss. They refuse the proposal that wages should not be -changed for two years, but are willing to establish committees to secure the fair working of the scheme.

SOUTH WALES MINERS. ' "NO OTHER COURSE THAN STRIKE,' Received 23, 12.45 a.m. . London, February 22. Mr. Thomas says, the South Wales owners have made up their minds [against a postponement of the strike. The negotiations will proceed as well with the pits stopped as working. The only service required of \he Government will be to preserve order and protect property. Mr. Hartshorn, who is the guiding spirit of the miners, speaking at Maes-' tog, said the miners could not be' beaten. No leader could approve of any other course than a strike without being guilty of treachery. Sir E. Grey, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. S. Buxton, and Sir G. Askwith will attend with the Premier at the coal conferences.

•'THE ARBITRAMENT OF FORCE." Received 23, 12.45 a.m. London, February 22. Mr. F. Smith, at Ramsgate, said all sections will support the Government in any well considered efforts to prevent the arbitrament of force in connection with the impending coal strike. If the Premier introduced reform of the House; of Lords this session he would be defeated, lacking a majority in favor of the measure. A NATIONAL CATASTROPHE. BREAKING POINT ON MARCH 1. London, January 13. If ;- i' I 'i fr. ■\cv that the country is now threatened with a new and grave peril in the shape of a coal strike. March 1 is the date given by the men before which ••the employers must concede their demands on the minimum wage question. The owners emphatically «ont<>ml that the S.»uth Wales agreement of lfllO has three .nore years to run, and that it prevents any such demand being made.

Bv the side of a eoal strike the industrial troubles of last year—dockers and railwaymen—are. trifling. Over a million colliers will stop work at once, hundreds of thousands in other industries will be forced into idleness, and the commercial life of the country will be at a standstill in a few weeks after March 1. The men apparently are ignoring the advice of their older leaders, and there is no disposition to refer the matter to arbitration, though, in his respect, the attitude of the masters is not hopeful. Sir George Aakwith, the peace maker, is now negotiating in the cottom and weaving dispute in Lancashire, where the unionists refuse to work with non-union-ists, and for some months now he has no sooner settled one dispute than he has been called in as arbitrator in another. One wonders what has become of the Industrial Arbitration Council, whiVh the Government appointed some months back.

INDUSTRIES PARALYSED. A well-informed correspondent paints a gloomy picture. He says: "I harespent some days in the North of England, and I have no hesitation in saying that the answer of the miners will be praetically unanimous in favor of a national strike. This is the opinion of every man who should know what the colliers' are thinking and talking about." The colliers are being asked: ''Are you in fivor of giving notice to establish the principle of a minimum wage for every man and boy wosking underground in the mines of Great Britain V The result will be declared next week, and the latest date at which any coal mine will be working will be March 1. WHAT THE MINERS DEMAND.

The miners are asking that every man who goes down a mine shall be guaranteed a minimum wage. Miners work ky piecework, and consequently this demand is for pay irrespective of the amount of coal got by the miner. At first the demand was for some method of securing a wage for a miner working in a place where, owing to a geological fault, or a bad roof, or bad coal, he could not earn ft day's pay at the ordinary rate paid for hewing. That was matter for negotiation, and there is no doubt that some such arrangement might have been secured by negotiation. But this policy did »ot suit the newer men who have lately come to the front on the councils of tne Miners' Federation. They have been carried off their feet by the wave of 'syndicalism' which has been passing over the country during the past few months. They wanted a general stoppage and they have succeeded in involving the question of payment for abnormal places in the wider question of a national minimum wage for all men. The consequence of a national coal strike would be so disastrous that one can scarcely paint them in too dark colors. It is estimated that one month would completely exhaust every ton of available coal.

calamitously throughout the whole of the country that I do not think it could possibly last longer than three or four days. Colliery managers tell us that the chief centres of unrest are South Wales and Northumberland, while the Midland collieries are perfectly satisfied with their present conditions. But the strike once declared, all would, of course, follow suit."

Coal stocks for household cannot at any time, owing to the limited facilities available for storage purposes in London, be very large. At the present rate of consumption stocks in London would not last more than a week. If a strike were declared there would be an immediate advance of 2s to 3s per ton all round, and if it lasted more than a week or so it would be practically impossible to quote prices at all, as there would be no coal to sell. General prices are higher at the moment than at the corresponding period of last year. They, show an increase of about Is per ton "on all grades. This increase was primarily due to the enormous demand in October last consequent upon the threatened strike, and the fear of a strike has kept prices up ever since, combined with the fact that trade generally has .been exceedingly good.