634

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

March 20, 1914.

better insight into the effect of atmospheric con-
ditions upon labour in mines. Future generations of
mining engineers will probably place a high evalua-
tion upon the services of men like Dr. Haldane. If
the mining engineer and the scientific investigator
are now sometimes at variance, it is largely because
they are apt to attach different values to facts when
established ; the practical man, whilst admitting that
an occupation such as mining contains hidden
elements of danger, contends that many of these
dangers may be dealt with as they arise, and that no
useful purpose is served in anticipating remote
contingencies. When the time comes, they like to
review all the circumstances. But there are certain
dangers that do not disclose themselves until the day
for prevention has passed. Had the mineowners
of Austria, Germany and Belgium known as much
about ankylostomiasis as they now do, the proba-
bility is that the serious epidemic that visited those
countries a few years ago would never have occurred.
There are other dangers in the same category, and
silicosis is one of them. It is, therefore, a matter of
practical wisdom and humanity to welcome the help
of those who are equipped to deal with such
problems. Otherwise, the work of the technical
universities will be thrown away.

The position in regard to the wages
The Wages dispute in South Yorkshire remains
Dispute in practically unaltered, and it is not
Yorkshire, easy to see how either side can be
brought to the point of view of the
other, so divergent are the interpretations placed
upon Sir Edward Clarke’s award of January 30
last.

To the plain man the position seems to be quite
simple. When Sir Edward Clarke, in May 1912,
fixed the original minimum wage at 6s. 9d. per day
for hewers, he had regard to the existing basis rate
of 50 per cent, above the 1888 standard. Since then
the standard has increased by three successive incre-
ments of 5 per cent, to 65 per cent, above the 1888
rate. These increments were duly added to the
minimum wage, raising it ultimately by 7-Ad. per day
to 7s. 4|d. This is where it stood when Sir Edward
Clarke reviewed the position in January last, and
his award of 7s. 3d. per day as the new minimum
rate of wages may reasonably be held to include the
new conditions that had arisen since his first award
in 1912. Otherwise, why was the minimum wage
increased at all ? That being so, it would appear to
be perfectly intelligible' that the South Yorkshire
coalowners should regard this as a new starting point,
from which any future changes in rates of wages
will be calculated. If and when there is another
5 per cent, increment it will be added to the existing
minimum. But if the standard rate should fall to,
say, 60 per cent, above the 1888 rate, the colliers are
by this award secured against a corresponding
reduction in the minimum rate, unless a new award
can be obtained embodying this reduction.

The miners, however, appear to want it both ways.
Having secured a higher minimum, embodying the
three advances in wages made since May 1912, they
now want these advances to be added again. We
cannot see the justice of this contention. It appears
to us to stultify the whole principle of the Minimum
Wage Act. What can be the purpose of reviewing
the minimum wage, and making a fresh award, if it
is not to adjust this wage to the existing conditions ?
The miners appear to think that Sir Edward Clarke
has merely revised the basic conditions of 1912.
Such a conclusion would be to say that he made an
error amounting to 6d. a day in fixing 6s. 9d. in
1912. The fact is, that wages having improved by
7jd. in the meantime, Sir Edward has taken 6d. of
this as a minimum increase secured to miners by the
Act, and the coalowners have generously conceded
the remaining l^d. in cases where the actual wage
would suffer to that extent by the new award.

We think a confusion of ideas exists as to the
terms “ minimum wage” and 4 4 standard rate.” When
coal prices advance the collier can get more by means
of the Conciliation Board machinery. A revision of
minimum wage rates is quite a different thing. The
men seem to want to place it on the same plane as a
rise in standard rates. They complain that a man

who earned 7s. 3d. on the old minimum wage gets
no advance at all on the new. Why should he ? He
can only be really entitled to an advance when
standard rates advance from 65 to 70 per cent, above
the 1888 rates.

The present position is a striking example of
difficulties which have been created by the Minimum
Wage Act. The men apparently hold to the extra-
ordinary view that a miner who was entitled to
7s. 4^d. on January 29 last became, by virtue of
Sir Edward Clarke’s award, entitled to 7s. 10|d.—
a 15 per cent, increase—on January 30. This would
be approximately equivalent to a standard 80 per
cent, above the 1888 rate. This dispute only con-
firms the view we have always taken, that the
supreme test of the Minimum Wage Act would not
arise until trade declined. Up to the present the
majority of the men have been under no necessity
to invoke the Act, because their earnings have been
considerably in excess of the minimum rates. The
trouble from the coalowners’ point of view is that, as
a rule, no reduction in wages can be secured until
long after the tide of high prices has turned. We
would suggest that this dispute is one which the
machinery of the Conciliation Board should be able
to settle, without the intervention of an expensive
strike.

LBW1 MO

North of Englando

A case of more than usual interest was heard at
Durham County Police Court on Wednesday of last
week, when 219 workmen employed by Messrs. Cochrane
and Co. at the Sleetburn pit, were summoned on charges
of having left work without notice. Damages to the
amount of 5s. were claimed, and one of the cases was
taken as a test case. Mr. Ferens, on behalf of the
colliery company, explained that a fatal accident
occurred on the morning of January 30 in the No. 3 pit
at Sleetburn, and the men at No. 2 pit or drift at the
same place absented themselves from work because of
the accident. The colliery owners alleged that the men
in No. 2 pit had no right to do so according to custom
and the award laid down. The award made by Mr. John
Plummer was to the effect that only the workmen in the
pit or drift where a fatal accident occurred should be
idle on that day. This award, made at a joint com-
mittee, was a confirmation of an agreement previously
entered into by the owners and men. This agreement
applied, unless it could be shown that on January 1,
1906, it was the custom at any particular colliery that
all pits or drifts drawing on the same heapstead be laid
idle. In those cases the custom was to be continued.
In January 1912 the men laid all the pits idle, and on
an appeal being made to the Joint Board, it was decided
the men were wrong, and the award must in future be
carried out. Mr. Davis, the assistant agent, described
how three drifts and a pit were quite separate. For the
defence, it was held that there was only one pit, and,
even were it not so, the custom prior to January 1,1906,
was to lay the whole of the pits idle. Mr. Dowling also
contended that the sight of the body being brought to
bank had rendered the men unfit for work. The test
defendant admitted that he only abided by a joint
committee award if it suited, and that was a case where
it did not suit. He declared the men knew nothing
about any arbitrator’s award. The case was dismissed,
the Bench being of opinion that custom prevailed at the
colliery before January 1906.

The Whitburn Colliery has been laid idle owing to a
grievance among the putters. About 2,000 men and
boys are affected.

A dispute over the minimum wage question took place
at Hazelrigg Colliery on Tuesday, when the men
employed in the middle shift refused to go down the
mine owing to those employed in No. 5 staple being
refused the minimum wage, which they have had ever
since the flat was opened. About 1,000 men are
affected. The men have since resumed.

A dispute occurred on Monday at Seghill Colliery
between the management and the coalhewers, with the
result that the pit was idle. The matter in dispute
relates to the hours of coal drawing and the time at
which the men and lads had to descend the mine. The
executive committee of the Northumberland Miners’
Association met on Thursday, when it was reported that
the dispute had been settled, and the cavils would go in
at once. The colliery management agreed to the men’s
proposals that work should be resumed under the old
terms pending further investigation into the matters in
dispute.

Owing to a dispute among the stonemen, the William
Pit, South Moor, was laid idle on Monday. Over 500
hands are affected.

The workmen of the Ashington group of collieries,
in conjunction with New biggin and North Seaton
collieries, have decided to appoint a local full time
workman inspector of mines for the Ashington,
Woodhorn, Linton, Ellington, Newbiggin and North
Seaton collieries under the terms of the Mines Inspection
Act. The new official is to be under the control of an
Inspection Board duly elected by the workmen at the
various collieries, the purpose being to secure the
permanent inspection of the mines at periodical dates
on behalf of the workmen. The Inspection Board is to

meet quarterly, and will draw its revenue by means of
which to meet the salary of the inspector and other
incidental expenses by imposing levies upon the
contributing lodges of the miners’ union. The man
appointed is to be a practical working miner, who has
had not less than five years’ actual experience in
Northumberland collieries. His duties will consist in
the main in examining each mine in the group at, least
once a month, the local lodges deciding the particular
portions of the pits which are to be inspected. His
working day in the pits is not ordinarily to exceed five
hours, and he may be accompanied on his inspections
by a member appointed for the purpose by the local
miners’ lodge where that course is considered desirable.
The appointment is to be made within the next fortnight.

Sir. R. Romer has intimated to the Board of Trade
that, owing to the state of his health, he desires to resign
the chairmanship of the Joint District Boards under the
Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act for the districts of
Durham and Cleveland.

Newbiggin miners are not enamoured of the scheme
for independent mine inspection which is being put
forward in the Ashington neighbourhood, and have
refused to join. The working of the scheme will there-
fore be confined to the Ashington, Woodhorn, Linton,
Ellington and North Seaton collieries.

Federated Area.

At a meeting of the owners’ and miners’ representa-
tives in Lancashire and Cheshire, held on Monday at
Manchester, Mr. Charles Pilkington (owners) presided.
At the end of the meeting the following settlement was
made on behalf of the joint board by Sir Thomas
Ratcliffe-Ellis :—

44 It is agreed that in ascertaining whether the
minimum wage has been earned by a collier or coal-
getter or other workman working by the piece, his total
earnings during each week shall be divided by the
number of shifts he has worked during such week, and
the minimum wage due to such workman shall be paid
at the end of each week; provided that in the application
of this method of ascertainment no such workman shall
be entitled to be paid twice over for the same work. It
is also agreed that the provisions as to regularity of
attendance contained in Rule 5 of the district rules shall
apply to each week and not to two consecutive pays.
This arrangement to come into operation on the first pay
after Saturday, April 11.”

As to surfacemen’s wages, the following agreement
was come to at the same meeting:—

44 That the wages of the persons engaged on the pit
banks and screens, manipulating the coal, and governed
by the Conciliation Board for the Federated area, shall
not, during the continuance of such board and so long
as the present percentage of 65 per cent, above the 1888
rates prevails, be less than the following rates. But
subject to the reductions, if any, which may be made
by the Conciliation Board, each advance or reduction of
5 per cent, in the rate of wages to mean an advance or
reduction of Id. per day for persons up to the age of
16 and under, and 2d. per day for those of 16 years and
over.

44 The following is the scale :—

s. d.

13-	14 years...................... 1	7

14-	15	„ ........................ 1	9

15-	16	„ ........................ 2	0

16-	17	„ ........................ 2	6

17-	18	„ ........................ 3	0

18-	19	„ ........................ 3	4

19-	20	„ ........................ 3	8

20-	21	„	  4	3

21 years and over................. 4	7

44 The above figures do not in all cases represent the
wages actually paid at the present time. In some cases
the actual wages are higher, and when such is the case
the arrangement is not to justify a reduction of the
wages for such work. The scale is not to apply to
banksmen holding positions of responsibility, who will
be paid at the higher rate. Infirm and compensation
cases are not included in this agreement. The working
hours for those included in this agreement are to be the
hours now worked at the several collieries which con-
stitute each working day, but in no case shall they
exceed a nine hours’ working shift, exclusive of meal-
times. In the payment for ^overtime eight hours shall
be calculated as one day. The above hours not to apply
in the case of sinking pits or where tunnelling is imme-
diately required to reach the seams of coal intended to
be worked. The first payment to be made on the new
rates on the 3rd or 4th of April, according to the pay-
days at the different collieries.”

• Under the terms of the new agreement the agreed
minimum wage for surface workers will be :—

Minimum wage

Age.	scale,

s. d.

13	to	14 ....................... 1	4

14	„	15 ....................... 1	6

15	„	16 ........................ 1	9

16	„	17 ........................ 2	0

17	„	18 ........................ 2	6

18	„	19 ......................   2	10

19	„	20 ........................ 3	2

20	„	21 ........................ 3	9

21	and over ..................... 4	1

North Wales miners have resolved to take a ballot on
a dispute as to putters’ wages, which is at the present
time the subject of an appeal before the House of Lords.
The ballot is to decide whether notices to terminate
contracts are to be given to the masters unless they
agree to pay the same wages to all men employed under
the collieries or contractors. The notices affect upwards
of 10,000 men.

The council of the" Yorkshire Miners’ Association,
sitting at Barnsley on Friday, decided to call a strike
of the miners in the county owing to the dispute which
has arisen upon the interpretation of the recent minimum