1382

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

June 19, 1914.

engines, the low-pressure engines, the inefficient fans,
the total absence of any rational mechanical means of
bringing the coal to the pit bottom; think of the
improvements in screening and in the use of electricity
and compressed air plants. The expenditure, of course,
had gone up in a similar ratio. He was connected with
several deep collieries in South Wales and South York-
shire, and, as they all knew, the expenditure was
enormous compared with what it was in the shallow
pits a few years ago. But one thing was quite clear,
namely, that as the demand for coal increased, and the
cost of colliery appliances increased, so would the price
of coal increase, and the British public must make up
their minds that coal was at a price to-day which it
would be very difficult to beat down. He was glad to
say the miners were getting high wages; theirs was a
skilled trade and a dangerous trade; and so one liked
to think they were well paid, although they were not
working to the full capacity which they might do; they
were reducing the output of collieries by something like
15 to 20 per cent. As the demand for coal increased it
was quite obvious, in these circumstances, that the
price must go up. Colliery owners had a deal of things
to contend with—the Eight Hours Act and all those
statutory enactments which had gone very largely to
increase the cost per ton of coal won. Therefore, their
customers must not complain if colliery proprietors
charged more for what they turned out. Although
collieries to-day were paying a fair dividend, he did not
think anybody could say that coal owners were getting
more than they deserved, having regard to the risk
incurred in spending half a million of money in sinking
a pit. As he was going to open the Exhibition, he
would not keep his hearers longer, except to say that as
Manchester was the greatest commercial centre of Eng-
land, they could not have had a more appropriate place
for an exhibition of this kind, or for a gathering of
gentlemen interested in the colliery trade.

The Mayor of Salford (Aiderman Desquesnes), in
proposing “ Success to the Exhibition,” said the man

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Mr. Walter Yates.

Chairman Exhibitors’ Committee.

in the street contemplated the mining industry from
three points of view:—First, as a grumbler; secondly,
as a panicky man; and thirdly, as a man of tragedy.
As a grumbler the man in the street complained of such
an announcement as that just made by Lord Aber-
conway—that there was not the slightest prospect of
the price of coal going down—and he swore that he was
the victim of all sorts of rings and unholy combinations.
As a man of panic he got into a frenzy when he read
about strikes. At the present moment he was in a
neurotic state when he thought of the arrangement
between transport and railway workers, coal miners,
and others, to form a gigantic combination by which
ordinary mortals were to be wiped more or less out of
existence. That arrangement might, however, be
regarded with a certain amount of philosophy, for he
(the Mayor) believed that in the end common-sense
would prevail in regulating the operations of such a
combine, however large it might be. A strike was a
sort of double-edged weapon; it injured those who
resorted to it, as well as those against whom it was
directed. With reference to accidents in mines, he was
glad to know that so many minds were intent on their
prevention. He understood the Exhibition included
appliances for saving life and rendering life safer in
the mines. When one reflected on the enormous pro-
gress that had been made during the last 40 years one
could not but appreciate the work of inventors and
colliery managers. The progress of the last 20 years
was greater than that of the preceding 20 years, and
that was due to the fact that people like the exhibitors
in this Exhibition had devised means to avoid accidents.

Mr. Walter Yates (chairman of the Exhibition
Committee), responding to the toast, said he saw no
reason why the wishes expressed by the Mayor of Sal-
ford for the success of the Exhibition should not be
realised. His colleagues on the committee and him-
self had done their best to earn success, and he took it
that was the first step to its accomplishment. The
committee had met periodically for the last three years

since the last exhibition, and his friend, Mr. Luke, had
done his best to make this Exhibition second to none in
attractiveness and value. Being a Manchester man, he
might be prejudiced, but he did feel that Manchester
was the only satisfactory centre for an exhibition of
this kind. It was the centre of a huge coalfield, as they
had been told; the machinery and equipment required
by collieries were largely produced within easy distance
of Manchester; and the facilities for transport—water,
rail, and in other ways—were excellent. Efficiency had
been referred to. That was a word that they were
trying to conjure with at the present time, and he
believed it would be found that they would be very
strongly impressed by what they would see in the
Exhibition.





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Mr. Charles H. Luke, A.M.S.E., A.I.E.S.
Vice-chairman Exhibitors’ Committee.

The next toast, ‘‘The Visitors,” was proposed by
Lt.-Cl. Chbesewright, R.E. (T.).—Capt. Schlagintweit
(German Consul in Manchester), responding to the toast,
said that from the purely international point of view he
could not say he was very fond of small exhibitions such
as those they sometimes saw in Manchester. But this
he would like to say, that people in Germany, as well
as in England, were agreed that specialised exhibitions
would do more good than big international ones. They
brought buyers and sellers together, and gave an oppor-
tunity for examining and studying matters as you could
not do in big international exhibitions. He heartily
welcomed exhibitions such as this.

Mr. J. Butterworth.

Member of Exhibition Committee.

Sir Henry Hall, who also replied to the toast, said
this Exhibition seemed to come at a very appropriate
moment. All who had to do with collieries were out for
economy. They were driven to it by circumstances. In
recent years they seemed to have been got at in all
directions. They had been legislated upon, and they had
had daily demands for increased wages, and the position
was such that they had to have recourse to all the
economies they could find. All kinds of restrictions had
been put upon them—some useful, some possibly doubt-
ful. In the last two or three years the cost of getting
coal must have gone up at least 2s. 6d. a ton, and that
extra cost, put up by legislation and other causes, would
never come off any more. With regard to wages they
had gone up, and the chances were that in the future
they would be very high, so one saw the position was
very difficult. Half-a-crown extra per ton of coal was a

serious matter, more serious for outside industries than
it was for the coal owners. Concerning the Exhibition,
he had to say that the firm he represented were going to
send their colliery engineers to it. He hoped other firms
would do likewise. He had noticed the tendency of
colliery engineers to make things excessively strong.
Hence by sending them to the Exhibition they would be
able to restrain that tendency, and give them some idea
of proportion.

Mr. Charles H. Luke (vice-chairman of the com-
mittee), proposed the “ Health of the Chairman,” who,
in replying, said he was proud of the fact that mining
engineers were always anxious to do all that was possible
to secure the safety of the miners. There was no doubt
that people had got to pay for the higher expenditure put
upon the coal owners, and they must not regret it.

Opening the Exhibition.

The company on leaving the hotel passed quickly to
the Exhibition Hall. Sir J. S. Harmood Banner again
took the chair.

In introducing Lord Aberconway, who was to open the
Exhibition, he asked the people present to consider the
importance of the industry which the Exhibition repre-
sented. The collieries of this country produced some-
thing like a million tons of coal a day, and a great deal
of the prosperity of this country arose from the fact that
in this little island of ours we possessed such splendid
fields of coal. Much of it was due also to the accessi-
bility of those fields, enabling the coal owner to supply
manufacturers with the material absolutely necessary to
their purpose, of good quality—the best, he thought, in
the whole of the world. That being so, it was of the
greatest importance they should conduct their business
on the best and truest principles, because they knew
that the country of Great Britain would not be of the
importance it now was but for its coalfields. Not only
did they add largely to the income required by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to meet the calls upon the
Government, but they contributed as well to the pros-



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Mr. A. E. Mathewson.

Member of Exhibition Committee.

parity of the people. There was one thing which all who
were interested in mining, whether coal owners or
workers underground, desired, and that was to work the
mines on the very best principle, namely, the principle
of safety. There was no doubt the outsider had very
curious ideas about coal; he imagined he was paying a
great deal too much for his coal; he imagined also the
coal miner was to some extent not looked after as such
a worker ought to be, and that there were, at times,
sources of danger which might have been avoided. Those,
however, who knew the facts would fully recognise there
was no truth in that imagining. In this Exhibition they
welcomed the ideas of miners, of mining engineers, and
manufacturers generally, for doing what was best for
the safety of the miner, for their view was that every-
thing that could be done to secure the safety of the
miner should be done before any question of profit for
the shareholder was considered. He thought everyone
would admit that they owed a very great debt of
gratitude to Sir William E. Garforth for the experi-
mental work he had done in showing how, by rescue
stations and rescue appliances, they might save the lives
of miners when times of danger and difficulty occurred.
Actions like those showed the wish of the coalowner
and miner was that everything that was possible should
be done to promote safety in mine working. In addi-
tion to the question of safety, there was a question of
profit. At present in this country the coal owners had
to meet a great deal of competition. As to foreign
oil he, at any rate, did not think it was going to kill
the coal trade. Then there was American and German
competition. As to that he did not think the German
and American qualities of coal were equal to the British.
He thought also the question of freight, and accessi-
bility to this country placed this country in an
advantageous position. It had been apparent for some
time that while there was this competition to the fore
there was this necessarily additional expenditure, due to
the extra depths in which they now sought for coal, and
one of the objects of this Exhibition was to show them
in what way they could meet this competition, and to