July 3, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

29

engineers, a slight improvement is to be noticed in
the market. There is a fair amount of activity in
the Scottish coal trade.

The second annual excursion of the Mining
Institute of Scotland, the Scottish branches of the
National Association of Colliery Managers, and the
Association of Mining Electrical Engineers took
place on Saturday.

Professor Cadman presided on Monday at
Birmingham over the meeting of the South Stafford-
shire and W ar wickshire Institute of Mining Engineers,
when Mr. F. J. Turquand read a paper on “An
Instrument for the Detection of Firedamp in Mines.”

Mr. Ernest Moon, K.C., has been appointed
chairman of the Minimum Wage Board for Durham
in succession to Sir Robert Romer, resigned.

In the House of Commons on Monday the
Premier stated that it was intended to take the
second reading of the Coal Mines Bill as soon as
possible in the present session.

Replying to a question by Mr. Fell, on Tuesday,
the Home Secretary said that leases of about 16,000
acres of the Kentish coalfield had been acquired by
foreign companies, and that negotiations were in
progress for the lease of 2,000 more.

During the second reading of the North-Eastern
Railway Bill on Wednesday, Sir A. Markham made
reference to the question of the law of support in
connection with mineral property underlying rail-
ways. He asked the President of the Board of
Trade to consider the whole position, and Mr.
Burns promised to lay the matter before the
Committee.

The House of Lords, on Tuesday, dismissed the
appeal in the case of Herd v. the Weardale Steel,
Coal and Coke Company Limited against a judgment
of the Court of Appeal. Herd, a miner, claimed
damages for alleged wrongful imprisonment in the
mine, he having been detained below the surface
against his wish.

The Russian Duma has adopted the Bill permitting
the import of coal for State and private railways,
free of duty, from July 17 till the end of the year.

The inquest was resumed on Tuesday and
Wednesday regarding the death of 12 persons
killed in the explosion which occurred on Whit
Sunday at the Wharncliffe Silkstone Colliery near
Barnsley. The coroner further adjourned the
enquiry until Thursday next.

His Majesty King George performed the opening
ceremony of the new Hull dock on Friday last.

A group of collieries at Bristol, the property of
the Bedminster and Parkfield Company, have been
closed down.

Owing to the strike of marine engineers dis-
organising the coal trade, and also to the non-unionist
difficulty, about 15,000 men have been idle in the
South Wales coalfield during the past week.

It is stated that the Scottish coal owners have
formulated a further claim for a reduction of 25 per
cent, in miners’ wages.

The customary Parliamentary Paper*'
Coal showing the year’s exports of coal,
Shipments together with the shipments both
in 1913. coastwise and as bunkers for 1913,
possesses an increased interest this
year, inasmuch as for the first time the exports of
coke and manufactured fuel have been included.
These latter returns, however, are not given
quarterly, as in the case of coal, but only for
complete years. It is satisfactory to note that an
increased tonnage of each of these commodities was
shipped abroad last year, the increase being most
marked in the case of manufactured fuel, of which
nearly half-a-million tons more were exported in
1913 than in 1912. When we look for the cause of
this increase, it is seen to be due to a general
expansion in trade to all countries except in the case
of the North American group and British South
Africa, where there was a decline which was
particularly marked in the South Wales exports.
The largest increase is shown in the Bristol Channel
exports to the South American countries and the
Mediterranean area. The great bulk of the coke, as

* Cd. 7490.

would be expected, found its way to European ports,
which took about nine-tenths of the total export.

Another new feature in these returns is the
separation of Immingham from Grimsby, thus
affording a starting point from which the develop-
ment of this new port may in future years be traced.
The total export trade in coal from Immingham
amounted to 1,755,641 tons for the year 1913, and the
greater part of this amount was despatched to the
Baltic ports, Italy heading the list of the other
countries with 55,566 tons only. Immingham stood
only twelfth in importance as a coal port in 1913,
but its trade is still in quite an initial stage, and can
be no criterion of its future prospects when the new
Yorkshire coalfield enters into its full productive
capacity. This cannot fail to increase the trade of
Immingham both coastwise and oversea.

There are many features of interest in these
statistics. It is noteworthy, for example, that Great
Britain despatched 177,341 tons of coal to Bombay
in 1913. Aden, which is one of our most important
coaling stations in the East, took 148,160 tons of
Cardiff coal and 33,044 tons from Newport last year.
It will be interesting, also, to watch the effect of the
Panama Canal upon the despatch of British coal to
the western states of South America. Peru and
Chili now buy a considerable tonnage of South
Wales coal, but it is not unlikely that the United
States will be able to compete upon favourable terms
for a big slice of that trade in the future.

A protracted discussion, in which
Science and many eminent men have taken part,
the State, has recently filled many columns of
the Morning Post. The subject has
been the relations between the State and science. It
has been discussed from many points of view, and
divergent opinions are clearly held as to the manner
in which science can best be advanced, but there is a
fairly concordant conclusion that the State does not
do its duty in this respect. The matter has been
treated mainly from an academic and educational
standpoint, but it is one which has so eminently
practical a bearing that we cannot refrain from
putting forward certain aspects which appeal more
especially to the great industry which it is our
function to represent. In general, it will probably
be agreed that the State shows a marked apathy
towards the advancement of scientific discovery. We
must, however, in regard to this accusation, first
clearly understand what is meant by the State. To
most people the State is synonymous with the
Government, and the charge of apathy resolves itself
for all practical purposes into the conclusion that the
Government does not betray sufficient interest in the
endowment of scientific research. This, however, is
readily explained by the indifference towards science
of the public at large, for no Government can afford,
under our present system, to bestow much attention
upon matters which do not attract the attention of
the masses, who control the majorities at the polls.
This is chiefly due to the growing and preponderating
influence of what may be described as the uneducated
vote.

In regard to mining, however, the State has been
compelled, by the force of circumstances, to pay some
attention to the progress of scientific discovery. This
is conspicuously seen in the matter of colliery explo-
sions. Even here, however, it required the initiative
of the colliery owners to arouse the State to a sense
of its duty. The Mining Association were the real
authors of the great coal dust research now proceeding
at ■ Eskmeals, and it is due to the colliery owners in
the first place that the State has, in this instance,
recognised the futility of founding legislation upon
imperfect knowledge of the causes of colliery
disasters. The Eskmeals research, however, has
also served another purpose. It has demonstrated
the fact that discoveries are not to be obtained merely
by devoting a certain amount of public money to be
expended upon experimental work. It is doubtful
whether any great discovery has ever been made to
order. This does not mean that money so spent is
wasted, for every ascertained fact marks a step in
the right direction, and it is only by the accumula-
tion of such facts that at length the great inductive
truth will be possible of attainment.

There are some who think that the end of the
Eskmeals research is now in sight. We are not
sanguine enough to believe this; for although' it
may be admitted that stone dust in the propor-
tion of 1 : 1 affords a reasonable safeguard against
the propagation of an explosion, there is no real
proof either that this proportion is practically main-
tainable or that it would be efficacious under every
conceivable combination of circumstances. We should
regard a stone dusting regulation, therefore, not as
the end of the Eskmeals research, but as a tentative
step, promising perhaps, but by no means the grand
induction we may hope ultimately to arrive at.
But coal dust research represents only a single
branch of scientific investigation in which coal mining
is fundamentally interested. The questions of
efficient sifety lamps, perfect explosives and many
other problems are still awaiting discovery.

What is the attitude of the State towards researches
in these directions ? The offer of premiums for
discovery, we think, is rather a futile proceeding,
although it appears to find favour with the present
Government, who are even contemplating the offer
of rewards for methods of extracting fuel oil from
coal on an economic basis.

The fact is that scientific discovery is not appre-
ciated in this country at its true value, either by the
State, as represented by the Government, or by the
executive mainly controlled by Oxford or Cambridge
classics, or by the public, as represented by the
significant and comprehensive term “democracy.”
The State will only move under compulsion, the
executive, apart, perhaps, from the purely technical
branches, rather scorns science in the abstract, and
the democracy can hardly be expected to know
anything about it. But in spite of all this want of
recognition we are moving on, too slowly perhaps,
but still visibly, thanks to individual effort and the
research spirit which is so prominent a feature in
modern education, notwithstanding its poverty in
substantial reward.

In the address delivered last week
The Truck before the British Hospitals Associa-
Acts and tion by Mr. William Straker, secre-
Charitable tary of the Northumberland Miners’
Institutions. Association, perhaps the most inter-
esting statement was that the Bill
introduced by Lord Henry Cavendish Bentinck
to amend the Truck Acts by making illegal all
deductions from wages and all fines had been
abandoned.

This measure has caused great perturbation
amongst the miners of the north of England, princi-
pally because of the subsection that would prohibit
the employer from making any deduction from
wages in respect of subscriptions in respect of any
“benefit society, sick club, hospital, or any
other society, club, or benefit, or for medical
attendance.” No doubt the miners are heartily in
sympathy with the other provisions that would pro-
hibit deductions or enforced payments for bad or
negligent work, the use or supply of materials, &c.,
damages or fines, &c.; but catholic and sweeping
requirements like this generally have two edges.

The Hospitals Association passed a resolution
expressing the opinion that “any legislation pro-
hibiting deductions from wages by way of subscrip-
tions to hospitals will result in contributions from
employees in a great number of instances not being
paid.” Indeed, Mr. Straker showed convincingly that
this would be the result, which would be a pity, for
organisations such as the Royal Infirmary at
Newcastle are a power for good, and represent most
distinctly a form of contributory insurance, all the
better because it is voluntary.

There are other institutions that would also be
grievously injured, such as the Permanent Relief
Funds. The implication of all such measures, of
course, is that the employer is a ravening bird of
prey ever ready to defraud and batten on the
defenceless workman. It is hardly necessary to say
that this picture is false.' The self-imposed labour
of collecting dues at the pay-office is a considerable
burden to employers, aiid, since the weekly pay
came into force, many colliery companies have been
compelled to discontinue it, on account of the extra