January 22, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

181

At the Board of Trade on Wednesday the committee
appointed by dye users met to consider the Govern-
ment scheme for the establishment of the aniline
dyes industry in this country. It was decided
to enlargen the committee, and to prepare another
scheme on a modified scale.

It has been decided to take to the Court of Appeal
the case in which the Glamorgan and Powell Dufiryn
companies recently obtained judgment against the
Glamorgan County Council for costs incurred in
feeding and housing imported police during the
Tonypandy strike riots of 1910. A stay of execution
was granted on Tuesday.

The Board of Trade have issued a White Paper
dealing with the state of employment in the United
Kingdom during December last. It states that the
general improvement noticed in October has continued.
A marked shortage of’ labour occurred in the coal,
iron and steel, shipbuilding, and engineering trades,
though in the former there is still some short time,
chiefly in the north-east coalfield and the East
Midlands.

Further meetings of the Joint Coal Conciliation
Board have taken place during the past week for
the purpose of fixing a new wage basis, but no
decision has been reached. The next meeting will
be held on Thursday, the 28th inst.

Balloting has taken place during the week in the.
West Yorkshire coalfield on the minimum wage
difference. The result is expected this week-end.

Both the owners and men in Northumberland have
given notice requesting a, revision of the minimum
wage for the county. The question was discussed
by the District Board on the 15th inst. and adjourned
until February 6.

The Admiralty now announce that they propose to
put 34 detained enemy steamers into the east coast
coal trade for the purpose of relieving the tonnage
tension.

The War Emergency Workers’ National Committee
has asked the Government to immediately consider
the short supply of coal in London and other centres,
and the rise in prices caused largely by scarcity of
shipping, and interruption of railway traffic.

A few hours may show whether the
The West trouble over the minimum wage in
Yorkshire West Yorkshire is as serious as it
Trouble. has been represented to be. In the
event of a stoppage, endeavours
appear to have been made to limit its scope as far as
possible, which must engender the feeling that, con-
sidering the small number of men actually concerned,
the matters in dispute might have been adjusted
without an indecent display of force.

The fact is, however, .that it is not the sum of
money at stake, but. the principle, that has brought
the affair to its present climax; the Miners’ Federa-
tion are not so much concerned to screw a few more
pence out of the employers in this district as to have
the points at issue in the South Yorkshire dispute of
last year apply to the West Yorkshire case, and
inferentially to every district in the Federated area
in which advances in the minima may hereafter be
awarded.

To understand the situation in all its bearings it
should be recalled that in deciding, in October 1912,
that wages should be advanced by 5 per cent, on
standard rates, the following rider was added to the
award by the Conciliation Board for the Federated
Districts of England and North Wales :—

The terms of the above agreement for the continuation
of the Conciliation Board, and the method of applying
the advance of 5 per cent, to contractors are outside the
powers of the Board; but on the recommendation of the
Board, the coalowners in the Federated area have agreed
that the 5 per cent, advance shall be applied in the
manner provided for in Clause 3.

This clause was repeated in the two subsequent
awards, and the purport is that the minima shall be
increased by the addition of the advances awarded
by the Conciliation Board.

Whilst it is not difficult to interpret the generous
motives that inspired the coal owners to recommend
this course, the provision is one that we have always
regarded as being ill-advised. It has throughout
been contended by the masters that the awards under

the Conciliation Board agreement are absolutely
distinct from those made by, the minimum wage
boards, but in practice it is difficult to prevent the make-
shift Minimum Wage Act from impinging upon the
pre-existing system of adjusting wages, and we have
only to study the awards of the independent chair-
men under the Act to see that some of them neglected
to draw this careful distinction : in some districts the
minima clearly correspond to the standard rates of
1887, in others, no less clearly, to these rates, plus the
percentages that were operative at the time.

If the owners are unable to control the minds of
the chairmen, they are entitled to stand to their view
of the matter. The defects of the recommendation
cited above are (1) that it was not sufficiently
understood that it was only a recommendation that
could not bind any individual employer or association
of employers; and (2) that the Board, on the masters’
side at least, regarded it as applying to the existing
minima only, and not to any increases that might
subsequently be awarded.

When last year Sir Edward Clarke, the independent
chairman of the South Yorkshire Joint Board, granted
an advance on the minimum rates in force in that
district, the men’s leaders invoked this recommenda-
tion of the Conciliation Board, and claimed that men
entitled to the minimum rates should receive in
addition, not only the increase awarded by Sir Edward
Clarke, but the three percentages of 5 per cent, that
had been awarded by the Conciliation Board at
various dates since the Minimum Wage Act was
passed. The number of men directly affected in
that, as in the present case, was small, but it was
made a county question, and a strike was declared
A sub-committee of the Conciliation Board was
appointed, and finally a settlement was effected, it
being agreed that in the case of certain collieries the
rates should be paid, but that, on their side, the
workmen should consent to a re-grouping of the pits.

Last year, as now. it was suggested that a simple
solution of the difficulty would be to obtain the
opinion of the learned chairman; to find out if, in
giving the increase on the minima, he had taken the
view that this increase was to represent the advances
of the Conciliation Board. However simple this
course may seem to be, it could not commend itself to
the owners, because it would mean an abdication of
the functions of the Conciliation Board; further,
the fiat from the chairman of the Joint Board would
not succeed in clearing up the points at issue;
neither Sir Edward Clarke nor his Honour Judge
Amphlett can possibly understand the factors upon
which awards of the Conciliation Board have been
arrived at so well as those actually responsible for
carrying on the pits.

The point has been well put by a u Yorkshire
Coal Owner ” in a letter to The Times. He points out
that the Minimum Wage Board and the Conciliation
Board are two separate and distinct bodies:—

After the first minimum wage was fixed in 1912, three
separate advances of 5 per cent, each were given to the
miners by the Conciliation Board. It was contended by
the workmen’s representatives that those men who did
not earn the minimum wage would not get the full
benefit of these advances, as they might help to make up
the difference between the amount actually earned and
the minimum wage.. The coal owners agreed that those
men who did not earn the minimum wage should have
the additional three 5 per cents, on the amount of their
earnings at the standard rate added to their minimum.
This concession was only given to those who did not earn
the minimum. The question of applying it to those who
did earn the minimum was never discussed. If it had
applied to them it would have meant raising the minimum
wage—which the owners thought was already too high—
by 7d. to 8d. per day, according to the rate fixed in the
county. At some collieries which were more fortunate
than others a concession was given by adding those
percentages to the minimum; others less fortunate
didn’t. In 1914 a new minimum was awarded, giving the
miners an advance of 4d. per day, and the workmen’s
representatives are demanding 7d. to 8d. added to the
new minimum, making it 7s. Id. to 7s. 8d. per day. This
the owners object to. They are honourably bound to
give the miners the 15 per cent, advance on their wages,
and do so ; they are legally bound to pay the minimum,
and do pay it; but they are not either honourably or
legally bound to pay on the top of the minimum to those
who earn it an additional 15 per cent, on the earnings.

The West Yorkshire case has this new feature :
that the miners’ representatives argue that this

division of the county is governed by the previous
settlement. The answer is (1) that the West
Yorkshire pits at which the question has now been
raised are entirely different in character from those
which formed the subject of the previous negotia-
tions ; and (2) that the West Yorkshire owners took
no part in those negotiations, their only interest in
the dispute being the fact that their workmen had
been brought out to support the South Yorkshire
men, and the fear that any agreement arrived at in
South Yorkshire might be regarded as a precedent;
they never conceded their rights to full consideration,
when the conditions at their own pits should come
under review, as has now come to pass, by reason of
Judge Amphlett’s award raising the minima in West
Yorkshire.

Whatever may be the result of the negotiations
still pending, however, one thing is certain, and that
is, that the country will not tolerate a stoppage on
this issue at the present time. These disputes only
prove to a wider circle that the Minimum Wage Act
is impossible. At the outset it was found to be
necessary to subdivide the districts scheduled in the
Act, but experience is proving what has always been
obvious to those who know the widely varying
conditions under which mining is carried on even in
the same county, that no system of generalisation
could be fair and at the same time practicable.
The difficulties which many consumers are now
experiencing in securing adequate supplies of fuel
mainly arise from the disorganisation of traffic
facilities, but they.are enhanced by the shortage of
skilled labour at the pits and the restrictive effect of
the mining legislation introduced during the past
few’ years. To cope with ,an economic situation
unparalleled in the history of the nation the Govern-
ment have found it necessary to introduce whole
volumes of emergency legislation; the statutes might
well be lightened by scrapping such measures as the
Eight Hours and Minimum Wage Acts, the latter of
which was itself an emergency and temporary
enactment.

The Government scheme for placing
The this country in an independent
Manufacture position with regard to the manu-
Of	facture of aniline dyes is in danger

Aniline Dyes, of breaking down. The original
proposal, in fact, may be regarded
as already dead, as the interested firms are not
sufficiently attracted by it to ensure its success. The
suggestion was that a company should be formed
with a capital of £3,000,000, divided into £1 shares.
The Government was to assist by lending £1,500,000
under certain conditions, in the form of 4 per cent,
debentures, redeemable in 25 years out of net profits.
At the same time the consumers of dyes were to
enter into contracts to take all supplies from the
company at reasonable prices for five years after
peace is concluded. A committee was appointed to
consider the scheme, but from the first failed to
secure wholehearted co-operation. Many objections
were urged. The conditions of the loan were
criticised, and alternative schemes have been pro-
posed. The crux of the position appears to lie solely in
the question of security. There seems to be no lack of
money, and there is certainly no lack of technical
ability to manufacture these dyes. Prof. H. E.
Armstrong has written a strong indictment both of
the Government and of the commercial system in
this country. He is apparently shocked at the
small progress that is being made in arriving at a.
solution of this truly national problem, and he
condemns as criminal the lassitude of our various-
societies and institutions in regard to so vital a,
question. But we fear it is not to the Hoy al Society
or the Society of Chemical Industry that we must
look alone for salvation.

This question of security for capital outlay, which
appears to lie at the root of the commercial aspect of
any scheme that may be adopted, assumes perhaps
larger proportions than would be otherwise the case,
because there is a latent fear of our ability to keep
the trade after the conclusion of the war. It is a
fear exaggerated, perhaps, by past experience. We
have lost this industry solely because of certain
defects in our system, including want of Govern-