January 29, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

233

Representatives of the shipping industry have
submitted a statement to the President of the Board
of Trade on the causes of the present high freights.
They declare the main reason to be the dislocation of
oversea trade, resulting in the accumulation of
tonnage in the ports, and suggest the pooling of
railway trucks.

The ballot of the West Yorkshire miners has
resulted in a considerable majority for the strike,
and it has been decided to hand in notices on the
making-up days of next week. There is a possibility
of the two parties meeting again to consider the
whole question. On Tuesday next, in the King’s
Bench Division, the case of the King and his Honour
Judge Amphlett will be heard, which will have an
important bearing on the matter.

The new wage agreement proposals were again
considered on Thursday by the Conciliation Board.
No decision was reached, and the meeting adjourned
until Friday next, the 5th prox.

The Workers’ National Committee on Thursday
passed resolutions in respect of present high coal
prices to the effect that the Government should fix
maximum price, and also that railway trucks should
be pooled; further, that the Government should
commandeer supplies and act as distributors.

A meeting of cargo steamship owners was held
yesterday (Thursday) to consider the terms of hire
for vessels requisitioned for Government service.

We regret to announce the death of the Hon.
Denver Joicey, fourth son of Lord Joicey, and of
Mr. William Edgar Allen, chairman of the steel firm
of Edgar Allen and Company Limited.

At the instance of the Government,
Suspend the in the first few weeks of the war the
Act I men employed at the Admiralty
collieries in South Wales worked the
extra hour yer day provided by section 3 of the Coal
Mines Regulation Act, 1908. We do not know
whether the limited number of 60 days allowed by
the Act actually expired at any of these collieries
before the pressing needs of the Navy were satisfied,
nor do we know what was done after that had
happened, if it did happen ; but we do know that in
the cases of certain firms in the engineering and
textile trades whose products the Government
urgently required, were relieved from the disa-
bilities as to overtime enacted by the Factory and
Workshop Act by an informal and unceremonious
transfer of those establishments to the Government
for the purposes of the Act.

This tempts us to ask why the authorities do not
now exercise the powers vested in section 4 of the
Eight Hours Act. This section reads as follows :—

His Majesty may, in the event of war or of imminent
national danger or great emergency, or in the event of
any grave economic disturbance due to the demand for
coal exceeding the supply available at the time, by
Order in Council suspend the operation of this Act to
such an extent, and for such period, as may be named in
the Order, either as respects all coal mines or any class
of coal mines.

It will be acknowledged that precisely the conditions
foreshadowed by the above section have now arrived,
and there can be no possible excuse for refusing to
enforce it. The Government can hardly refuse to
take, on behalf of the people, action that has been
clearly recognised as being urgent in the interest of
the State. For the Act is a contributory factor in a
situation in which the scarcity of coal not only
threatens to cause -very great inconvenience and
hardship to the public, and to make many of the
necessary commodities of life more costly and
difficult to obtain, but delays also the delivery of
military and naval material, upon which the security
of the country inevitably depends.’ If the wool-
comber and artisan are compelled to work many
hours beyond the normal day, why should the
collier be prevented likewise from contributing, from
his reserve of strength, to the greater benefit of his
fellow-countrymen ?

We are aware that the suspension of the Eight
Hours Act is only one of many remedies to be
applied, because it only attacks the problem of
supply at source, and does nothing in itself to cure
the troubles that intervene between the pithead and

the consumer; but it is a simple and logical
proceeding, which is more than can be said for some
of the measures already adopted by the Government
to alleviate the situation—measures, be it added, that,
from the abstract point of view, are far more revolu-
tionary and divergent from constitutional practice,
than that suggested here.

We are aware that there is plenty of coal lying at
the pits, as a whole, to relieve all present anxieties,
if it could be moved. But the fact that many
collieries are now unable to work full time, notwith-
standing the great demand for fuel, is no answer.
One of the principal causes of the present economic
deadlock is the inability to distribute the strain over
the entire industrial fabric; men who were really
wanted at home, have enlisted, whilst others, who
have stayed at home, are still being employed on
labour that is relatively of no vital consequence to
the nation; to carry on the business of the country,
adjustment must be made, but it can not be done in
a day. It is the same with transport facilities ;
owing to the whole system of marshalling and
reception sidings having been devised for quite
normal requirements, and barely ample then, the
requisitions of the Government have resulted in vast
numbers of wagons, loaded and empty, that are
badly needed by commerce, being securely immuled
in accessible positions. Both the State and the
individual are losers thereby.

The Chamber of Shipping, in a report submitted
this week to the Board of Trade, point out that the
present high freights are due less to a deficiency of
shipping tonnage than the abnormal distribution of
tonnage and congestion at the docks and on the
railways. The report suggests that more trucks
should be made available, that all trucks should be
pooled and an effective control established over them,
penal rates should be charged for unreasonable
detention, and railway yards worked overtime until
the block is removed. The fact is that when the
Government took over the railways they did not go
far enough, since the large independent ports were
left untouched, and the intercharge of traffic is still
accompanied by innumerable obstacles that were
inherent in the existing system of railway ownership.
Already steps have been taken by the Railway
Executive Committee, which may help to reduce the
congestion. One of these is the suspension for the
time being of wait-order mineral traffic. No coal or
coke consignments are now accepted, unless the wagons
be labelled through from collieries to final destina-
tions. The wait-order siding system, which has been
so convenient to coal factors, covers only a relatively
small portion of the railborne traffic in coal, but it is
a very important traffic in itself, and the system of
holding wagons under load at these sidings neces-
sarily involves some restriction in the free flow of
rolling stock.

Another drastic step taken by the Government is
the employment of interned enemy vessels in the
coastwise trade. The public utility companies of
London, however, seem to be disappointed that the
Government have not used this tonnage to bring
down freights. The seaborne coal buyers, who
include the gas and electric light companies, and
also the large merchants, have formed a committee
and are in communication with the Board of Trade
on the matter, but it is important to remember that
there are other interests equally to be considered.
The Board of Trade, no doubt, consider that the
only legitimate way in which they can mitigate
freights is by offering the competition of the freed
tonnage; this might have been effected by leasing
the vessels on time charter to shipowners. But an
addition of 30 to 35 steamers to the east coast
coal trade may not be sufficient to relieve the
tension of the market ; for the Admiralty has also
commandeered an additional number of British
steamers with the object of keeping the French
Government regularly and adequately supplied
with coals.

The effect must be to place the freight business
from the north-east coast very largely under the
control of the Government. Some more or less
disinterested parties have, therefore, suggested that
the Government should go the whole hog and take
over all the tonnage on the register. Doubtless

many owners who were rather pleased when the
Admiralty took over their vessels some months ago,
are now rather chagrined to see their less favoured
brothers earning abnormal profits, but the scheme
does not seem to be practicable or likely to serve any
really useful purpose.

As a final instance to show how “unorthodox”
the State maybe when imperative necessity demands,
it may be mentioned that the Local Government
Board lias urged local authorities, whatever their
legal standing, to deal with contractors on liberal
terms as regards the completion of unexpired
contracts.

The present difficulties of consumers are almost
entirely due to the breakdown of transport facilities,
which is also responsible for the high prices that are
now being paid for fuel in some parts of the country.
But these difficulties will be overcome in due course,
and then it will be for the collieries to maintain the
necessary production of coal—a matter which may not
prove easy under existing conditions. The collieries
are, for the moment, deriving little benefit, as a whole,
from the situation, although the diversion of supplies
may have put a little money into the pockets of some
of them. We quite agree that “ work for all ” is the
chief desideratum, but this will be. obtained much
more quickly if the unnatural restrictions imposed by
the Eight Hours Act are removed. We do not
believe that anyone can give a sound reason for its
retention. The alternatives would be to stop
recruiting amongst coal miners, or to prohibit the
export of coal; either course would entail a great
loss to the country; the suspension of the Eight
Hours Act would do no harm beyond upsetting the
susceptibilities of a few. We are glad to see that
the matter is being brought to the notice of the
Government, for already the Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Dundee, and Aberdeen corporations, as well as the
Glasgow and several other Chambers of Commerce
have petitioned the Government in favour of the
suspension of the Act.

The report on the second year’s
The Board proceedings of the Board for
for	Mining Examinations contains

Examinations, some interesting details concerning
the present state of mining educa-
tion in this country, as measured by the qualifications
of candidates for certificates of competency under the
requirements of the Coal Mines Act. This Board
also controls other matters such as inter-colonial
arrangements for the purpose of the recognition of
practical mining experience gained in the colonies
and foreign countries as equivalent to experience in
coal mines in the United Kingdom. For this latter
purpose a committee of the Board has collected
particulars from various colonial and foreign mining
departments, but so far it does not appear that any
decision has been arrived at as to the value to be
placed upon experience of coalmining gained abroad.
A further function of the Board is the consideration
of the qualifications of candidates for nomination to
sit for examination for inspectorships, for which
purpose there is a standing committee. The keen-
ness of the competition for these posts may be judged
by the fact that 25 applications were considered for
a single vacancy in the list of junior inspectors of
mines, but these were reduced by the committee to
five, who were finally recommended for nomination
to sit for the competition.

The main work of the Board has been the selec-
tion of candidates for first- and second-class certificates
of competency, and for surveyors’ certificates. With
regard to both first- and second-class certificates the
candidates included (1) apprentices, (2) workmen,
and (3) officials, and it is to be noted that the
apprentices secured the highest percentage of
successes and the officials the lowest, although the
number of candidates of the latter class by far
exceeded those of the other classes. Thus, over
60 per cent, of the candidates for managers’ certifi-
cates, and 62 per cent, of the candidates for under-
managers’ certificates were officials. Of workmen
there were 10*4 per cent, for managers’ certificates,
and 36*3 per cent, for under-managers’ certificates.
It is a gratifying feature of these examinations that
so large a proportion of workmen are fired by