March ‘2G, 1915. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 657 best descriptions and some seconds are unavailable. The Scottish trade is still, brisk in the east, but that in the west has dropped off somewhat. The Great Central Railway Company are reported to have notified collieries in arrears with contract supplies that wagons for other people’s orders will not be sent to the pits until the railway company’s demands have been met. The Retail Coal Prices Committee are preparing their report. They are stated to have arrived at the conclusion that the increased cost is mainly due to decreased supply and increased demand, increased water transport rates, and the disorganisation of the railways consequent upon military exigencies. We regret to have to record the death of Mr. John Wilson, M.P., the well-known Durham miners’ leader. The interesting test case brought by Messrs. Robert Addie and Sons Limited for the removal of a checkweigher has now been concluded. Sheriff Hay Shennan has given judgment in favour of applicants. The coal supply question in Norway is said to be becoming acute. A Board of Trade memorandum has been issued announcing certain proposals for the acceleration of war munitions to which the workmen’s representa- tives have agreed. It is proposed that no stoppages of work shall take place and that differences shall be settled by arbitration. The appeal of Lord Kitchener for the curtailment of miners’ holidays at Easter has met with the right response on the part of the various district associa- tions, who have recommended the men not to take more than two days’ holiday. The third of the interesting reports Employment issued by the Board of Trade on and the state of employment relates to Overtime. February, and follows upon similar reports dealing respectively with October and December. The first two months of the year have witnessed a complete change in the industrial situation : no longer are complaints heard of unemployment, and the sporadic stoppages and agitations for improved wages conditions actually betoken tension rather than the reverse. This is fully borne out in the report. In December the reduction in the number of male workpeople in industrial employment, compared with July, was 10*9 per cent., while the percentage joining the Forces up to that date was 13-3 per cent. By February the percentage joining the Forces had risen to 15*4 per cent., while the reduction in the number of male workpeople had risen only to 11*8 per cent. The tendency exhibited by these statistics is emphasised by the figures for short time and overtime. The number of male workpeople on short time has been reduced from 10*5 per cent, in December to 6 per cent, in February, while the percentage on overtime has risen from 12’8 per cent, to 13*8 per cent. It is estimated that, when account is taken of employment by the War Office and Admiralty, the number of persons who have found employment in industrial occupations who were not so occupied before the war, is about 250,000. In this connection, it should be remembered that the percentages given under the head of enlistments do not include those who have joined the Forces after becoming unem- ployed. It is from this source that the normal replacement of labour takes place, and the restriction of this supply has helped to accentuate the scarcity of labour of which so many manufacturers are now complaining. On the other hand the various industries have not contributed to the Forces in true proportion either to the numbers of workmen engaged, or to their military significance. The Board of Trade report divides the industries into groups, according as to whether there has been an increment’ of labour or the reverse. The first group—that in which there is a marked shortage of labour—includes most of the trades concerned with the supply of armaments and military equipment, and, without doubt, the output from these establishments has increased enormously. Of all the industries included in the group, the coalmining industry is probably the only one of which this is not true, and we have here one reason why consumers have been unable to obtain their usual supplies of fuel. Taking the group as a whole, it is seen that the contraction of numbers employed in February, as compared with July, is far higher in the coalmining industry than in any other, with the exception of saw milling, whilst the percentage working overtime is practically negligible. The figures are so illuminating that we give them in full. The actual pressure from without has been rather greater in such trades as the shipbuilding, engineering, woollen and leather trades — notwithstanding all the clamour in the public Press—but, although the mining industry, with one exception, has made the highest contribution to the Army in the shape of recruits, it is the one industry in this group that is still denied, by the Legislature, the means of readjusting itself by the working of overtime. State of Employment in December 1914 and February 1915 Compared with Employment before the War. (Number employed in July = 100.) Trades. Approximate industrial population census, 1911. December 1914. Contraction or expansion of ' numbers employed, i February 1915. Contraction or 1 expansion of numbers employed. Known to have j joined the Forces. Net displacement (—) or replacement (t). Known.to have joined the Forces. 1 .. ' Net displacement (-) or replacement (+). ! On short time. ■ On overtime. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Percent. Per cent. Per cent. P. cent. P.cent. Shipbuilding 164,000 - 6'0 13'6 + 7'6 - 2'4 13'9 + 11'5 0'7 44'5 Leather and leather goods Chemicals (including ex- 67,000 - i*0 . 14’2 + 13'2 + 2'5 16'0 + 18*5 2'6 40'7 plosives) 122,000 - 3’3 15'4 + 12'1 + 1'2 17'4 + 18'6 1'0 24'1 Engineering 665,000 - 8'7 14'6 + 5'9 - 9'1 16'1 + 7'0 3'6 29'8 Woollen and worsted 129,000 + 0‘7 7'2 + 7'9 + 0'3 9'0 + 9'3 3'3 27'1 Boot and shoe 199,000 - 3’3 9'9 + 6'6 - 1'1 10'9 + 9'8 1'3 36'1 Hosiery 18,000 - 0-7 7'5 + 6'8 - 2'7 12'3 + 9'6 3'9 14'7 Iron and steel 311,000 315,000 - 7’5 13'9 + 6'4 - 5'7 16'1 + 10'4 5'7 15'7 16'0 Food - 5-6 13'4 + 7'8 - 8'6 16'1 + 7-5 ' 2'5 Saw milling 44,000 - 6-2 14'2 + 8'0 -12'0 16'1 + 4'1 10'1 6'3 Coal and other mines 1,164,000 -10’4 1 13'7 + 3'3 -13'8 17'2 + 3'1 2'3 0'6 This is a fact that the Committee now engaged in investigating the conditions of employment in mines with relation to enlistment cannot burke. It is generally felt that any system of compulsion that may be introduced—which may be nearer at hand than we suspect—must include powers to return to the industrial ranks a certain proportion of those who are now on active service. It must be remem- bered that men who have now completed their training will always be ready when required, and their temporary return to the workshops may enable others to become similarly proficient, and at the same time aid the Government to obtain the supply of munitions, for which the cry is4 4 ever more.” But is it right that we should have to make this sacrifice when not one of a million miners is allowed to work more than eight hours per diem—while artisans and mill- hands are freed from all restrictions ? We badly need some adjustment of the conditions so that no man may be overworked whilst others carry on their “ business as usual,” to pervert a popular phrase. The North of England has been A Great prolific in men of character; perhaps Labour if is tb©. keen struggle for existence Leader. that begets them. However this may be, it is certain that John Wilson was in his way a great man, and that his environment and the extraordinary vicissitudes of his life were mainly responsible for those qualities which gained for him the respect of all with whom he was brought in contact. Some years ago Dr. Wilson was induced to publish his autobiography, and this book is a truly human document, in which the author never excuses himself. For John Wilson in his time had been a “ bad lot” ; the son of a poacher and smuggler, reared under conditions of squalor, misery and tyranny, that read strangely to-day, he gave way as a young man to all the elemental excesses that too often spring from the neglect of a strong mind. But, although he attributed his conversion to Divine agency, there was nothing of the sanctimonious about Dr. Wilson ; he was rather a kindly spirit, whose horizon had been broadened rather than constricted by adventure and the conflict of passions. For the miners of the North of England he did a great work, and, although in his latter days the revolutionary element at times surged up. against his wiser counsels, he always retained the affection of his fellow-workers of all ranks. The industry is a loser when such men die or their influence wanes. The wording of the Sixth Report Experimental of the Explosions in Mines Com- Explosions. mittee has been taken to indicate that no further work is to be undertaken at Eskmeals. The language of the report is, as ever, guarded, and we believe that no definite decision has actually been arrived at on this point, but there can be no doubt that the feeling amongst mining engineers generally is that to break off the enquiry at the stage now reached would be a grave mistake. In the discussion on the interesting paper on “Coal Dust Explosions,” read by Mr. J. D. Morgan at Stoke last week, Dr. Cadman put the matter more strongly than some others might be disposed to do, through fear that such criticism may be wrongly con- strued as a depreciation of the really valuable labours performed by the Committee ; nevertheless, we cannot but agree that he is truly representing public opinion in the matter when he says that 44 such an investiga- tion might mean years of hard and laborious research, and it would be a national crime if the Sixth,, Report of the Committee was allowed to remain the final word of the greatest piece of research connected with mines ever undertaken by a responsible Government.” In advocating the stone dust remedy, the Committee have never done more than express the belief that a 50 per cent, mixture of stone dust would prove effective in greatly minimising, if not preventing, explosions of coal dust. The proper interpretation of this state of mind, probably, is that it is believed that stone dust in these proportions will stop an explosion at source by stifling the inflammation, but that once an explosion wave has started upon its course, the estimates arrived at may prove to be fallacious. Now it will be observed that the first conclusion is one, perhaps, that it was possible to test completely in the Eskmeals tube, but the Committee would not have approached this great problem in the true scientific spirit if they had assumed that the conditions at Eskmeals could cover every possible concatenation to be found in the pit. It is remarkable that we should have taken so long to appreciate this truism, and the reason no doubt is that all who are engaged in research work have a predisposition to exaggerate the importance of the results obtained by them, by ignoring the limitations of the apparatus placed at their disposal. Mr. Morgan cannot be said to have fallen into this common error, because the chief lesson which he has drawn from his small-scale experiments is that the latter do not represent actual working conditions. Of the results obtained by him. the first—namely, that an excess of coal dust, like an excess of firedamp, may reduce the explosibility of a mixture—has less practical impor- tance, because we never actually obtain a mixture of coal and stone dust that is homogeneous throughout a mine, and no mining engineer in his senses would try to render his workings safe by adopting this paradoxical treatment.