April 1, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN-

709

With a view to stopping speculation the Russian
Government are reported to be requisitioning coal
reserves and outputs.

. In the House of Lords on Tuesday judgment was
reserved in the appeal of the Rev. E. B. Smith, vicar
of Kippax (West Riding), and the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners v. A. F. Hastings Medhurst and
Others. The point at issue is whether the ‘vicar of
the parish or the lord of the manor is entitled to
certain minerals under a portion of the glebe
belonging to the vicarage and allotted under a
Private Inclosure Act of 1791.

The House of Lords on Monday dismissed the
appeal of C. Smith v. D. Davis and Sons, on the
ground that Smith was not entitled to refuse to
submit himself to a second medical examination in
proceedings under the Workmen’s Compensation
Act.

The Court of Appeal has now decided that the
Coal Mines Act does not prevent a checkweigher
from undertaking the duties of a workmen’s inspector
as well as his own. The case was Date v. the Gas
Coal Collieries Limited, the company being the
unsuccessful appellants.

Absentees from work have been the cause of
serious restrictions of output over all the mining
districts. The Old Silkstone Collieries Limited have
notified their men that the allowance to dependants
of their workmen who have responded to the country’s
call will be stopped until a better state of affairs
prevails.

The appeal of the Dalton Main Collieries Limited,
from a decismn of Mr. Justice Bailhache in an action
brought against them by a filler named Churm for
the recovery of wages, was concluded on Tuesday.
The question involved was whether the company or
a contractor were the employers of the man, and the
Court has decided that the company were not the
employers.

It is now obvious that with very few exceptions
the Easter holidays of the miners throughout the
coalfields will be restricted to two days only.

Surface workers in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire
and North Wales are pressing for increased wages to
meet the higher cost of living.

The result of the quarterly ascertainment of the
selling price of coal in the Northumberland coalfield
has resulted in an advance in men’s wages of
1 per cent.

In regard to the demand of the Miners’ Federation
of Great Britain for an increase of 20 per cent, in
wages on present rates, Sir Thomas Ratcliffe-Ellis
has replied that the matter is one for local arrange-
ment. The secretary of the Federation has now
written to the separate district owners’ associations
to arrange a meeting on the matter.

One of the most salutary effects of
The the present war is the encourage-
Oryanisation ment that it has given to self-analysis.

Of The great prosperity that this country

Industry, has enjoyed for a generation and
more has engendered a conservative
policy, that has made us foolishly contemptuous
of the work of others and left us wilfully ignorant of
our own shortcomings.

Indications are not lacking that the force of
circumstances is bringing these decadent tendencies
to a halt, and even at this early stage a new industrial
policy is beginning to acquire definite shape. One
characteristic of this, we are glad to see, is a recog-
nition that science and commercialism can no longer
afford to travel on opposite sides of the street, with
politics carefully preserving a course between.

It has come home to us that the German Weltwirt-
schaft, a commercial policy embracing the whole
world, has been built up on the strongest foundations.
The scientific study of foreign markets has been
cultivated by the establishment of institutes and
courses at the technical universities, the processes of
manufacture have been aided at every stage by
research, and the State has been ever at hand to
help the movement along. It is a severe reflection
upon our business men and professors that they

waited for a war to find these things out. But it is
not altogether the result of smug self-satisfaction or
supineness; as Mr. Fraser Smith pointed out in a
paper read last week before the North-East Coast
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Great
Britain, there has been no direct necessity for the
application of science to industry. The forlorn case
of the chemical industry has abruptly shown that
this is a mistaken conception of our destiny. Mr.
Fraser Smith thinks that drastic changes will have
to be made to remedy the situation—chiefly changes
in points of view. He thinks the public throughout
the length and breadth of the land will have to be
educated to appreciate the importance and value of
technical science, and “ the technical man must
appreciate more and more the fact that the apparently
unimportant scientific discovery of to-day becomes
the great corner stone of an industry to-morrow.
Both the public and engineers will have to cultivate
the habit of thinking more on the serious subjects of
everyday life. It seems, in fact, that everyone will
have to consider his country and the world at large
less as existing as an opportunity for him to benefit
himself. Public and engineers must more and more
appreciate the necessity for co-operation in the
attainment of the very necessary progress in
industry.”

In meeting the situation, Mr. Fraser Smith thinks
“ it is scarcely a matter for the universities and
schools to deal with in the first instance. Reform
may possibly be necessary in these quarters as the
demand for instruction in technical science increases,
but the present object is to increase this demand on
the part of engineers and the public for more know-
ledge of technical science. Only if the universities
and schools should be backward in supplying and
encouraging the demand for instruction in technical
science, would reform be necessary. What is really
wanted is some organisation which shall have for its
special object the promotion of the more intensive
application of science to engineering and ship-
building.” The organisation which has the above
for its object is, to Mr. Fraser Smith’s mind, the
engineering technical institution.

Salvation does indeed appear to reside in the
democratisation of our learned institutions. • Some of
our societies to-day are so scared by the word
“ commerce,” that anything that is not obviously
unpractical and academic is boycotted; the result is
that the business man has come to look upon such
organisations as a sort of glorified debating society.
On the other hand, the so-called commercial associa-
tions have restricted themselves to domestic affairs or
to stale and gangrenous topics that insult nobody’s
prejudices and never do any good to anybody. It
is a sheer waste of effort.

There are some signs of an awakening, however.
For example, we have before us an interesting
report of a sub-committee appointed by the
Engineers’ Club, of Manchester, to consider the
steps to be taken to enable the engineering industry
to take advantage of the present situation. The
report points out that the German success may be
summarised in one word—“ organisation.” This
has been the weak spot of the British engineering
industry in the past, and, unless it is altered, we
cannot hope to compete with even moderate success
for foreign business (and this applies especially to
the smaller firms). The capital invested in the
British engineering industry is estimated at over
300 millions sterling, and it is thought that if
firms representing this huge sum would co-operate
and equip themselves for a determined and soundly
organised effort, there should be no question of their
ability to capture the huge trade now going a-
begging, and not only should they regain the lost
ground, and maintain it, but should go on to capture
more, and still more. We have no wish to pour cold
water on such schemes, but we feel that grandilo-
quence can be left until something definite has been
achieved ; it is no use pretending that trade can be
won by simply blowing trumpets; it is a question
of hard and unremitting labour. Without doubt
the Engineers’ Club appreciates this fact. The
sub-committee advocate an association on a, non-
trading and non - interference - with - prices basis,

comprising British manufacturing concerns in all
branches of engineering, and aiming at the inclusion
of every such concern, with a constitution giving it
a legal status framed on broad principles and with
an efficient and energetic management. The associa-
tion would not trade in any way whatever. It
would assist members equally and without distinction
in the obtaining of business, and would generally
act in the furthering of the interests of the industry
as a whole.

It is proposed that the association should have a
central bureau or exchange at headquarters, and
should also have, bureaux or exchanges in. the
largest towns in this country and in various British
dependencies and foreign countries. The work of
the 'association would be divided amongst and
directed by departmental standing committees
appointed by, or elected from, the council, including
(if thought fit) co-opted members. The following is
suggested as a convenient series of such committees,
viz. : (1) Parliamentary and general purposes ;
(2) external (sales) organisation ; (3) internal
(producing) organisation ; (4) patents and inventions;
(5) technical education ; (6) publications and adver-
tisements; (7) finance. Special committees would
be appointed from time to time, as occasion might
require, to deal with temporary or special matters.

There are already several organisations cf this
character in existence ; the newly-formed Institute of
Industry and Science aims at a still higher altitude,
and some industries are already equipped for strong
co-operative action ; one that may be taken as an
example is the British Electrical and Allied Manu-
facturers’ Association, representing an issued capital
of over £20,000,000. It may be noted that this
association has recently embarked upon a quarterly
publication The Teama Journal, which is a happy
blending of the scientific and the commercial. The
charge that has been laid at the door of this and
other organisations —possibly well grounded in some
instances—is that whilst posing as public benefactors,
their professed objects have been subordinated to
less praiseworthy and altruistic ideals. The fault
very often lies with the members ; the complaint has
frequently been made that it is very difficult to
interest the British manufacturer in any scheme
unless you can prove that he will derive material
and even disproportionate advantages from it.
Proposals that promise at some indefinite date to
conduce to the general benefit of his particular
industry do not impress him, if prosperity is to be
shared with his competitors. Yet it will generally
be found that where sensible men adopt an attitude
like this, there is some plausible reason for it. The
individualism of British industry is notorious, and
each manufacturer has his own system of organisa-
tion, which is adapted to his particular business and
may not be necessarily bad because it does not lend
itself to propaganda on a larger and more catholic
scale. We now have to recognise, however, that
independent effort no longer fills the bill. It should
not be impossible for patriotic business men,
engineers, scientists—or call them what you like—
whilst preserving their identity, to contribute by
their co-operation to the national welfare and to the
advancement of their businesses or professions—too
much can be made of these invidious distinctions in
terms.

And what of the State ? In the first place, it
is clear that the imperial question does not stand on
the same plane as before the war; the systematic
and intelligent development of our colonial resources
by British capital and British labour must be one of
the main planks in our industrial platform; and, in
this work, the State must assist. Further industry
should no longer be hampered by obsolete and
provocative legislative restrictions. Manufacturers
must be relieved from the anomalies of the present
system of taxation, and the natural facilities of the
country must be developed and adapted to meet the
requirements of the people. The susceptibilities of
individuals can no longer weigh so heavily against
the public need. We know that we are sounding
the death knell of so-called u private enterprise,”
that cherished British institution, but it can very
well go, if something better takes its place.