May 7, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

969

Judgment was given in the House of Lords on
Tuesday in the appeal by the Rev. E. B. Smith and
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners v. A. E. Hastings
Medhurst and others. The point involved was as
to whether the lord of the manor of Kippax, in
Yorkshire, or the vicar of the Kippax parish was
entitled to the minerals underlying glebe lands
belonging to the vicarage. The appeal was allowed.

In conference on Saturday last, the Miners’ Federa-
tion of Great Britain rejected the owners’ offer of an
immediate increase of 10 per cent, on the various
conciliation boards’ basis rates, and resolved to leave
their claim in the hands of the Premier. Mr.
Asquith has decided that the war bonus application
shall be decided by arbitration in each district within
one week, the advance to operate as from the 5th
inst.

The conference on the extension of

The British trade, held last week at
Coal Trade Cardiff, under the joint auspices of
and National the Cardiff Technical Schools and
Industries. Development Committees, was of
more than local importance; for it
touched upon questions of the highest national
interest. The discussion covered a wide field, only a
limited area of which we propose to review on the
present occasion. Amongst the topics most closely
connected with the coal mining industry, the conference
had under consideration questions of general and
technical education, economical uses of coal, industrial
research, the dye industry, the carbonisation of coal,
and the relative advantages of exports and imports
as applied to Cardiff in particular.

The subject of education was treated by Prof.
Armstrong in his highly-characteristic method. The
arguments are familiar enough, and serve as an
admirable example of the patience with which our
industrialists will listen to the reiteration of doctrines
which every one accepts, but no one lifts a finger to
enforce. Mr. T. Vivian Pees put the matter into a
nutshell when he implied that the difficulty to be
contended with is the inertia of our commercial men
and leaders of industry. We believe this is a more
serious factor than what Prof. Armstrong described
as the thraldom of Oxford, which is only a picturesque
expression for the domination of classical over
technical education. For education, like the Press
and methods of government, has to conform to the
general demand, as even the older universities are
now finding out. With regard to the next question—
the more economic use of coal, Prof. Armstrong
made use of an expression which seems to require
some further explanation than his speech afforded.
He said “ Coal must be your main object of attack—
it will be our national duty at an early date to
enquire into the great question of the ownership and
true use of coal.” Then, after again enunciating
his view that no bituminous coal should be used as
fuel uncarbonised, he proceeded to advocate the
institution of systematic experiments for the discovery
of new uses for coal, to pay for which research work
he desires that a tax should be imposed on the whole
coal industry. It is clear that Prof. Armstrong’s
sympathies are not on the side of the coal owner.
He would not only tax him to provide research
funds, but proposes also to look into the question of
ownership. We may, however, dismiss such sinister
views as being rather academic than practical; and,
as for the general attitude of the coal owners of this
country towards technical education and research,
we need only refer to a couple out of many examples
___viZt) the Treforest Mining School and the Altofts
Coal Dust Experiments, both of which have been
the outcome of voluntary and liberal contributions
from the colliery proprietors. As for the general
notion of organised industrial research, we cordially
aoree that it would be an excellent thing, and we
are glad that this question is incorporated in the
resolution, carried at the Cardiff meeting, defining
the scope of the enquiry which the new representative
Commission will undertake.

The establishment in this country of a dye industry
was another topic which afforded Prof. Armstrong
with an opportunity for criticising the Board of
Trade scheme—which was, he said, simply the conse-

quence of complete inability to understand the
scientific side of industry. We, however, are rather
inclined to blame the attitude of the business men
towards science, which they too often wrongly
regard as opposed to practice. The Board of Trade
is a comparatively harmless body ; trained, it is true,
mostly in the Oxford classical schools, but neverthe-
less possessing sufficient common sense to rely upon
the best expert assistance at hand—viz., the business
men themselves. Thus we arrive again at the
conclusion of Mr. Vivian Pees, that it is the inertia
of the business community that must be overcome
before there is the slightest hope of founding a
national dye industry in this country capable of
rivalling that which Germany has built up.

One thing, however, is clear, and that is the necessity
of producing a larger quantity of coal tar products.
We must carbonise more coal. Germany is ahead of
us in that respect, and it is clear that, without more
by-product recovery, we shall not be in a position to
supply the deficiencies in dyes and chemicals brought
about by the war. One of the difficulties in the way
of producing by-products seems to be the disposal of
the gas. In the Dortmund district, as shown by
figures given by Mr. T. G. Watts at the conference
the output of lighting gas had increased from
25,271,738 cubic metres in 1909 to 137,954,848 cubic
metres in 1913, and the electrical energy supplied
had also increased from 364,426 to 1,035,265 kilowatt-
hours. In South Wales, on the other hand, we have
to record the failure of the Rhondda scheme at
Llwynypia, which is only partly off-set by the
success of the gas disposal scheme at the Powell
Duffryn Colliery. It looks as if some method must
be found whereby the gas can be brought where it
is wanted, and the proposal to utilise it at the Dowlais
works in Cardiff deserves consideration.

The last point to which we shall refer in this article
is the discussion on the proposal to increase the
imports into Cardiff. Much attention has been given
to the improvement of export facilities, but imports
are relatively insignificant, as compared with the
neighbouring port of Bristol. Yet Cardiff possesses
great advantages for incoming vessels, such, for
example, as the certainty of an outward cargo and
cheap bunkers. On the other side of the question
is the fact that any great extension of imports would
require increased dock accommodation, necessitating
an outlay which, to judge from Bristol, would not be
remunerative. But Bristol possesses a compensating
advantage in cheaper food supplies, a valuable offset
against rate-supported docks. It may be doubted,
also, whether Cardiff would be well situated as a
distributing centre for imported goods, and this is a
fundamental requirement for a general port of dis-
charge. The attention of Cardiff has very properly
been largely concentrated hitherto on facilities for
coal shipment, with magnificent success, and it may
be that other issues have suffered somewhat in
consequence. This is another of the things the new
joint commission will consider, and we heartily wish
a successful issue to its deliberations.

The Prime Minister, we are glad
Wages to see, has recognised the force
and of the employers’ view that the war
Exports. bonus question can only be treated
on a sectional basis, and we hope
that the men’s leaders will now accept a situation
which has followed logically from a course of action
deliberately selected by them.

It was assumed that Mr. Asquith would appoint
umpires in the various districts to arbitrate upon the
men’s claim; but the Premier has instead decided
that compulsory arbitration shall not be employed
until genuine efforts have been made to effect a
settlement by negotiation ; it would have been super-
erogatory to arbitrate upon these matters when they
had not even been discussed on the basis upon
which they are now placed, for the masters have
always been ready to negotiate and to give relief
where it could be shown to be justified after a full
consideration of all the local conditions. So long,
however, as the miners persisted in ignoring these
local circumstances, it was a waste of time to discuss1
the fairness of the general demand ; all that could
be done was to make a counter-offer that recognised

in a generous spirit the necessity for raising earnings
to meet the higher cost of living, and that at the same
time would not press too hardly upon the less
fortunately placed coalfields.

There is, in fact, a much greater disparity between
the claim and the offer than would appear at first
sight, for the men’s demand of 20 per cent., is based
upon current earnings, including all the percentages
upon the standards, whilst the owners’ offer of 10 per
cent, is based upcn those standards, and is really
equivalent to about 6| per cent, on the basis adopted
by the men. The bridge seems wide, but the coal
trade in the past has successfully dealt with more
serious problems. There should be no insuperable
difficulty in effecting a settlement in the great
Federated districts where the employers have just
made a liberal concession to the workmen; and this
should have a marked influence upon the negotia-
tions in the other districts. The Prime Minister,
however, recognises the danger of allowing a dis-
pute of this magnitude to perpend indefinitely over
the head of the country, and has set a time limit of
a week to the negotiations, after which the umpires
will be called in to perform their unenviable task.
It will be noted that Mr. Asquith directs that any
advance “ shall merge in any rise of wages that may
hereafter be accorded in the district owing to a rise in
the price of coal.” This earmarks the fact that the
rise in living costs is a general movement in which
coal must necessarily share, and that under the
existing arrangements as to changes in wages, the
miners automatically would have their earnings
raised to correspond.

The surprising feature of the whole business is
that the miners’ leaders should have appealed to a
form of judgment—namely, compulsory arbitration—
which they have always spurned in the past. They
can only have done this because they felt that the
tacit threat of non-compliance with an unfavourable
award would imply such grave disaster to the country
as imperceptibly to sway the judgment of the most
fair-minded of arbitrators.

The Order in Council prohibiting the export of
coal to neutrals is also bound to affect the question,
for, if carried out to its full extent, it will not only
severely prejudice the trade of the export districts,
but will give an added impetus to the general rise in
food prices. But it is impossible at present to
estimate the full effect of this step, because, just as
we have no sure indication of the reasons that have
prompted it, we cannot say in what degree exporters
will be allowed to avail themselves of the provision as
to licences. It may be that the chief intention is to
obtain some control over shipments, and that where
the Iona fides of a contract can be substantiated, no
impediment will be raised to dealings with friendly
countries.

If, on the other hand, the serious intention be to
restrict exports, it may not be so easy for exporters
to secure permission to send coal to their customers
in neutral countries, and the gravest results will
ensue. In the first place, if this decision is a sequel
to the report of the Retail Prices Committee, the
restriction of exports will do little to increase the
supply of fuel in the home market, and most
certainly will not tend to cheapen it; for the
the great bulk of the coal that finds its way
abroad is of the steam variety, and is used on Biitish
steamships and on railways earning interest
for British shareholders ; to constrict the outlets for
this fuel must result in a lessened production of the
house and gas coals that are largely won from the
same pits that produce the steam coal. In the
second place, apart from the very serious loss of
trade in withholding these supplies of coal to such
places as South America and Scandinavia, we shall
be increasing appreciably the home freight on grain,
timber, and other necessities of life. The only advan-
tage that we can discern is the possibility of being
able to divert a portion of the labour now engaged
in raising steam coal to the working of other grades
of fuel more urgently needed in this country ; this
may be a necessity arising from the shortage of
skilled labour, and Sir Richard Redmayne’s
Committee may have discovered some economical and
practical way of carrying out such a scheme. In any
case the cost is going to be very heavy.