June 18, 191J.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1281

The average value of coal, coke and manu-
factured fuel exported from the United Kingdom
during May was 17s. 10 3d. per ton, as com-
pared with 13s. 8*7d. in May 1914, and 14s., l’,6d.
in May 1913.

The value during the first five completed months
of the present year is 15s 8-2d. per ton as com-
pared with 13s. 10;5d. and 13s. 10’6d. respectively in
the corresponding periods of 1914 and 1913.

Of the total exports of coal during May, the
mean value of the large coal exported was 20s. 6-05d.;
through-and-through (unscreened), 14s. 7 2d.; and
small coal, 15s. 9*7d. The average value of all
kinds of coal exported was 17s. 8’7d., an increase of
7’4d. as compared with the previous month. Other-
wise divided, it fetched the following :—Steam coal,
18s. 9’4d. ; gas coal, 13s. 7’04d.; anthracite,
19s. 4*7d. ; household, 19s. 4Td. ; other sorts,
14s. 2'7d. The mean value of the coke exported
was 22s. 3-Id. per ton, and of the manufactured fuel
19s. 8-3d. per ton.

Two papers are down for reading at the general
meeting of the North of England Institute of Mining
and Mechanical Engineers, at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
to-morrow (Saturday); the first by Mr. H. W. G.
Halbaum on “ The Winding Drums of Practice and
Theory, with Notes on Factors of Safety and Economy
of Winding Popes,” and the second by Mr. C. W.
Chater entitled “ Mining in Burma.”

On Monday next, before the South Staffordshire
and War wick shire Institute of Alining Engineers, at
Birmingham, Air. James Lomax will lecture on
“The Formation of Coal Seams in the Light of
Decent Alicroscopic Investigations.”

At a meeting of the Aiming Institute of Scotland
at Edinburgh on Saturday last, Mr. Henry Briggs
read a paper dealing with rescue brigade systems,
and a second paper descriptive of “ An Auxiliary and
Outfit for Attachment to Self-contained Bescue
Apparatus ” was contributed by Mr. M. McCormick.

Air. Alontague (Financial Secretary to the Treasury)
stated in the House of Commons on Wednesday that
he hoped shortly to introduce a proposal for a taxation
of war profits.

Next Tuesday an important conference takes place
at Newcastle between representatives of the. North-
umberland coalowners’ and miners’ associations to
consider a suggestion of a Departmental Committee
regarding the suspension of the Eight Hours Act.
In the House of Commons, on Monday, the Home
Secretary said action in the matter of suspending the
Act was being considered........................

At Edinburgh, on Monday, the hearing was com-
menced in the charge against two Glasgow iron
merchants for alleged trading with the enemy by
exporting iron ore to Germany.

A further conference of members of Parliament
considered the question of coal prices on Tuesday,
and appointed a certain representation of labour,
owners, consumers and ship owners to meet the
President of the Board of Trade next week.

In reply to a question in the House of Commons,
Mr. Kunciman has stated that he does not consider
the question of coal supply and prices could be dealt
with under the Defence of the Realm Act.

Mr. Leonard Llewellyn, general manager of the
Cambrian Combine, has accepted an important
appointment under the Ministry of Munitions.

A special conference of the South AVales Aliners’
Federation on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed their
proposals for a new working agreement.

The Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board have
asked Sir George Ask with to act as neutral chairman
in regard to the claim of the miners for a 50 per
cent, increase in wages.

The statement made by Air.

Maximum Runciman in the House of Commons
Prices last week with regard to the price of
and Profits. eoal "iVas of tke utmost importance.

The Board of Trade have approached
the leading London merchants and induced them to
agree to a limitation of profits on the sale of coal.
At present the arrangement. appears to have . been
made to cover sales during the summer months, but
it is probable that a similar course of action will be

prolonged over the much more important period
when the householder has to burn coal for heating
purposes. The arrangement has been based in all
probability on a fixed margin between the price
delivered at depot and the retail price to the con-
sumer, whether delivered in bulk or by trolley, to
cover the merchants’. cost of working and a fair
proportion of profit.

Now,. looking to the end of the skein, it is
obvious that such an arrangement could be of no
advantage to the consumer if measures were not
taken to fix within reasonable limits the price at
which coal could be delivered at the depots. This
part of the question naturally resolves itself into two
sections, for the cost of transport must be added to
the pithead price, and abnormal conditions may
affect both of these factors to a material extent.

On reading carefully the evidence given before the
Retail Coal Prices Committee, it becomes evident
that the difficulties of transport have been a much
more considerable factor in the advance in price
than the Committee in their report seemed to infer.
The temporary blocks on the railways, the indifferent
running of wagons, as well as the transference to
rail of large quantities of fuel and other materials
usually conveyed by water, have greatly increased
the cost of conveyance, even though the rates of
carriage have remained the same. This side of the
question, however, can be controlled by the Govern-
ment ; it may not be easy to devise a remedy,
without a great augmentation of storage facilities,
but, if it were purely a question of transport, there
would be no necessity to touch either buyer or
seller.

On the other hand, it is useless to deny that a
large proportion of the increased price is comprised
in the advanced pit-head price, or that this advance,
measured purely on the individual ton, does not
include a large margin of profit over and above any
increase in the cost of working due to war condi-
tions. Further, we are prepared to agree with
Mr. Runciman that coal owners “ are not justified
in looking upon this as one of the normal good
years ”4 the necessity of the public at a time like the
present bears little affinity to the demand which
usually precedes an advance in price. Under the
latter conditions any attempt to limit the supply
would properly deserve reprobation, but, whatever
faults may lie at the door of the British coalmining
industry, it must be acquitted of any charge of ever
having attempted to restrict the output on a rising
market, and the employers on several occasions have
actively combatted conspiracies on the part of the
miners to this end, as witness the Welsh “ stop-day ”
action.

Apart from any moral relation, the industry as a
whole has never been in a position to enforce such
designs, and it has always seemed to us a weak point
in the organisation of the British coal trade that it
has never been in a position to control output or
prices, in the same sense that the German Kohlen-
kontor has been able to regulate the sales of its
products ; for history has proved that a wise
administration of this character, while it has pre-
vented prices from an utter collapse, and the
perpetuation of bad trading conditions that are dis-
advantageous to seller and buyer alike, has actually
checked the development of famine prices that takes
place when unbridled competition is extinguished by
an inordinate expansion of the demand.. That the
British coal trade has never been able to effect any
control of prices has been due mainly to the fact that
the industry has been conducted, so to speak, in
watertight compartments, and more especially to the
fact that a large proportion of the output has to be
placed in the world’s markets, where it comes in
contact with American, German, Belgian, and a
number of other coals. Thus, the distinction drawn
by Air. Runciman between wheat and coal, that “the
price of coal is in no way dependent, or very little
dependent, upon the world’s direction outside,” is
not accurate, for the price at which coal can be sold
in the River Plate or in the Mediterranean has a
marked influence upon the pithead. price ; and,
indeed, if this were not so, the curtailment of exports
to such markets would have little justification.-

It is true that the Government have endeavoured

to remove this outside factor by closing down the
export trade to neutrals, but this was only done long
after the causes of the late rise in prices had begun
to work, and the trade, even now, cannot in a day
be reorganised to fit in with the unusual conditions
of a closed market.

We have made the above observations mainly
with the object of showing that the coal owner does
not deserve the opprobrium that has been cast upon
him. Let us see exactly what took place in the
closing month of last year. Merchants who had
lessened their contracts in the height of summer in
anticipation of a falling market, were short of coah
Consumers, both large and small, became panic-
stricken, and some of them selfishly bought greatly
in excess of their individual requirements; but it
was more difficult than usual to procure supplies
on the open market, because the reduction in
output had left the collieries with less free coal
to meet the normal margin of trade. When
first one buyer and then another approached
the colliery owner and competed for his supplies of
free coal, he could do nothing but accept the best
offer. It is important to remember that owing to
the increase in cost of working due to enlistment,
scarcity of pit wood and materials, taxation, &c.,
the bulk of the contracted output was being sold at
a loss ; but the main point is that, in accordance
with the practice of trading, the price of coal could
only be fixed by the offers of buyers. There is no
organisation to which such matters could be referred,
even if the self-effacement of the colliery owner had
carried him to this Quixotic extreme. Sir Arthur
AIarkham has told us how his patriotic attempt to
restrict the selling price only led to the merchants
taking an increased profit without any benefit to the
consumer.

If there is one class of the community that should
be il controlled ” above another it is the consumer.
At the recent meeting of the Institution of Gas
Engineers there was quite a “ breeze ” between the
north and south country managers ; the former
maintained that it was chiefly due to’ the indiscri-
minate rush for coal on the part of the south country
managers that the price of gas coal had risen ; the
latter retorted that the north-country people had
feathered their nest and did not care what happened
to their neighbours. There we have, in a microcosm,
a true presentation of the case. If the Government
be invested with powers to prevent the unwarrant-
able holding up of stocks, surely this should apply
not only to the merchant or producer, who represents
the pivot of a large circle of consumers, but also to
those consumers who double their stocks on the first
breath of rumour; in the aggregate these hoards
may represent a considerable amount of “ withheld ”
coal.	1

Under the conditions that have been gradually
built up in 'Germany, it would be a matter of no
great difficulty for the Government now to deal with
the problem at the colliery end, but it would appear
to be an almost insuperable task to give the British
coal trade a constitution at this hour. The favourite
plan is to fix a maximum for certain typical
grades of coal, which should not necessarily be
unalterable as the stars, but subject to extraneous
changes in the cost factor. Thus, taking Yorkshire
Silkstone and Haigh Afoor, and Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire house coals, a figure of 15s. at pit
has been suggested, which, with the cost of carriage
and the 7s 6d. allotted to the merchants, would give
about 32s. at the consumer’s door. This estimate
was made before the miners obtained their “ war
bonus,” and this has been reckoned as the equivalent
of Is. 6d. in the selling price'. It is not necessary
here to speculate how far this increase in working
costs has been induced by the cost of living, and how
far by the impression that extravagant profits were
being made by someone in the trade.

There are two grave objections to the plan set
forth above. The first is that it leaves out of count
all questions of credit or reputation, and would tend
to bring about a reduction in efficiency and quality;
for this is the rock upon which nearly all attempts
at co-operative trading have split in this country ;
the producer who takes a pride in the quality of his
product has always declined to pool it in an aggregate,