July 2, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

31

per cent., and the men intended handing in their notices on
Saturday last.

Mr. J. Cooper, Wolstanton, one of the organisers of the
North Staffordshire Miners’ Federation, has been appointed
president of the Federation, in succession to* the late Mr.
Thomas Young.

There is still no settlement in regard to the request for an
advance in wages of surface workers at certain collieries in
the Barnsley district. The South Yorkshire coal owners
have granted 26£ per cent, to non-manipulators of coal, and
32| per cent, to coal manipulators. The Barnsley and Dis-
trict Coal Owners’ Association, which is composed of thin
seam owners, have offered 22 per cent, and 27 per cent,
respectively, but the men concerned have resolved that they
will accept nothing less than the South Yorkshire agreement.
It is claimed by the owners of these thin seam pits that
there should be a different rate from that in operation in
connection with thick seam pits, just in the same way as
they have a different rate in relation to the minimum wage.
Their contention is based on the fact that the thick seam
pits have a lower cost of production, and have a higher selling
price for fuel. The thin seam owners have offered to submit
the question to independent arbitration. About 8,000 men
are employed above and below ground at the thinner seam
pits in the Barnsley district which are affected. A further
attempt to settle the dispute was made on Tuesday, when
representatives of owners and men concerned met and dis-
cussed the matter. At the close of tlie conference, it was
announced that no settlement had been arrived at, though it
is expected that further negotiations will take place.

A dispute has occurred at Askern Main Colliery. It
appears, so far as the facts can be gathered, that three
deputies were appointed, and as, it is alleged, they were
not members of the union, the other deputies refused to
work with them. When the men presented themselves for
work there were no deputies to go down with them, and they
were unable to work. About 700 men are employed at the
pit.

Lords Justices Swinfen Eady, Phillimore, and Bankes
during the week considered the appeal by the defendants in
the case of Uooley v. the Butterley Company Limited, from
a decision of a divisional court, on an appeal from the county
court of Derby, raising an important question under the
Minimum Wage Act. The plaintiff was employed to work a
particular seam at an Alfreton colliery, under contract with
a “ butty,” and the question raised was whether, under these
circumstances, the company paying sufficient to enable the
” butty ” to pay the wages, the company could be held
liable.—Sir Bobert Finlay, K.C., for plaintiff, said his first
contention was that the 44 butty ” was the man’s employer
for the purposes of payment. Secondly, it was not disputed
that the company paid the 44 butty ” for the coal got a sum
which was quite sufficient to pay the minimum wages of the
district, and it was the custom for the 44 butties ” to take for
themselves everything above the district rate. That, counsel
continued, was sufficient answer to the plaintiff’s claim
against the company. Though the submission was that the
butty ” got quite enough from the company to pay the
plaintiff the full amount of wages under the Minimum Wage
Act, he claimed that the 44 butty ” was entitled to keep for
himself any surplus, without regard to paying the minimum
wage. Counsel submitted that was not so. The county
court gave judgment for the plaintiff on both grounds, and
the divisional court confirmed the decision of the county
court. It was a matter of importance that the contract that
Uooley signed embodied the contract rules. One of these
rules was that a person working under a stallman was
responsible to the contractors only to the extent that he should
obey the contractor’s rules. Counsel submitted that that
excluded clearly by its very terms any liability on the part of
the company in respect of wages. He agreed that the com-
pany were bound to pay the stallman a sum sufficient to pay the
minimum wage, but, once having done that, he submitted
their responsibility to the workman ceased.—Their lordships
reserved judgment.

Scotland.

Sir George Askwith, of the Board of Trade, presided in
Glasgow on Tuesday as neutral chairman at a meeting of
the Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board to consider the
claims of the miners for an advance of 50 per cent.—nominally
2s. per day, less 9d. recently awarded by the Prime Minister
as a war bonus. Mr. Robert Smillie stated the case for the
miners, and Mr. Adam Nimmo, Glasgow, replied for the
employers. Sir George Askwith, after hearing the parties,
intimated he would make his award as early as possible.
The miners’ representatives agreed to recommend that this
year’s summer holidays be restricted to four days.

Several matters affecting the mining industry were dis-
cussed at a meeting of the executive of the National Union
of Scottish Mine Workers, held in Glasgow on Monday, Mr.
John Robertson, vice-president, in the chair. From Stirling-
shire and West Lothian it was reported that disputes regard-
ing the full amount not being given when the recent advances
were granted had been amicably arranged, but in some
instances complaints had been made as to the method of
arriving at the amounts to be given for the respective
percentages. It was decided to bring the question before the
Conciliation Board for a national decision. Mr. Murdoch
intimated that a stoppage of work at Viewpark Colliery,
Uddingston, had been averted meantime, the manager having
agreed to reinstate the two men who were alleged to have
been unfairly dismissed. The question of contracting was
to be discussed with the local manager. Regarding the pro-
posed restriction of holidays recommended by the Government
Committee, it was reported that requests had been made for
a curtailment in some districts. The executive, however,
favoured a uniform system, and it was agreed to place the
matter before the coal owners. The following committee
was appointed to act with a similar number of coal owners
in considering proposals for alterations in the rules of the
Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board :—Messrs. Robert
Smillie, president; John Robertson, vice-president; Robert
Brown, secretary; and Wm. Adamson, M.P.

Iron, Steel and Engineering Trades.

In accordance with a report from the joint auditors, an
increase of 7| per cent, in the wage rate of men employed at
associated works is announced under the sliding scale of the
South Wales Iron and Steel Workers and Mechanics.

Mr. B. M. Renton, of Market-place Buildings, High-street,
Sheffield, informs us that he has sold his Midland Works
and steel forging business to Messrs. Thos. Firth and Sons
Limited. He is continuing the business of iron and steel
merchant at the above address under the style of B. M.
Renton and Company.

Notes from the Coal Fields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Negotiations for Continuing Work upon Expiry of Old
Agreement—A Week of Critical Endeavour—Govern-
ment Intervention—An Official Statement of Colliery
Profits—Extraordinary Fact as to Unremunerative
Undertakings—Interesting References by Coal Com-
pany Chairmen—Marquis of Bute becomes Chairman of
Cardiff Company.

Only one question has occupied attention during the week,
a question of the gravest concern nationally as well as
locally, the different stages of the negotiations in London,
with alternate hope and disappointment, having been
followed closely. This question of renewing the Concilia-
tion Board agreement, with the involved risk that colliery
operations in South Wales might cease on Wednesday
evening, was accompanied by the wider question of . the
miners’ objection to inclusion in the provision of the Muni-
tions Bill, the whole of the colliery workmen in the country
being concerned in this, and Mr. Smillie, their president,
having declared that 44 if the Bill is forced on the men
despite our representations, the Federation will offer it the
most uncompromising opposition. . . . Compulsory methods
could not increase output; but would retard it owing to the
irritation it would cause. It would be unwise and dangerous
to coerce the miners.” This being the feeling upon the
general question, some idea may be formed of the strong
opinions held and expressed in iSouth Wales, where there
was the added effect of the local difficulty. In the later
days, Monday and Tuesday, when the delegates summoned
to conference in Cardiff had to disperse, because the chief
officials of the Federation were unable to leave London,
those opinions found voice in suggestions that practically
embodied a threat to cease work on Wednesday; not to
continue on day-to-day contracts, as.had been expected.

Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, inter-
vened last week, by inviting representatives of both
employers and men to meet at the Home Office; and he is
reported to have declared an intention on the part of the
Government to take any steps, even to drastic action,
which might be necessary for ensuring maintenance of full
output, seeing that South Wales supplies the coal needed
for the British and Allied navies. During sittings on
Saturday that lasted nearly 10 hours, he saw each side
alternately and made strenuous endeavour to arrange
terms of agreement. But he was faced more powerfully by
adverse conditions than by unwillingness in either party.

The root of the difficulty lies in the exceptional conditions
now prevailing. Should the employers at the present time
enter into detailed discussion of the terms of a new agree-
ment, they will be enormously handicapped with the
circumstances of the industry—namely, extravagantly high
figures quoted as the market price of coal, whereas, in point
of fact, only a relatively small quantity is sold at that high
figure; and also the shortage of labour, which occasions
lessened profit per ton; these difficulties being reinforced by
the excessive prices of all necessary stores and plant. On
the other hand, the men dwell upon the argument as to
present high prices, and they have the fear that if negotia-
tions were postponed until after the war their position will
be singularly unfavourable; for they expect then an imme-
diate heavy drop in prices through cessation of Admiralty
and allied Government demands, the large stores of coal
which would have accumulated keeping official buyers off
the market for a good while. Returning soldiers would flood
the collieries for employment, all of them practical non-
unionists—-at any rate, so far as -any further addition to
Federation funds is concerned; and the enlarged output,
coinciding with decreased demand, would probably drive
down prices, just as contrary influences have at the present
time driven them to an extreme in the upward direction.

It is in face of these circumstances, and others which
might be mentioned, affecting the relative interests of the
two parties in the most serious manner, that the present
conflict has been waged. Every stage in the London pro-
ceedings was watched keenly, close criticism being made of
every argument advanced. Few pronouncements have had
so much general notice as that of Lord Aberconway, who
showed that during the past five years the working costs
of the Tredegar Company had gone up by no less than
4s. 3d. per ton, at a time when the loss of 3,000 men had
reduced their output seriously. His other point—that the
increase in their contract price of coal had been only 5d. as
compared with 12 months ago—also provoked comment.

Lord Aberconway’s reference to absenteeism having left
them with a daily shortage of 10 per cent, to 20 per cent,
of their men still employed, corroborates the speech of Mr.
T. E. Watson (president of the Cardiff Chamber of Com-
merce), wherein he showed that at the Newport-Abercarn
undertaking their absenteeism in May was 14’51 per cent.
Mr. Watson also stated that the war bonus alone had
added to their production cost no less than Is. lOd. per ton
on large and Is. 2d. per ton on small, whilst the rate of
exchange with France meant a diminution of money to the
coal exporter of 6d. to 9d. per ton.

These are considerations that have not been taken into
account by the energetic advocates of higher wages and
more favourable conditions of labour.

The letter of the accountants who have examined the
books of 79 collieries in South Wales for the year ended
December 1914 or near date, has also occasioned widespread,
discussion. Messrs. J. C. Kirk and Son, chartered accoun-
tants, Leeds, who have acted for many years as owners’
auditors in connection with the Conciliation Board agree-
ment, upon the result of confidential returns which nave
been placed in their hands by colliery companies who are
members of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal
Owners’ Association as to profits made by them in the
working of their collieries in the year 1914. The report
does not include certain companies having dual interests,
such as coal production and iron and steel manufacture.
Returns have been received from 79 members with an
annual output of 33,983,829 tons and employing 121,722
men. The total profit for the year ending December 31,
1914 (or in the financial year ending nearest to that date),
after payment of interest on debentures or other loans and
preference shares, is £1,712,047 5s. 3d., which works out at
Is. *09d. per ton on the above output The following analysis
of the returns is furnished :—

Profits.

No. of			No. of men	Output.
firms.	Profit per ton.	employed.	Tons.
3 ...	Under 3d.	...	6,106	...	1,620,037
12 ...	3d. and under 6d.	... 10,517 ...	3,209,123
4 ...	6d. „	„	9d.	...	6,331	...	1,788,589
6 ...	9d. „	„	1-	... 10.756	...	2,783,379
10 ...	1/- „	„	1/6	... 13,545 ...	4,602,930
8 ...	1/6 „	„	2/-	... 26,720 ...	8,033,746
2 ...	2/- „	„	2/6	,	...	1,420	...	432,776
5 ...	2/6 and upwards	... 18,676 ...	4,802,074
	Loss, or No	Profits.	
No. of		No. of men	Output.
firms.	Loss per ton.	employed.	Tons.
16 ...	Under 1/-	... 22,303 ...	5,61'6,230
9 ...	1/-and over	...	3,648 ...	781,042
4 ...	Amount not disclosed	...	1,6.0 ...	323,9u3

We are, dear Sir,

Yours faithfully,
(Signed) J. C. KIRK & SON,

Chartered Accountants.

The above actuarial analysis is supplemented by the
following official statement :—The total output of 33,983,829
tons represented by the colliery companies and firms whose
trading results in 1914 have been summarised by Messrs.
Kirk and Son includes the outputs of by far the greater
proportion of the collieries situated in the steam coal area
of the coal field. It will be seen that, of the total quan-
tity produced at the collieries controlled by these 79
members, 6,711,175 tons, or 19’8 per cent., was produced
either at a loss or without profit on the ordinary .capital,
while the proportions of the total output making profits
under Is., Is. 6d., 2s. and 2s. 6d. per ton are shown in the
following statement :—

47*4 per cent. (16,112,303 tons) of the total production
of nearly 34,000,000 tons made a profit of less than Is.
per ton;

60-9 per cent. (20,715,233 tons) of the total output
yielded a profit of under Is. 6d. per ton;

84-6 per cent. (28,748,979 tons) yielded a profit of less
than 2s. per ton.

Only on an output of 5,234,850 tons, or 15*4 per cent, of
the total production, was there earned a profit or 2s. 6d.
and over per ton on the ordinary capital, while nearly
three times this quantity, produced by 29 colliery concerns,
was marketed either at a loss or at a profit of less than 6d.
per ton.

A fact of great importance, but one which perhaps is not
generally known, is that the steam coals requisitioned for
Naval purposes are supplied by the colliery owners at prices
fixed by the Admiralty.

This bears out what has been frequently stated—that the
market prices are no true criterion of the actual prices
received. The criticism against this report is directed to the
fact of interest on debenture and other loans and on pre-
ference shares having been deducted, and only the return
upon ordinary capital dealt with as profit. Most of the
debentures are at 5 per cent., whilst preferences are mostly
from 6 per cent, upwards, and one contention is that at least
the preference share interest should be reckoned as profit,
even if the interest on debenture and other loans were
excluded. Another point taken is that the account deals only
with last year, omitting the further period during this year
when prices, are high. It is a striking fact that nearly
6| millions of tons (practically one-fifth of the output dealt
with) was produced at a loss, or without profit on ordinary
capital.

The alteration of the equivalent which the miners seek has
been one of the great difficulties in the way of settlement.
Their demand practically was that the minimum wage rate
shall be raised from 35 per cent, upon the old standard to a
figure equal to 65 per cent., and that the average selling
price equivalent to this should be 15s. 6d. per ton. The
alteration in the standard which the miners sought was that
a new standard should be fixed 50 per cent, above the old
one, and that the new minimum wage rate should be 10 per
cent, upon this new standard, which consequently would be
65 per cent, above the old standard. Unless the employers
could secure the fixing of a fair equivalent selling price, it
would follow that demand of the minimum wage rate might
occasion actual loss in the working, and there has been waged
around this point a very close contest, recalling the earlier
conflicts of opinion which were not settled until reference
was made to the independent chairman a few years ago. The
employers having to meet so large an additional expense in
the higher cost of all colliery necessaries, as is shown in the
speeches of the chairman of the different companies, they
could not agree to an alteration of the 44 equivalent,” which
would operate still further against their interests.

It is in the light of these facts that the prolonged negotia-
tions have to be regarded; largely, the difficulties are those
of the industry itself, and the unprecedented circumstances
of the time. Both parties have in view the exceptional con-
ditions of the moment, arid the vast change that must become
manifest as soon as peace is declared.

Owing to the lateness of Saturday’s sittings, the miners’
representatives had a meeting in London on Saturday, and
for three hours were engaged in debate; the South Wales
executive having a separate meeting subsequently. The
deliberations were followed by the Board of Trade, and Mr.
Dalziel, the coal owners’ secretary, was consulted. The
employers returned to London on Monday, and during that
day, as well as on Tuesday, the President of the Board of
Trade used every endeavour to effect a settlement,
seeing the men’s leaders, and using most strenuous effort.
The idea of arbitration was rejected by the men’s repre-
sentatives. A conference of South Wales delegates, called
for Monday, met at Cardiff, only to adjourn till Tuesday,
when another adjournment took place, awaiting the result
of the London negotiations. It re-assembled on Wednesday,
when Mr. Isaac Mitchell, from the Board of Trade, travelled
from London by special train, with him being Mr. W.
Brace, M.P. (president of the South Wales Miners’
Federation, and Under-Secretary in the Home Office), Mr. A.
Henderson, M.P. (Under-Secretary of State), and Mr.
G. H. Roberts, M.P. (Treasury). These arrived during the
afternoon, consulted with the miners’ executive, and the
delegates conference re-assembled in the evening to receive
a report from the executive.

Agreement was reached late in the evening, the miners’
executive reporting to the delegates’ conference, who approved
the terms by 123 votes to 112: the miners to work 14 days
while the agreement is formally concluded; and the agree-
ment to be ratified by a further conference of delegates. The
Government proposals, which were initialled by the
President of the Board of Trade, were as follow :—