226

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

July 30, 1915.

members for the London boroughs hold very different
opinions, but it must be admitted that it is the persis-
tence with which the London case has been urged
that is accountable for the measure, and if it has
failed to satisfy Mr. Dickinson and his friends it is
because Mr. Runciman has recognised that there are
cases more insistent than that of the London house-
holder.

But it is unlikely that the London poor will
benefit to any great extent. The collieries have not
been trusted, as have been the merchants, to do
their best by the public, but if it was necessary to
bind down the coal owner by legal enactment, it
was also necessary to bind down the middleman in
his various grades. The fact is that St. Stephen’s
is in London, and members of Parliament, who have
believed that anything is possible at Chesterfield or
Doncaster, are more impressed by the difficulties in
their own milieu. It has been found impossible to
make the merchant, the dealer or the trolleyman toe
the line, efforts to provide for increased storage
facilities, or to devise some improved system of
distribution, have had to be discarded, and London
has thrown back what is essentially a London
question upon the backs of the producer.

For, notwithstanding the Act, there is no guarantee
that the private consumer will receive any benefit
from the Act, because the latter does not control the
incidental charges and intermediary profits that go
to swell the retail price. We confess that the
concession as to existing contracts is one for which
there is much justification in the case of gas com-
panies and public utilities, that have obligations
thrown upon them by Parliament and are limited as
to their profits, but the effect of the concession, in the
case of the householder, will inevitably be to make
him defer his purchases of coal until November,
although one of the chief safeguards against a coal
famine consists in timely buying during the summer
months. As regards the larger interests, of which
the Glasgow Corporation was taken as a fitting
example, we shall only say that in common fairness to
the collieries the Act should have given counter-
vailing relief to those collieries that are still working
on long-term contracts at prices below the present
cost of production.

It would be easy, however, to point to many
directions in which this Act is unfair, and conse-
quently affords a direct incentive to illicit practices.
Exports are excluded, and it must be obvious that
attempts may be made to send coal abroad that
normally would be sold for use in this country. We
say “attempts” because the Exports Committee
presumably bars the. way, but this Committee, with
its triple object of conserving the home supply and
of considering the interests of allies and benevolent
neutrals, and of promoting our own import trade,
has a very invidious, if not impossible, duty to
perform. At the present moment it is causing grave
injury to the trade of this country. One consequence,
however, is to prejudice one colliery as compared
with another. There is the same unequal treatment
in the case where a colliery has disposed of its output
to a manufacturer; it may be a mere accident of
business that this colliery should have sold, say, to a
cotton spinner instead of to an electricity committee,
but the Act, which looks purely to the consumer
and his power to hand on the charge, recognises
a subtle distinction. Or, again, take the case of
the wealthy colliery company utilising the bulk of
their output in the production of coke or by-products;
the Act leaves them severely alone, and no limit is
placed to the prices which they may obtain for their
fractionated coal. From the point of view of the
consumer, Mr. Runciman’s arguments in support of
this differential treatment were quite sound, but he
made no attempt to justify it with regard to the
producer.

Such points as these might belaboured inimitably,
beyond the boundaries of our space. These defects
crowd upon us, because the Act is fundamentally
unsound. The pregnant fact is that the output of
coal is insufficient for the needs of the country ; it is
no assistance to the consumer to tell him that he
must not pay more than a certain price for his coal, if
he is unable to obtain it. The Act merely complicates
his difficulties, because not only does it destroy the

incentive to increased production, but it does not
give the buyer any means of overcoming the
geographical and other similar disadvantages under
which he may labour, by the offer of correspondingly
better terms to the owner of the coal. We are still
convinced that the only fair and proper way to
achieve the objects aimed at by the Act was for the
Government to take over the distribution of all the
coal raised, or, like the German Government, to
assist the coal owners to organise some workable
scheme on the lines of the Westphalian Kohlenhontor.

Any excessive profits might then have been dealt
with on the lines of the amendment introduced by
Sir Joseph Walton, by a system of taxation, to which
everybody would contribute. As it is, the coal mines
have been singled out for taxation, not because they
are best able to bear it, but because their coal is a
veritable necessity. At the same time there is no
coal owner sufficiently optimistic to believe that this
enforced sacrifice is going to benefit the nation in
any way.

The organised effort now being
First made to increase the productive
Principles power of our factories and workshops
Of is opening the eyes of the nation to
Production, many of the shortcomings of our
industrial system. Most opportunely,
therefore, do we notice the publication of a volume
entitled First Principles of Production : .A Study of
the Relation of Science to Industry f by Mr. J. Taylor
Peddie. Our manufacturers would do well to study
this book in the light of present experience. It is
not our business either to depreciate our industrial
system or to acclaim the superiority of German
methods, but it would nevertheless be foolish to
neglect the opportunity which the war offers to
strengthen our position both in a commercial and
military sense. In some respects the two paths are
coincident. Thus, as has been pointed out, extensive
coke-oven plants, while tending to commercial
efficiency in times of peace, afford a supply of raw
material for high explosives in times of war. There
is, in fact, no necessary antagonism between the
industries of peace and war.

It is indisputable that British manufacturers have
been too indifferent to the advantages accruing from
scientific research. Mr. Pease, who has just left the
Board of Education, had evolved a scheme for the
remedy of this defect, and it is gratifying to note
that Mr. Henderson, the new Coalition Minister of
Education, has not allowed this scheme to drop.
In the meantime it is the business both of our
workmen and employers to unite in a strenuous
effort to repair past deficiencies. It is not only shot
and shell and such direct munitions of war, but
other things that the nation requires also if we are to
carry the war to a satisfactory conclusion.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday night
the Minister of Munitions referred to the continued
failure of certain branches of the industrial community
to overcome their objections to the relaxation of such
trade union rules as were tending to hamper the
work of the factories. It is a most lamentable fact
that the trade unions should be charged by this most
sympathetic Minister and strenuous champion of
democracy with restricting in time of war 25 per cent,
of the possible output of munitions. We know it is
not want of patriotism so much as lack of under-
standing that has produced this result. It is the same
spirit that once prompted the wholesale smashing of
machinery ; and opposition to mechanical aids to
efficiency is not even yet extinct. But where would
this country be now if these men had had their way ?
Can they not see that the principle of maximum work
is a fundamental law of nature, pervading the whole
organic and inorganic world ? The nation that
persists in overriding natural law must sooner or
later go under, and the country will expect the more
enlightened of the labour leaders to do their best to
assist Mr. Lloyd George in his great work of
organising the workshops for victory.

Germany appears to the outside world to be
putting forth a “ solid network of endeavour.”
While this picture of a united nation has probably
been not a little stage-managed for the purpose of

* London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1915, price 5s. net.

impressing the outside world, there can be no escape
from the conclusion that discipline in that country is
nearly as perfect as it can be. It is not our way,
and we shall possibly never adopt these means, but
that is not to say that we shall continue to follow our
former methods. Narrow views will no longer pay.
The reality of the great struggle in which we are
embarked has not even yet sufficiently impressed
itself upon our working classes, or we should never
have seen so pitiable a state of things as has pervaded
some misguided sections of our colliers, who saw in
these tremendous struggles of the nation only
another opportunity for snatching some paltry selfish
advantage. It is only a solid network of endeavour
that will restore the world’s peace.

THE LONDON COAL TRADE.

Thursday, July 29.

The London coal trade is still in a somewhat dull and
heavy condition. Merchants are to a very large extent hold-
ing off from buying until it is more clearly known what the
present legislation may lead to. The attendance on the
market is fairly maintained, but the principal topic of con-
versation is the new Coal Price (Limitation) Bill. Collieries
are kept busy with fulfilling back orders, and the depots are
also busy endeavouring to overtake the rush of orders during
the past six or eight weeks from the general public. Every-
thing points to the fact that householders are still eager to
get a fair amount of coal in their cellars previous to the
coming winter months, and the delivery trade is fairly strong.
Derby brights have had a strong demand, and although
prices have slightly reduced, the volume of trade doing is
well sustained. The diminution in the output is beginning
to tell in an unmistakable manner, now the stacking is in
full swing. Lately, also, the difficulties in railway transit
have become more marked, both as regards the bringing for-
ward of loaded wagons and the return of the empties. Some
of the southern railways are reported to be laying them-
selves out to help the French and Belgian railways, and
their rolling stock is largely absorbed in this effort. The
seaborne market is steady, and the tonnage coming forward
to the River Thames is well maintained; 43 contract cargoes
were entered for Monday’s market, and 12 for Wednesday.
Neither quality, however, has been offered on the open market
—the whole of the supplies, whether from Durham or York-
shire, were brought forward under contract arrangements,
and no quotations are published. Steam coal has been fairly
firm, and the difficulty of getting supplies to barging stations
like Poplar, Chelsea, Blackwall, etc., has been most pro-
nounced. These stations are practically blocked, and all the
railway companies have given notice that they cannot accept
consignments for barging stations unless it is assured that
barges are waiting for the coal invoiced; and, since the river
is so short of craft, and lighterage is proceeding so slowly,
this difficulty seems rather to increase than diminish. At
the same time, the riverside factories are working at extra
pressure so that an inadequate supnly of fuel means a
terrible loss to them at the present time. Small coals have
become somewhat easier, and prices have given way in many
instances. The advance in this quality of fuel, as compared
with the prices of last year, has been more pronounced than
for large coal, and with the present discussion as to Govern-
ment interference with the prices, it is generally anticipated
that small coal and slacks will not be able to maintain the
prices recently charged, especially as these are required almost
exclusively for munition factories and electric works. The
South Wales best Admiralty qualities are still retained for
Government use, and in the discussion in the House of
Commons on Tuesday evening last, it transpired that the
Government was paying 25s. per ton for the best Admiralty
steam coal, for both the British Navy and also for the Allies,
but the second Admiralty qualities are offering at 28s. to 30s.
f.o.b. The market, however, is very quiet, notwithstanding
the effort to overtake the six days’ stoppage last week. The
export trade from the Humber ports is also somewhat dull;
19s. to 19s. 6d. f.o.b. is the price for best South Yorkshire
hards this week, and 18s. to 18s. 6d. for Derbyshire hards.
Hartleys are quoted at 17s. 6d. to 18s. 6d. per ton f.o.b., and
gas coal (with a fairly strong demand) at 19s. 6d. to 20s. 6d.
per ton f.o.b. screened, and 18s. unscreened. Freights to
London continue at the old figure, 7s. per ton from the
Humber ports, and 8s. from the Forth to London. It is
reported that a good deal of the coal exported from America
to Sweden has taken the place of the South Yorkshire coal
which usually is sent from the Humber ports. Since the
licences have been so restricted for exporting English coal to
neutral countries, comparatively little coal has been shipped
for Sweden from British ports, and exporters have frequently
been refused licences to send coal to Swedish destinations,
and importers are now said to be buying freely from the
United States. The freights are said to be very little higher
from America than from the Humber ports. The coke.
business remains fairly firm, and the Middlesbrough price
for furnace coke is given at 29s. per ton; blastfurnace coke,
30s. to 31s. per ton delivered at Middlesbrough; foundry
coke, 35s. f.o.b., but speculation buying is at a standstill.

From Messrs. Dinham, Fawcus and Co.’s Report.

Friday, July 23.—There w’ere no available supplies of
seaborne house coal cargoes at present coming forward,
which, however, caused no inconvenience at to-day’s market.
Cargoes, 26.

Monday, July 26.—There were no Durham or Yorkshire
seaborne house coal cargoes on offer at to-day's market,
which remained quiet. Cargoes, 43.

Wednesday, July 28.—There was no alteration in the sea-
borne house coal market to-day, no cargoes being on offer.
Cargoes, 10.

Immingham Coal Exports.—Returns for the week ending
July 23 showr that the coal exported from Immingham wras
as follow's :—Foreign : To Dieppe, 717 tons, and Havre, 710
tons, making a total of 1,427 tons of coal, against 44,823
tons foreign, and 5,790 tons coastwise during the corre-
sponding week last year.