420

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

August 27, 1915.

Mr. Pease pointed out that that was not quite the way in
which it was put to Mr. Straker. It was not between one
colliery and another colliery; it was a question whether there
was a greater amount of absenteeism when men who had
been usually getting a certain amount of wages one year got
a big advance the next year. Witness, however, expressed
the opinion that men at good times worked more regularly
than at bad times. His experience was that the men wanted
to get some money, and if times were good they made a
greater sacrifice in not attending work. He admitted that at
the higher paid collieries the better class of man was
attracted. That might be the whole explanation of his
statement as between colliery and colliery. Again, there was
possibly a greater walking distance in the older collieries,
and that might have the tendency to cause greater absen-
teeism. Of course, in Derbyshire, he did not think any of
the collieries were less than 20 years of age. So that they
were worked out considerably.

Witness did not think it was necessary that boys of 13
years of age should be admitted to the collieries. Owing to
so many men going and joining the Colours, they had had
to knock off districts in pits, and in other places they had had
to knock off shifts. The consequence was that they had
had all the spare lads who had been working in those dis-
tricts and those shifts brought into the other parts of the pit,
so that there was almost a superfluity of young boys.

Witness said he agreed with Mr. Straker on the temper-
ance question, except that he should say this : they had
many colliery clubs that were run by colliery companies,
and they were probably as great an evil as the public house.
Most of them were run with intoxicants, and they were not
very successful unless they were. He also thought in cases
where collieries found themselves short of trucks that the
men should not be allowed to go home. Those collieries
should keep turning, and the coal should be put dowm. He
also thought the house or gas coal collieries should not be
standing perhaps one or two days a week in the summer.
Where coal could be stocked, and there was no immediate
trade, attention should be given to the possibilities of the
future.

Witness did not think there were many instances of men
coming from other industries to take the place of colliers who
had enlisted. In his district they worked about 5f days
per week—only six hours on the Saturday. It was his
experience that absenteeism was greater at collieries situated
close to the towns, or where the men came out from the
towns, than where it was in the rural districts. (Mr. Straker
said he held the same opinion, emphatically.) He was in
favour of utilising a large portion of the coal exported for
home service, and he agreed with Mr. Straker that their
men did not quite realise the seriousness of this matter. He
believed the men were anxious to help, if they saw the neces-
sity. He thought the efficiency of the men had been
increased since the war perhaps by a better supply of trams
in the pits. The absenteeism, he should say, was practi-
cally the same. There was no doubt that the class of labour
that had gone was the most able-bodied class, but they had
left some good steady men behind, who had really increased
the percentage. There was another point : the colliery com-
panies, in taking out those figures, took the whole of the
names on their books. There were pits where men were
floating about. They did not stop long, and they might be
on the books of two or three collieries. So it did not neces-
sarily follow that all the men they had on their books were
employed actually working at a particular colliery.

With regard to the suggested migration of colliers, witness
said he did not think it feasible. In his district at least
two-thirds of the men who had enlisted were married men.
The colliery companies owned very many of the houses, and
they had allowed the wives to stay in the houses, so that
really they had not the houses to let, although the workmen
had gone. One thing which might perhaps explain the
increase of absenteeism that there had been in some cases
in the last two or three months was where men had to walk,
say, four or five or six or seven miles to a railway station,
and owing to the wet weather there had been a great ten-
dency to keep them from going to work, as they had been
so far from a railway station. Again, a man got settled
down, and he might have daughters and sons at work in
certain directions. They could not transplant the whole
family.

Mr. S. Roebuck.

Mr. Samuel Roebuck, junior general secretary of the
Yorkshire Miners’ Association, also gave evidence on April 1.
He said he generally agreed with all that had been said by
the previous witnesses. But so far as his own county was
concerned there had been a reduction, and a serious reduc-
tion, in the aggregate output since the war commenced.
108 branches out of 165 had sent in returns, and they
reported that this was entirely due to the shortage of labour,
more particularly during the later stages of the war. So
far as wagons and ships were concerned, they had almost
entirely got over that difficulty. With respect to
absenteeism, he thought that prior to the war at a good
many pits there were not facilities for dealing with the
output per man to the fullest extent of their capacity. That,
in his mind, accounted for the fact that in some cases the
older men were producing now more per man than they did
before the war. As far as Yorkshire was concerned, he
believed if absenteeism was taken in percentages, it would
have gone up; but he did not think the actual amount had
increased -at all. The men who were left were working
quite as well, and in many cases, better than they did
before the war. Those who remained were physically unable
to follow up their employment as regularly as the young and
strong and best that had gone. In Yorkshire the pits were
working six days a week—that is, they were drawing six
days a week. Possibly the average of coal face workers was
not five days a week. He was personally of opinion that
a man who was working five days a week in the Yorkshire
pits was working regularly, and in some pits it was a
physical impossibility for him to work more. Witness added
that 33 of their pits had sent in reports that there was an
actual increase in output, and at some of those pits there
had been a decrease in the number of the men. At one
colliery 400 men had gone, chiefly from the face; yet the
output per day was only down 100 tons. Then, during the
last few months there had been a terrible amount of sickness
in Yorkshire. Branches had reported that the rate of sick-
ness had been extraordinarily abnormal.

Witness thought that if facilities were afforded to the men
for taking them inbye to their work, and outbye to the
pit bottom, that would help matters in a large number of the
big Yorkshire collieries. Where they had, say, 1,000 men
working at the face, actually getting coal, if there were a
saving of, say, 20 minutes, which mean a corf per man
extra, where there were 1,000 men employed, that would
mean a daily increase in the output of 500 tons; where there

were 600 men employed it would mean 300 tons; and a man
would arrive fresher at his work. Much could also be done
in augmenting the output by affording better facilities for
the men to get the work done. Bor instance, if a good deal
of the tramming were knocked off. At one colliery where
the rate of absenteeism was high, they would reduce the
rate of absenteeism in this way. This particular colliery is
typical of, say, 20 or 30 more, where a large number of
the trammers had joined the Colours, and it was impossible
to fill their places with other men; in fact, in normal times
there was a difficulty in getting this type of man. The
older man, the collier, in many cases was now getting and
tramming his own coal, and he was doing this as best he
could; but he could not keep up his normal regularity. At
some collieries they had 20 and 30 colliers coming home
every day because they had no trammers. If they did a
bit of ripping and could get horses up to the face,
absenteeism would go down tremendously, and the output
would be increased at these particular pits. Witness said
that in their deep mines, particularly in their Doncaster
area, the temperature was very high — 70 to 90 degs.
at the face. . At one of the collieries it was like hell. Men
in certain districts in these collieries, who were putting in
anything like four days a week, were doing well; in fact,
the managing director at this particular colliery himself
said, “ If I can get my men to work four days a week at
the„face, it is as much as I can reasonably ask them to
do. Speaking generally, those hot mines were not
tramming pits; the horses brought the corves up to the face.
The horses were in fairly good condition, but they were
not worked nearly so regularly or so hard as they were in
pits with a lower temperature.

Witness did not think they could bring about migration
at all except by inducement. Furthermore, he thought it
disorganised the whole business. In fact, the Doncaster
coalfield was perhaps the highest wage area in Great
Britain; but, notwithstanding that, there was always a lack
of men. Not only would men object to being sent from their
own district there, but they would have the coal owners
objecting. There was a general lack of labour in all the
coal fields. . His own idea was that anything in the shape of
a bonus to induce the men to work better would appreciably
fail. With very few exceptions they were putting in as
much as they possibly could. An appeal to their patriotism
would be the best thing to do.

Mr. M. Lee.

Mr. Michael Lee, one of the assistant secretaries of the
Fife and Kinross Miners’ Association, said he agreed gener-
ally with what the previous witness had said. In Scotland
they had been greatly handicapped by the want of wagons.
The wagons generally belonged to the coal owners them-
selves in Scotland, and more especially in the east of Scot-
land, where 77 per cent, of the output was shipped. When
the war commenced there was a great stoppage; but there
was still idle time for want of wagons. In Lanarkshire,
Stirlingshire, and all over Scotland, the men would work
more days , if they, had facilities for getting away the coal.
In some districts in Scotland the pits were working double
shifts, and now they were all on single shifts.

Sir T. R. Ratcliffe-Ellis.

Sir Thomas R. Ratcliffe-Ellis, law clerk and secretary
of the Mining Association of Great Britain, and also of the
Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Association, gave evidence
on April 13. He said the Mining Association would submit
five or six witnesses from the districts federated with the
Mining Association, the districts to be represented being
Scotland, Durham and Northumberland, Lancashire and
Cheshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Wales,
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and North Staffordshire.
The districts had been invited to suggest the names of the
witnesses who would speak as to their several districts, and
Lancashire and Cheshire had appointed him. In preparing
his evidence, he had had the assistance of a committee of
Lancashire coal owners, consisting of seven gentlemen from
the different districts comprised in the two counties, viz. :—
Sir Henry Hall, of Messrs. Cross, Tetley and Company; Mr.
A. H. Leach, of the Crompton and Shawcross Company;
Mr. .Richard Landless, for the executors of John Hargreaves
Limited; Mr. A. J. A. Orchard, of the St. Helens Collieries
Limited; Mr. Tom Stone, of the Park Collieries, Gars wood:
Mr. Harry Speakman, of the Bedford Colliery, Leigh; and
Mr. Jesse Wallwork, of the Bridgewater Collieries, Walkden.
One of the foregoing, Mr. Orchard, was present with Sir
Thomas.

Sir Thomas said the coal produced in Lancashire was of
all descriptions : house coal, gas coal, and coal for industrial
and bunkering purposes, together with a certain quantity
of cannel; and although some small portion of the produc-
tion might go abroad, yet, as compared with the whole, the
quantity was negligible. He did not include in exported
coal that used for bunkering purposes or shipped coastwise
or to Ireland. That, of course, absorbed a certain portion
of the whole production, but generally it might be safely
assumed that the great bulk of the coal produced in Lanca-
shire was sold locally, and within 20 miles of the point at
which it was raised. About 8 per cent, to 10 per cent, of
the total quantity of coal produced was used for colliery
consumption. So that, roughly speaking, the output avail-
able for the market would be about 22,411,039 tons, taking
the normal production at 24,000,000 tons. This quantity
must be further reduced bv coal supplied under various con-
ditions to workpeople. The practice varied in Lancashire;
in some cases the coal was sold at the ordinary market price,
and the workman could buy it or not, as he thought fit. In
other cases it was sold at something less than the market
price, and at some fixed rate. But the practice was not
universal. The high percentage of coal used for colliery con-
sumption was due to the great bulk of the water that had
to be pumped, and the haulage, and the extra amount of
dirt which was won at many collieries in addition to the coal.
The percentage might be higher now, in consequence of the
reduced output. (Mr. Orchard said at his own collieries it
was 12 per cent. Mr. Nimmo said in Scotland some years
ago the amount of consumption, and the amount of coal*used
to do the whole of the colliery work, was practically 10 per
cent, over the whole country. Mr. Rhodes said in Yorkshire
it would be about 5 per cent.)

Continuing, Sir Thomas said he was assured that the
usual contracted quantity and the supply to regular cus-
tomers absorbed a considerable portion, for which 80 per
cent, would be a moderate figure. In some districts, in East
Lancashire, for instance, they rather discouraged formal
contracts. They had regular customers, and they regarded
those customers as having contracts. They did not, in
inflated times, increase the price they charged to those
customers, because they treated it as if it were a contract.
As far as he had been able to ascertain in these two counties,

the contract quantities were being delivered; so long as the
colliery people were able to supply the quantity they supplied
it, and there was no attempt made to reduce unfairly the
contract quantities, so as to have a larger margin to supply
in the open market. In estimating the reduction in output,
they had based calculations upon returns from 33 collieries,
the great bulk of them thoroughly representative, and having
an aggregate output of 12,922,769 tons, or 52-47 per cent,
of the total normal output of the two counties. Taking these
collieries, it was shown that in February 1914, 1,158,852
tons were raised, and in February 1915, 1,011,072 tons were
raised; a decrease of 147,780 tons for the month, or 12-75 per
cent, of the output of the counties of Lancashire and
Cheshire, and if the normal output per annum of these
counties was taken at 24,627,515 tons, the loss of output for
the year would be at the rate of 3,140,008 tons. There was a
singular confirmation of that in the Board of Trade figures.

Examining next the reasons which had brought about
this decrease in output, witness said the ordinary percentage
of absentees from work was not widely different now from
what it was in normal times, and therefore the deficiency in
output was mainly due to the absence of, the large number of
workmen who had gone on military service. A calculation
had been made, which showed that of the men wTho were at
work underground immediately before the war 20 to 21 per
cent, of them had gone. But since July new men had been
engaged, and more had joined the Colours, and to some
extent the shortage of men had been made good, from what
source he did not know. Those who had enlisted included
many of the younger and more active, and possibly better
men, from the point of view of coal getting. So far, he had
been dealing entirely with underground labour. Throughout
the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire about one-half of the
persons employed below ground wore colliers and drawers,
and the rest other underground workmen, but ‘these propor-
tions varied very considerably at different collieries, and were
affected by the work which at some places was done by the
colliers in addition to coal getting.

The next point he desired to bring before the Committee
was in what way, if at all, and to what extent, could that
deficiency be made up. He was told that no improvement
was to be hoped for from concentration at individual pits, or
the closing of some seams, because that had been done
already by the managers of the different collieries in their
own interest. Again, it had been suggested that the output
could be increased by the further introduction of machinery.
The reply to that was that machinery could not be applied
to all mines. In Lancashire they had a great deal of faulty
ground, where machinery would be of no use. If it was a
practical remedy, which it was not believed to be in the
present difficulty,-it would take such a time to obtain and
introduce the necessary machinery, and make the necessary
arrangements in connection with working it, as would carry
them beyond the time when they all hoped that the necessity
for this expedient might have passed away. He was further
told that, with reference to the transport of coal, although
it was not as good as they would like it to be, and there
were frequent delays in the return of wagons, yet it was
believed that the railway companies were doing the best they
could in somewhat difficult circumstances, and it was very
exceptional, indeed where a pit had to stop in consequence of
difficulties in the transport arrangements, so that he did not
anticipate any recoupment from any improvement in con-
nection with transport. The diminished output of Lanca-
shire and Cheshire represented 12-75 per cent, of the normal
output. It was necessary to estimate the number of colliers
and drawers that now remained at work. From his return
he found that in the month of February 1-915, at the same
collieries the number of colliers and drawers on the books
was 22,318, and the average attendance was 18,434 colliers
and drawers, a loss of the labour of 3,884 colliers and drawers,
or 17-4 per cent, of the total number on the books. The
returns were taken for four weeks, for the Monday in each of
the four weeks, for the Tuesday in each of the four weeks,
and so on. On Monday, the first of the shifts, 81-12 per
cent, worked. On the Tuesday 82-84 worked. On ihe
Wednesday 84-85 worked. On the Thursday 85-46 worked.
On the Friday 88-53 worked, and on the Saturday 61-27
worked. The best day was the Friday, and that almost
universally throughout the county was the best day. From
these same returns it would appear that 5 per cent, would
cover the unavoidable absence. He thought all these
collieries, worked on the Saturday. The custom varied in
Lancashire, some working eight hours on Saturday and some
seven, but there was none of these collieries that did not
work at all on a Saturday.	The percentage of those who

worked six days was 38-69, those who worked five days
35-98, four days 12-29, three days 4-83, two days 2-35, one
day 1-58, and 4 per cent, did not work at all. The net
result was that there were 12-4 of persons who were away
from work who could have worked if they had chosen to do
so. That attendance in February produced 1,011,072 tons of
coal. If the attendance had been 88-53 per cent, throughout
the week, as on the best day, the get should have been
increased by 72,586 tons. In other words, instead of the
actual output being 1,011,072 tons, it should have been
1,083,658 tons. If they reckoned that the 88 per cent, would
not apply to the Saturday output, it would make a little
difference, but not a very material one. Applying the same
method of. calculation to" the whole of the output of the two
counties, it would mean that the estimated loss of output,
namely, 3,140,008 tons, would be reduced to 1,597,205 tons.
If 95 per cent. wTas put in instead of 88-53 per cent., there
would be no shortage at all in the normal output. They
ventured to suggest that at a time like this something more
than normal work should be done. In normal times he
should be asking what he knew pretty well was a counsel of
perfection, and an impossibility. He only put it that at
times like this, if the men would work the fullest possible
time in the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, there would
be no deficiency in the output. The normal output in
Lancashire and Cheshire was 24,627,513 tons, and the
output would be 24,713,234 tons, slightly in excess of the
normal output of the county. With reference to the Eight
Hours Act, witness said his committee were of opinion, if
the limit of time permitted to be worked below ground was
removed, and the men would avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity and worked longer hours, it would increase the output,
provided it was not accompanied by greater irregularity.
But if the men worked longer hours one day, and did not
work the next, there would be no improvement. Therefore,
they were not prepared to say from Lancashire that a sus-
pension of the Eight Hours Act would directly increase the
output. His own opinion was that there would certainly be
a danger of that. If a man worked unduly hard to make a
good get whilst he was down the pit, there would be an
inducement, which perhaps might be too strong for human