May 26, 1916. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 999 For Sale, 60,000 gallons per hour Triple Expansion DUPLEX PUMP, by Worthington, against 300ft. head, cylinders 10, 16, 25 by 18in. stroke, Ilin, plungers; also compound ditto, 18,000 gallons, for immediate delivery.—A. UNDERWOOD, 3, Queen- street, E.C. TYTeighing Machine for Sale.—One new ▼ ▼ Mild Steel WEIGHING HOPPER, with four openings at bottom fitted with sliding doors, suitable for coal or other minerals, size 9 ft. by 9 ft. by 4 ft. 9 in. deep, capacity trimmed 240 cubic feet, fitted with Avery’s weighing levers and steel yard graduated up to five tons. — Apply, ALDRIDGE & RANKEN, Avonbank Works, Bath. For Sale, one Scotch Derrick Orane, 70 ft. jib, with pair of 6 by 9 in. Engines and Boiler, 8 ft. by 3 ft. 6in. One Gillott Coal Cutter. One Rope Pulley, 8ft. diameter, 6% square feet, journal 5in. diameter, 12 1J diameter spokes, suitable for a 1 in. diameter rope. Apply, CLIFTON & KERS LEY COAL CO. LTD., Clifton, near Manchester. T^Tanted, new or Second-hand 30/40-ton ¥ ▼ TRUCK WEIGHBRIDGE : must be complete and in first-class working condition.—Address, Eos 6420, Colliery Guardian Office, 30 & 31, Furnival-street, Holborn, London, E.C. . MAXAi MAXA LTD., 43, Cannon St., London, E.C. J. W. BAIRD AND COMPANY, . PITWOOD IMPORTERS, WEST HARTLEPOOL, YEARLY CONTRACTS ENTERED INTO WITH COLLIERIES, OSBECK & COMPANY LIMITED, PIT-TIMBKR MERCHANTS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF COLLIERY TIMBER. Telegrams—“ Osbecks, Newcastle-on-Tyne.” W Guardian AND Journal of the Coal and Iron Trades. Joint Editors— J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S. HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E. {At present on Active Service). ■ i LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 26, 1916. The London coal trade is still suffering from the shortage of supplies. The coal prices committee of the London merchants have decided not to issue any “lowest summer prices” this year. Manufacturing qualities and especially small nuts are exceedingly scarce. Railway companies and Goverment works are heavy buyers. The Tyne and Wear trade shows little or no change, -the amount of free supplies in the market failing to satisfy demands. Uncertainty regarding price limitations added to the difficulty of the position this week. Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midland pits find that manufacturers are ready for any house coal which is not going into domestic use during the warm weather. Little general business is passing. Reports from South Wales mention a deal of con- ferring, but very little actual change in the market. Prices in Scotland remain very strong. The Board of Trade, we understand, has prac- tically agreed to the scheme of coal exporters being remunerated at the rate of 5 per cent, on the selling price of coal f.o.b. exported to France, with a maximum of Is. per ton. Local committees may be formed. Mr. Pretyman, on behalf of the Board of Trade, stated in the House of Commons that the regulating of freights appeared to be impracticable. He said that any such regulation might endanger the supply of neutral tonnage engaged in bringing necessaries to this country. A Sunderland steamer carrying over 3,000 tons has obtained a freight of £5 per ton for a cargo of coal, Tyne to Genoa, fourteen days’ voyage. The pre-war rate was 4s. 6d. to 5s. Fresh causes of trouble have arisen in the South Wales coal field. The South Wales Miners’ Federa- tion contended that Lord Muir Mackenzie’s sugges- tion regarding the coal selling price rendered it “ impossible for him to adjudicate upon the applica- tions.” His lordship’s resignation of the position of independent chairman is announced. On Thursday the executive committee, in an interview, is reported to have said that unless the miners received an advance of 15 per cent, by June 1, unrest could hardly be restrained. They also asked that an equivalent selling price should be fixed. Judge Arthur O’Connor, who was appointed to enquire into the South Wales anthracite miners’ claim to 5 per cent, advance, has decided against the men. Judge O’Connor, in his award, points out that most anthracite miners receive better remuneration than those of other districts. The Scottish Coal Conciliation Board considered the miners’ wages claim at Glasgow, but failed to agree. Lord Loreburn is to be asked to preside as a neutral chairman, and the next meeting has been fixed for June 6 or 7. The annual conference of the Central Association of Miners’ Permanent Relief Societies will be held in the Westminster Palace Hotel, on May 30. At a meeting of the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers in Doncaster, to-morrow (Saturday), a paper on “Earth Move- ments in the South Yorkshire Coal Field (Part II.),” by Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, will be read. . The Ministry of Munitions is considering the question of fixing maximum prices for heavy steel melting scrap, and for steal turnings and borings. The position of the wages question The in South Wales has drifted into a Deadlock in highly unsatisfactory state. It will South Wales, be recalled that at the end of last year Mr. Runciman effected a sort of settlement of the minimum wage dispute by fixing it at 60 per cent, on the 1879 standard, which coincided with, the previously existing maximum, leaving the question of an -equivalent selling price to be con- sidered by the independent chairman, if he desired, whenever the question of wage alterations came before him. This arrangement was scarcely calcu- lated to satisfy either the coal owners or the inde- pendent chairman. The late Lord St. Aldwyn, in fact, resigned his position upon this very point. He showed that the position of independent chairman had become impossible under the circumstances, because, in the first place, it was not easy to consider a thing which did not exist; and, in the second place, to bring it into existence was not a simple matter, and would require the services of an expert auditor, and the troublesome procedure of an inves- tigation of all the colliery accounts. When Lord Muir Mackenzie accepted the position of independent chairman, he found the question of an equivalent selling price still unsettled. In the meantime, the South Wales miners have made an application to the Conciliation Board for an increase of 15 per cent., while the owners have put in a similar request for a reduction of 7| per cent, in the general wage rate. Thus the independent chairman has been placed in the impossible position fore- shadowed by his predecessor, and he has taken the exact course rendered necessary by Mr. Runciman’s award in at once seeking to equip himself with the only data upon which he can base a decision. He has, therefore, sent a letter to the joint secretaries of the Conciliation Board suggesting a figure for the selling price of coal equivalent to the minimum wage. It should be clearly understood that in taking this step his lordship has strictly adhered to the only procedure possible under an award which has been accepted by both owners and men. Nevertheless, the council of the South Wales Miners’ Federation assume a highly indignant attitude in respect of this perfectly constitutional and regular proceeding, and have passed a resolution expressing regret that his lordship should have given an opinion upon applica- tions under consideration by the Wages Board before having the matters discussed in a joint meeting. The council further considers that this action -renders it impossible for Lord Muir Mackenzie to adjudicate upon the applications. In the meantime his lordship is reported to have resigned his position. There is something rather suggestive of Gilbertian opera in the situation which has thus arisen. . An umpire is asked to say whether a certain increase in wages is justified. He proceeds to find a standard of comparison based upon selling prices, and he is promptly informed that in thus endeavouring to provide a measure or scale for his guidance he has prejudged the question. It is as if an arbitrator were asked to assess the size of a field, and because he proposes that a chain should be the standard of measurement he is held to have prejudiced the independence of his position as an arbitrator. It is, of course, easy to see a reason for the reluc- tance of the South Wales Miners’ Federation council to have any fixed equivalent selling price at all under existing circumstances. The whole system of fixing such equivalents is a relic of the old sliding scale, in which the selling price of coal is the determining factor. Unfortunately selling prices are ruled by many conditions of which wages are only a part, although admittedly a predominant one. In his work on the British Coal Trade, Erof. Stanley Jevons offers a criticism of the policy of fixing equivalent prices on general economic grounds, owing to the fact that the general trend of prices due to secular changes in the value of money interferes with the regular fluctuations of prices in the cycle of trade. He argues that there is a regular fluctuation period in prices due to the cycle of trade, on account of which the price of coal would rise and fall about a mean price. It would, however, be difficult under existing tendencies to detect any such regular rise and fall. The price of coal has been continually rising since about the year 1895. ’ It is doubtful, also, whether purely economic considera- tions can be accurately gauged under the operation of’the Limitation of Prices Act," the effect of which would be to mask many purely economic factors, But while admitting that an equitable equivalent to the minimum wage might at the present time conceivably be higher than the South Wales miners relish, this is no reason for their persistent endeavour to avoid its consideration. If they think that changes in the wage-rate can be secured without an equivalent under the existing Conciliation Board arrangement, they will certainly find it difficult to secure an independent chairman of the same way of thinking. It is a particularly unfortunate circumstance that the Board of Trade should r have this trouble again on their hands, but it is the natural result of shelving the difficulty last year. It is reported that the miners’ executive would now be willing to agree 'to the re-establishment of Sir David Dale’s award, which would mean fixing the selling price of 11s. lOd. per ton as the equivalent to the existing minimum wage. It is possible that they would even consider the 1910 agreement, in which 12s. 5d. was fixed as the equivalent to the new minimum of 35 per cent, above the 1879 standard. But these figures are obviously far below any equitable minimum at the present juncture. At the time when the 1915 negotiations were in progress there was some attempt at an offer from the men’s side to fix 15s. 6d. as the equivalent to the present minimum of 60 per cent, above the 1879 standard, but if we place these figures opposite each other on the scale we shall discover that it really concedes nothing, because on the 1910 agreement the equivalent to the present minimum would be within 4d. of this amount, and the cost of production has increased very much more than 4d. in the interim-. Under the old sliding scale, a rise in the selling price of coal of l’74d. was equivalent to a rise in wages of 1J per cent, on the standard wage. This meant a rise of 8|- per cent, for every rise of Is. in the price of coal, so long as that price exceeded 8s. per ton. We mention this merely with the object of showing how great a change has come about in the coal trade since 1892, when the sliding scale was in force. With regard to the outcome of the present dead- lock, it is for the Board of Trade to find ,a solution. It is owing to their action last year that the machinery of the Conciliation Board has become disorganised. It is regrettable that the energies of this department should be diverted from their normal course at this time. It is not a patriotic act of the miners’ executive to create friction when every effort is required to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion. Strong things could be said respecting such behaviour, but under the circumstances it will perhaps be better to reflect that there will always be men in any community who cannot help placing selfish interests above every other consideration. It takes all sorts to make a world.