October 27, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

809

tonnage scarcity. Some of the Newcastle traders
question whether the new limitation scheme will ease
the position. Lancashire and Yorkshire are strongly
pressed for house coal. In both counties slacks are
rather freely offered, and concessions are made to
assist sales.

Cardiff market is unsettled, but inclined to firmer
quotations. Prices in Scotland appear to have an
improving tendency.

Members of the executive of the Miners’ Federation
of Great Britain and of the Mining Association met
in joint conference in London to consider the question
of absenteeism and other matters. It was intimated
that various methods had been considered by means
of which it is confidently believed an increased output
sufficient to meet all needs will be obtained.

Addressing a gathering of representatives of the
coal industry on Wednesday Mr. Asquith urged that
moral pressure should be brought to bear in order to
reduce absenteeism. A resolution was carried in
favour of co-operation between masters and men in
order to increase the output.

The new scheme for supplying coal to French and
Italian ports in the Mediterranean at fixed rates
comes into operation next Monday. There are fixed
scales of maximum prices for 40 different varieties of
coal; maximum freights to 39 ports from five export-
ing centres in the United Kingdom; a commission to
exporters at the rate of 5 per cent, on f.o.b. prices,
with a maximum of Is. per ton the rate of commission
to be paid by the shipowners to the exporters; and
provisions for insurance and also for credit, if such
be mutually arranged.

Stoppage of some of the pits in South Wales is
feared unless export licences are more readily
obtained.

The Conference held on Wednesday
The National last, at the Central Hall, West-
Conference minster, afforded a noteworthy index
on Coal of the degree of unanimity pervading
Supplies. all classes in respect to the object
for which it was convened; and if the
predominant spirit of that meeting can only be
infused into the districts from which the delegates
came, its object will have been fully attained.
That object involves the solution of the elementary
problem, how to increase the output of coal with a
reduced number of workers ? The answer to that
question is so simple that it is difficult to understand
why it should have been necessary to convene such a
gathering for the purpose of elucidating so palpable
a remedy. The position, simply put, is this : —If
every member now engaged in the coal industry will
but do his best there will be no material shortage.
Moreover, it is admitted that about 90 per cent, of
the workers are doing their best. It remains only,
therefore, for the residual minority to do likewise
and the nation will be assured of coal supplies
sufficient for the needs both of herself and her Allies.
What, therefore, is wrong with that small minority
of 10 per cent. ? Nothing more serious, so we
believe, than a failure to appreciate the gravity
of the situation. It is the business, therefore,
of those who were present at the Conference
to see that their comrades at home are made to
realise that the exemption of the miners from
military service has been granted upon the
understanding that they will take upon them-
selves the important task of providing the coal upon
which the fighting power of the Allied forces mainly
depends. There is no dispute as to the position held
by coal as an instrument both of war and peace. Mr.
Herbert Samuel showed that even in diplomacy coal
acts as a convenient lubricant, so urgent is the
demand for this commodity by neutral countries.

Avoidable absenteeism on the part of colliery
workers stands, therefore, in the same category as
malingering in the Army. Under a system of rigid
discipline it would be punishable as such. That it is
not so punished is, in the opinion of many, to be
regretted, but we will not argue that point now.
We are rather prepared to agree with the decision
that one more effort should be made to appeal to the
better instincts of those somewhat casual workers
whose seeming indifference now permits them to play
at the expense of their fellow workers’ lives. Of the

sincerity of Mr. Smillie’s appeal there can be no
doubt; but we are not so sure of the efficacy of the
very palpable concession to the men’s feelings which
is implied in his insinuation that the colliery manager
does not always offer every legitimate facility for
regularity of work. Such a policy is so much against
the employers’ interest, that it would be difficult to
assign any sane reason for its adoption. But even if
this charge had any real or even apparent foundation,
it is altogether beside the point. Two blacks do not
make a white; and if we are to rely, as Mr. Smilli^
suggests, upon moral suasion in this matter, it is
the plain duty of the miner not to shirk his
responsibilities, even although there may be occasions,
here and there, where the management may seem to
be at fault. Mr. Nimmo, in his speech at the
Conference, enlarged upon this point, and showed
how unforeseen difficulties may often arise, and
pits may be temporarily laid idle for reasons
the validity of which the men may have no
means of judging. Colliery management is not an
easy task under present conditions. The working of
a pit is a complex matter, and common sense should
show that the maintenance of output must necessarily
be one of the chief concerns of efficient management.

Other matters affecting the miners’ sense of fair
play were also mentioned, such as charges of victimi-
sation and reductions in the tonnage rates. But
these are equally irrelevant to the point at issue.
Whatever the merits of these alleged grievances may
be they afford no j ustification for strikes. Machinery
exists for their adjustment, and in wartime a recourse
to such a method of settlement as abstention from
work is inexcusable. In one sense it may be
admitted that grievances of this nature do, however,
influence the situation; for they create a bad atmo-
sphere, and tend to obscure the better judgment of
the men. But still they do not afford an adequate
excuse for absenteeism, which in its most prominent
form is not due to spleen but to slackness. There
will, we do not doubt, be every disposition on the
part of the employers to co-operate with the miners’
leaders in the attempt to establish and maintain
good feeling between masters and men wherever this
condition is wanting, but Utopia is not yet in sight,
and Mr. Smillie must not expect that grievances of
some kind or another will not arise. There are
plenty of grievances, real and imaginary, at the
front, but our soldiers have learnt the great lesson
of self-sacrifice, taught by military discipline and the
hardships of war.

The system of colliery committees does not
seem yet to have proved so effectual a remedy for
absenteeism as had been hoped ; but the method has
perhaps hardly had sufficient time for trial. There
are, it is said, still two districts, viz., West Yorkshire
and North Staffordshire, where they have not yet
been instituted. This is to be regretted, for if moral
suasion is to be given a further trial—and at
present no other course seems to: be possible—local
committees are the only way in which this remedy
can be applied. Another explanation of the unsatis-
factory returns of absenteeism in recent months may
possibly lie in the fact that this period includes the
summer season, when the miner, by long established
habit, has always been accustomed to relax his
efforts.

Mr. Nimmo, speaking for the Mining Association
of Great Britain, very truly said that what is wanted
is the creation of a new moral atmosphere about the
collieries, a new impulse and new motives to realise
what the nation expects from the coal miners. That
result is equally desired, we sincerely believe, by
Mr. Smillie and his coadjutors. There is no
practical utility, therefore, in discussing alternative
measures; and even the suggestion of such steps
might do incalculable harm to the cause of con-
ciliation to which both the Government and the
mining industry are now committed, at any rate for
the present. But Mr. Herbert Samuel threw out a
very plain hint that the Government looks to the
absentee miner to fulfil his part of the bargain,
failing which it might be necessary to reconsider the
question of the continued exemption of these men
from military service. Those miners xvho do not
give their best service in the pit might very likely
prove to be more uselul in the field.

The reports of the inspectors of
Coal Mining mines for the year 1915 assume this
and War year a simplified form, dictated

Conditions, doubtless by motives of economy
both of labour and material. Certain
features, chiefly of a statistical nature, have been
omitted, the most noticeable being the absence of the
returns for the different counties. The six divisional
reports, formerly published separately, are now all
included in Part I. of the General Report, and it is
stated, moreover, that Part IV. of this Report,
dealing with colonial and foreign statistics, will be
suspended during the war, a course which must be
regarded as inevitable when so many countries are
participating in the great struggle now in progress.

The remarks of the inspectors contain as usual
many features of interest. Coal mining operations
are being carried on in an abnormal manner at the
present time, and it is useful to examine these condi-
tions in the light of the official mind of the Home
Office staff. For instance, it is well known that
colliery labour has been sadly depleted owing to the
large number of men who have joined the Army. In
some mines the loss is not less than 50 per cent., and
these often represent experienced miners whose
places can not easily be filled from other sources. It
might be expected that the inevitable dilution of
labour that has taken place would have been a direct
cause of avoidable accidents. Mr. Walker, speaking
of the Scotland Division, says that he does not find
this to be the case. In fact, the fatal accidents in
that area have invariably happened to experienced
workers, and not to the new comers in the pit. In
the Northern Division, where there has been an
increase in the number of fatal accidents, notwith-
standing the smaller number of persons employed,
there was a preponderance of casualties due to fails of
roof and side, many of which were clearly due to negli-
gence in timbering. Mr. Wilson says it is difficult to
say how much the changed conditions due to the war
are responsible for this. It appears that the fatali-
ties were not due to the work of inexperienced
men, and he concludes that the men were
led to take unnecessary risks in their anxiety
to maintain the output. Indirectly, therefore,
if this view is correct, this result must be
attributed to the shortage of labour. It is not yet
known exactly to what extent men have left other
occupations in order to become colliery workers, but
when these figures are available, if they ever will be,
we shall probably see some surprising evidence of
the amount of dilution that has taken place in some
of the pits. Probably the number of inexperienced
men admitted to the workings varies considerably in
different districts, but it is not possible to say
whether the serious increase of deaths from falls of
roof which took took place in the York and North
Midland Division had any relation to the inexperi-
ence of the men. Upon the question of timbering,
Mr. Wilson complains of the frequency with which
miners seem to have been satisfied with maintaining
the bare statutory requirements as to the maximum
distance apart of the supports, irrespective of the
actual conditions of the roof. As he very rightly
remarks, although this may afford the miner pro-
tection against infringement of the regulations, it
does not protect him against a possible fall of roof.
This, in fact, is an admirable example of the inherent
weakness of many hard and fast rules. It is im-
possible to compel a man to exercise a correct judg-
ment in such cases. In Mr. Wilson’s view the
trouble arises partly through lack of discipline and
partly through an imperfection in the system of
timbering adopted. Another point, referred to by
Mr. A. D. Nicholson, in regard to the Lancashire
and North Wales Division, is the possibility that the
use of inferior timber may have contributed in some
degree to accidents from falls of roof. Much of the
native timber that has been used is said to have
been undersized, not sufficiently seasoned and not so
uniform in shape as in pre-war times. Mr. Nicholson
reports that on several occasions he has .advocated a
reduction in the maximum distance between the
timbers in cases where an inferior quality of wood
has been employed. In the Northern Division it is
stated that the scarcity of foreign timber has led to
the use of substitutes in the form of iron pipes into