THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Vol. CX.	FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1915.	No. 2849.

The Organisation of Coal Mining.

GREAT CONFERENCE IN LONDON.

As the outcome of a recommendation made in the
report of the Departmental Committee on Coal Mining
Organisation, one of the most remarkable gatherings in
the industrial history of the United Kingdom was held
on Thursday, July 29th, at the London Opera House,
Kingsway. The Home Secretary, Sir John Simon,
K.C.V.O., K.C., M.P., presided. The meeting took the
form of a conference of representatives of coal owners
and miners from every coal field in the country, con-
vened by the Government, at which there were about
2,500 present. The Government Departments and coal
trade organisations represented included the Home
Office, the Board of Trade, the Board of Education, the
National Insurance Commission, the Ministry of
Munitions, the Coal Mining Organisation Committee,
the Mining Association of Great Britain, the Miners*
Federation of Great Britain, and the English, Scottish,
and Welsh Conciliation Boards. The proceedings were
very enthusiastic throughout. After speeches by
Cabinet Ministers, a resolution declaring that “ every
effort should be made to secure the greatest possible
output of coal,” proposed by Mr. Robert Smillie, and
seconded by Mr. A. F. Pease, was put to the meeting
and carried unanimously.

Among those present were :—Mr. Lloyd George, M.P.,
Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., Mr. J. A. Pease, M.P.,
Mr. Wm. Brace, M.P., the Hon. A. Shaw, M.P.,
Mr. Stephen Walsh, M.P., Sir Edward Troup, Sir
Richard Redmayne, Sir Thos. Ratcliffe-Ellis, Mr.
Malcolm Delevingne, Mr. A. F. Pease, Mr. R. Smillie,
Air. Adam Nimmo, Mr. Vernon Hartshorn, Mr. C. E.
Rhodes, Mr. Thos. Ashton, Mr. D. J. Shackleton, Mr.
S. W. Harris, Mr. R. R. Bannatyne, Mr. W. Walker,
Mr. Arthur Locke, Mr. J. T. Davies, and Mr. W. E. T.
Hartley.

Sir John Simon (who was received with cheers) said the
conference was called .together by the Government and those
connected with the great coal mining industry of the United
Kingdom. Representatives of every coal field and, he
believed, of nearly every miners’ lodge in the whole country,
were present. The Mining Association of Great Britain and
the Miners’ Federation were both represented, and that great
assembly proved how united the coal mining industry was in
the crisis they were prepared to face. The object of the
meeting arose from a very remarkable and interesting report
made by the Coal Mining Organisation Committee, appointed
by the Home Office and presided over by Sir Richard
Redmayne. The Committee, which contained an equal
number of representatives of coal owners and miners,
arrived at an absolutely unanimous report, and made a series
of recommendations as to how the output of coal could best
be maintained during the present emergency. It must be
done by voluntary co-operation. That was the spirit in
which the Committee had reported; it was in that spirit
that the Government had called the meeting together and
counted upon them to promote the success of its object.

The mining industry had responded splendidly to the
appeal for recruits. (Cheers.) Whole regiments had been
recruited from the colliery districts up and down the land.
He had been assured by soldiers the most eminent that
the miners carried to their work in the firing line the bravery
and determination that actuated the industry throughout
the country. In at least one military unit practically every
private was a pitman, every officer and non-commissioned
officer was connected with a colliery, and the commanding
officer was one of H.M. inspectors of mines. (Cheers.) The
miners had given to Kitchener’s Army a-quarter of a million
men.

The Government and the country looked to the coal owners
to see to it that when these brave men came back to peaceful
industry, places should be found for them again. (Cheers.)
He felt sure it was the fixed intention and the firm resolve
of the coal owners of the United Kingdom that the men who
had served them faithfully in times of peace and the country
in time of war, should not suffer when they came back and
asked to resume their ordinary occupations. (Cheers.)

Warfare involved more than actual fighting. It involved
supplies, transport, and munitions, and those things

depended absolutely upon a regular and abundant supply of
coal. Furnaces must be kept stoked. The British Navy—
that sleepless and incomparable guardian of our liberties—
must be kept steaming. And it rested first and above all on
the coal mining industry to secure that the necessary supplies
were forthcoming. They had lost the comradeship of 250,000
miners. Those who were left, and all who were concerned
in it, must turn their thoughts and all their energies upon
seeing how best and most effectively they could carry on
the great coal mining industry. The Committee, he had
mentioned, had ascertained that, as a result of the con-
tribution made by the miners to the Army, there was a
shortage of no less than three million tons of coal month
by month; but with good will and an effort greater than any
hitherto made, it ought to be possible to recover some part
of that shortage.

They would remember that Lord Kitchener had asked the
industry to shorten the Easter holidays. What happened?
800,000 more tons of coal were raised. It might be truly
said that the pits were only open a certain number of days,
and the men might work only a certain number of hours,
and that it was difficult to see, under such conditions, how
a greater output could be secured. But they were met
together to consider within what limits those conditions
might be usefully modified for the period of the war, and.
he asked the owners to open their pits, and the miners to
work on every day they possibly could. (Hear, hear.) They
would not suppose that the country did not understand
that those who spent the working hours delving in the
bowels of the earth in darkness and danger, expected to
pause in their labours from time to time. But at such a
time as the present there were no holidays for anybody, and
he was sure the coal mining industry would see how they
could help the Government in that regard. (Applause.)

The Eight Hours Act, though passed in times of peace,
and in response to an overwhelming demand, contained a
section which provided that in the event of war or imminent
national danger or great emergency, the operation of the
Act might be suspended by Order in Council to such extent
and for such period as might be named in the Order. The
Government, however, were not going to play tricks with
that Act of Parliament without consulting them. (Cheers.)
He hoped that masters and men in every area likely to
be affected would consult together to see what suggestions
they felt able to make to the Government—whether a
temporary modification of this or that regulation—to increase
the output of coal to the maximum quantity possible. In
the course of long years of effort the miners had established
rules, customs and practices designed to protect their labour.
(Applause.) Nothing that he or anyone said was intended
to belittle the importance of those rules, or to indicate that
they could be abandoned or watered down. But there were
adjustments and modifications which might be made in
them during the period of the war. In return he pledged
the honour of the Cabinet, the Government, Parliament, and
the country that any relaxation in those rules and practices
which, for national purposes, the miners made now, should
be restored to them without alteration or modification, the
moment the danger was past.

The Government relied upon the coal owners similarly to
modify their established rules and practices, and to do every-
thing they could in co-operation with the men to see that
suggestions calculated to increase the output and to assist
the nation during the crisis, should be favourably received,
carefully weighed, and generously accepted in every possible
case. In that way, they were confident that great additions
could be made to the output of coal in the coming months.
One class of regulations, however, would never be modified :
those designed to secure safety in the mines. (Cheers.)
Nothing they were asking to be done ought in any way to
modify or water down regulations made for the common
good, not merely to protect the miners who might be injured,
but the lives and limbs of all his fellows in the mine.
(Cheers.)

The right hon. gentleman concluded :—

Our country stands at this time in an emergency, and
is faced by a danger which it is impossible to overstate.
If there is one feature of the coal mining industry which
strikes the imagination of every man who studies it, it is
the instant response which everyone connected with that
industry habitually gives if some great and overwhelming

disaster overtakes the mine. When the news spreads of
some terrible explosion, who is there, miner or mine
manager, who holds back when the call goes out for a
rescue party? Is the appeal ever made in vain in any
mining district in the land? (“ No.”) Gentlemen, nearly
a year ago the greatest explosion that ever took place in the
history of the world occurred in Europe. It was not the
result of the secret workings of nature; it was not even due
to the folly or the carelessness of some man. It was
deliberately perpetrated. (Cheers.) It was long planned.
(Cheers.) The German Emperor set fire a year ago to the
mine, and we are calling for a rescue party. (Applause.)
That explosion convulsed a continent. It has devastated
thousands of square miles of fruitful territory. It has
desolated tens of thousands of homes. And now we appeal
to the mining industry of Great Britain to come and help
in this work of rescue. For we are determined that this
devastating fire shall be quenched, that peace and order shall
be restored, that the dangers that threaten the freedom and
the life of $11 who care for a free life, shall be removed, and
that this terrible calamity, shaking as it does to their founda-
tions the seats of the mighty and the humblest of homes,
shall never, by dint of our efforts, and by the help of
Heaven, be allowed to recur to curse the earth. (Applause.)
That is the appeal we make for our mining rescue party,
and we are very sure that the appeal will not be made
in vain. (Loud and continued applause.)

Mr. Lloyd George (Minister of Monitions) said it was an
inspiration, even for a tired Minister to be confronted by
this fine gathering of the representatives of the great mining
industry of this country. In all capacities the miner was
always in deadly earnest, always courageous, always loyal,
a steadfast friend, but a dangerous foe. The Government
had come there that day to appeal to him as a friend, as
their friend, as the country’s friend, as the friend of liberty
in all lands and in every clime. (Cheers.) They were
suffering from the patriotism of the miners. The demand
for coal was greater than ever; the supply of labour was
less than ever.

The Minister continued : “ In times of peace coal is the
most important element in the industrial life of the country.
The blood which courses through the veins of industry in
this country is made of distilled coal. In peace and in
war King Coal is the paramount lord of industry. It enters
into every article of consumption and of utility, it is our
real international coinage. When we buy goods, food and
raw material, abroad, we pay not in gold, but in coal. We
pay in diamonds, except that they are black, and not in
gold. Coal brings meat and bread, say, from the Argentine,
and brings it all the way. It does more. It pays across
the counter there for it out of its own pocket. We cannot
do without coal. In war time it is life for us, and death for
our foes. (Cheers.) It not merely fetches and carries for
us, it makes the material and the machinery which it trans-
ports. It bends, it moulds, it strengthens, it purifies, it
fills the weapons of war. Steel, rifles, machine guns, and
cannons mean coal; shells are made with coal; the very
explosive inside them is coal, and then coal carries them all
right into the battlefield to help our men. (Hear, hear.)
Coal is everything for us, and we want more of it to win
victory. Coal is the most terrible of enemies, and the most
potent of friends. That terrible casualty list of 350,000
British soldiers was a list of casualties inflicted by German
coal; by the Westphalian miners working in co-operation
with the Prussian engineer, without stint, without reserve,
without regulations, putting their strength at the disposal
of their Fatherland. It is coal that did that. Yes, and
when you see that the seas over which the British flag flies
with impunity from realm to realm and from shore to
shore, are clear, when you find that the German flag has
vanished from the face of the seas, who has done it? The
British miner helping the Britsih sailor.” (Cheers.)

He was not sure that they quite realised how important
they were in this matter. They could not expect employers
to hand over their workshops to the State. (‘‘ Why? ”)
They could not expect them to turn their business upside
down, and so go entirely out of their way in matters that
affected them nearly; they could not expect workmen to
suspend trade-union regulations to work overtime, to put
forth all their strength, if all was going well and no further
sacrifices were needed, and there was no deficiency or danger
in any direction. It was the fact that the country was in
peril that made the appeal to all classes to set aside every
regulation and every practice.

After reviewing the present situation, Mr. Lloyd George
said they must pay the price of victory if they meant to
get it. It was of no use trying to bridge a 12 ft. stream