328

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

August 13, 1915.

welcomed back, and what would become of the men
who had been given temporary employment ?
This is a point that every workman who is tempted
to change his habitat must seriously consider.

From the standpoint of national economy the
wholesale closing down of thin seams and difficult
places is indefensible. There are some districts that
could never be re-opened owing to the expense, and,
" generally speaking, the policy would be directly
contrary to that enjoined by the Royal Commission
on Coal Supplies. As the reserves of good and
easily-won coal became exhausted, the loss of these
deposits would be deplored. Even to stop all
development work, although that step has been
taken already in many collieries, would entail
great sacrifices: for the well-managed colliery
must look beyond to-day, and full outputs cannot
be maintained if ample provision is not made for
the opening of new districts and new faces.
Again, if the cream is worked off the coal
to-day there must remain an undue proportion of
poor and costly coal in the future, for which it may
be difficult to find a market.

These points of view are not unduly insisted upon,
for, although they represent duties that We owe to
posterity, we are largely commuting them by other
greater duties. But when the Government asks the
collieries to ignore the dictates of policy in order to cope
with an unparalleled emergency, it becomes necessary
to count the cost with care. Many collieries have
already done these things of their own accord. Sir
Thomas Ratcliffe-Ellis told the Committee that no
improvement was to be hoped for in Lancashire from
concentration at individual pits, or the closing of
some seams, because that had already been done by
the managers of the different collieries in their own
interest. The manager can generally be trusted to
get the most out of his pit, and if we are going to
usurp his judgment, there must be solid reasons for
doing it and no capitulation to doctrinaire methods.
But this certainly does seem to be a case for
co-operative measures, and the appointment of local
committees of experts at this stage might well result
in real economies which could not be brought about
by individual action.

The Board of Education has issued
Scientific a White Paper entitled “ Scheme for
and the Organisation and Development of
Industrial Scientific and Industrial Research?’
Research. It is a subject which has been brought
into prominence by the war, but it is
necessary to utter a word of caution against the too
prevalent view that its object is mainly for war
purposes. To a people whose imagination has been
stimulated to an unhealthy degree by the German
uses of scientific appliances, such as poison gases and
liquid fire, it is perhaps natural that the kind of
scientific research which is considered most desirable
at the moment is the discovery of the best means
of outdoing the enemy in their murderous
practices. This, however, is quite an erroneous
notion. The Government has in view a far more
important object than such misuses of scientific
knowledge, with which even the Germans them-
selves will ultimately be ashamed to have been
associated. The scheme now brought forward by
the Board of Education aims in the first place at the
removal of our present inability to produce at home
certain materials required in trade processes, the
manufacture of which has become localised in
Germany, “ because science has there been more
thoroughly and effectively applied to the solution of
scientific problems bearing on trade and industry and
to the elaboration of economical and improved
processes of manufacture.”

This is a confession by our Government that we
have not been making the best use of scientific
research, and it is satisfactory to know that a
permanent organisation is now being set up to
remedy this defect. But let there be no mistake about
the causes of our past deficiencies in this regard. The
Government itself has been at fault. Not one Govern-
ment more than another, but our whole system
of Government, and particularly the departmental
officials.

There are examples wherever one turns. Look
at the primary education of our army officers. This
has been solely in the hands of the Civil Service
Commissioners, a body representative mainly of the
purely classical sides of our universities. Science
has consequently been deliberately discouraged as a
subject for army examinations. It is the same story
in nearly all our State services. The plums in the wry
of emoluments are everywhere confined mainly to the
alumni of the classical schools. At the Bar, the
other day, we had the amusing example of an
eminent member of the Government gravely informing
the court that a recent scientific discovery had shown
that glycerine can be extracted from lard. The War
Office has, until lately, been guilty of estimating the
value of its permanent scientific staff by the offer of
artisans’ wages. In India and the colonies the
engineers of the Public Works Departments are still
denied the privileges accorded to the civil services
recruited mainly from the classical schools. Examples
can be multiplied ad lib. There is no possibility of
denying the fact that the development of science in
this country has been deliberately smothered. Our
only efforts of any magnitude have been the multipli-
cation of technical schools, useful in their way, but
hopelessly inadequate for the supply of anything but
science teachers, indifferently paid laboratory
assistants and mechanical engineers of a kind.
Scientific education of late years has been patronised
to some extent by the State, but the patronage has
been neither whole-hearted nor seductive. Endow-
ments for research have been miserably inadequate,
while money has flowed like water for political ends.
Neither Government nor the nation realised what the
country has lost until this war showed us what
Germany had gained by its superior scientific
organisation. It is to alter all this that the Board of
Education has now set its hand, and the task will
not by any means be an easy one.

It was, of course, inevitable that a committee
should be set up. It is our way when anything
seems not to be quite what is wished. In this case
such a committee was necessary. There is also an
Advisory Council for advising this committee on
specific researches, special problems and the award
of scholarships, with the view of increasing the
supply of competent workers. The assistance of the
various scientific societies is also to be enlisted, and
the laboratories of our universities and colleges will
be utilised for the purpose. Sub-committees are also
to be established in order to embrace, as far as
possible, all who are engaged in any trade or
industry dependent on science. Amongst these,
coal mining occupies a foremost place, not only by
reason of the close relation between science and the

technical side of fuel production and preparation,
but also with regard to the limitless field for research
offered by its valuable by-products.

The main purpose of the scheme is to secure
concentration of energy upon particular problems of
national urgency, not so much for the present as for
the permanent conditions which, after the war, will
be established in this country. The result of the
scheme will be followed with sympathetic interest in
all our educational establishments; but its full
aspirations can only be realised by a radical change
in the system which gives marked preferential treat-
ment to the classical studies, and doles out with a
niggardly hand the funds essential, to scientific
research.

It will also render necessary a considerable
revision of university curricula, and a modification
of the prevalent contempt for commercial researches
shown by professors of the older type. It will
perhaps accentuate the distinction between academic
and practical science, but there is ample room for
both in our future educational system.

Maj.-Gen. Sir Percy Girourard has been re-elected a
director, and Col. A. G. Hadoock and Lord Sydenham have
been elected directors, of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth
and Company Limited.

Grimsby Coal Exports. — Returns for the week ending
August 6 show that the coal exported from Grimsby was as
follow:—Foreign: To Dieppe, 3,190 tons: Dordrecht, 192;
Gefle, 2,021; and Havre. 339 tons—total, 5,742 tons foreign,
against 24,106 tons foreign, and 110 tons coastwise during
the corresponding week last year.

THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Thursday, August 12.

Scotland.—Western District.

COAL.

The coal market in the west of Scotland has been charac-
terised by considerable firmness during the past week. All
classes of coal are in active request, and if the licencing
measures were not in force the volume of business would be
largely increased. Splint coals are heavily booked, and
supplies are difficult to arrange, while best ells are in a
similar position, with secondary qualities not far behind.
Navigations are well maintained round - about 23s. per ton,
and ordinary steams continue to improve. Smalls of all
sizes are in active demand, with treble nuts the outstanding
feature. Shipments bulk well, and the clearances for the
week amounted to 126,446 tons, compared with 123,565 in
the preceding week and 81,610 tons in the corresponding
week of last year.

Prices f.o.b. Glasgow.

	| Current	L’st week’s Last year’s	
	prices.	prices.	prices.
Steam coal				 14/6-17/6	14/ -16/6	11/9-13/3
Ell 			 18/	-18/6	17/ -17/3	11/9-12/3
Splint				;	17/ -22/  	:	18/6-19/	17/ -21/	12/ -15/  12/
Treble nuts 			18/6-19/	
Double do			'	16/9-17/	16/9-17/	11/6-11/9
Single do. 			 16/3-16/9	16/6-16/9	11/ -11/3

IRON.

Scotch pig iron makers are not booking much in the way
of fresh business, but in view of the activity at the works
and the contracts on hand this scarcity is not seriously
felt. Makers continue to make large deliveries of both
ordinary and haematite iron to local consumers. Shipments
of pig iron during the past month show a material increase.
The total of 55,933 tons for July compares with 36,806
in June, and of that quantity 52,241 tons went to
foreign countries, against 32,603 tons in June, and 8,835
tons in May. There are 66 furnaces in blast in Scotland
at present, campared with 67 in the preceding week, and 56
in the corresponding week of last year. The prices of
Scotch makers" iron are quoted as follow:—Monkland, f.a.s.
at Glasgow, No. 1, 79s. 6d., No. 3, 78s.; Govan, No. 1, 79s.,
No. 3, 77s. 6d.; Carnbroe, No. 1, 83s., No. 3, 79s.; Clyde,
No. 1, 84s. 6d., No. 3, 79s. 6d.; Gartsherrie, Calder and
Langloan, Nos. 1, 85s., Nos. 3, 80s. ; Summerlee, No. 1,
86s., No. 3, 81s.; Glengarnock, at Ardrossan, No. 1, 86s.,
No. 3, 81s.; Eglinton, at Ardrossan or Troon, No. 1, 80s.,
3, 79s.; Dalmellington, at Ayr, No. 1, 81s., No. 3, 79s.;
Shotts, at Leith, No. 1, 85s., No. 3, 80s.; Carron, at Leith,
No. 1, 86s., No. 3, 81s. per ton. The Glasgow pig iron
warrant market was quiet but firm during the past week.
Cleveland iron closed on practically the same level as in the
preceding week at 66s. l|d. per ton cash buyers. The total
turnover amounted to 9,000 tons. Manufacturers report
increasing activity in all departments. Black sheet makers
are extremely busy in the heavy department, and prices
are inclined to harden. Malleable iron makers are well off
for orders, and here also prices are inclined to stiffen.
Crown bars are quoted <£11 per ton, less 5 per cent, for
home delivery, and <£10 10s. net for export, and steel bars
<£11, less 5 per cent, home, and <£10 12s. 6d. net for export.

Scotland.—Eastern District.

COAL.

Owing to the new order for the restriction of exports,
business in the Lothians shows a slight falling-off, and
values are a shade easier. Shipments for the week
amounted to 49,277 tons, against 34,347 in the preceding
week, and 39,423 tons in the same week last year.

Prices f.o.b. Leith.

Current
prices.

Best screened steam coal... 16 / -16/6

Secondary qualities.....i	15/3-15/9

Treble nuts ............;	19/6-20/

Double do...............I	17/ -17/6

Single do...............|	16/ -17/

L’st week's Last year’s
prices. prices.

16/6-17/6 ! 11/6-11/9
15/6-16/6 j 10/9-11/
18/6-19/ j 11/9-12/
16/6-17/6 i 10/9-11/
16/3-16/9 10/6-10/9

Collieries in Fifeshire report a fairly satisfactory position.
All classes of coal are in active request, and values are well
maintained. Clearances for the week amounted to 65,951
tons, against 73,547 in the preceding week, and 25,639 tons
in the same week last year.

Prices f.o.b. Methil or Burntisland.

	Current	L’st week’s	Lastyear’s
	prices.	prices.	prices.
Best screened navigation			
coal		24/6-25/	24/ -25/	16/ -16/6
Unscreened do		22/6-23/	22/ -23/	14/6
First-class steam coal		18/6-20/	20/	12/6-13/
Third-class do		14/6-15/	15/	10/ -10/6
Treble nuts 		19/ —20/	18/ -19/	12/ -12/6
Double do		17/ -17/6	16/6-17/6	11/ —11/9
Single do		16/9-17/	16/ -17/	10/6-10/9

The aggregate shipments from Scottish ports during the
past week amounted to 241,674 tons, compared with 231,459
in the preceding week, and 146,672 tons in the corre-
sponding week of last year