November 5, 1915.

THE COLLIERY • GUARDIAN.

935

An application for a reduction of 5 per cent, in the
general wage rate has been made by the South
Wales Coal Owners’ Association, and will come before
the local Conciliation Board on Wednesday next.

At a special meeting of the Northumberland
Miners’ Association council on Saturday last it was
agreed that members’ contributions should be raised
from 6d. to Is. per fortnight, and those of half
members from 3d. to 6d. A proxy vote of the
branches will now be taken.

The final result of the ballot for the selection of a
miners’ candidate for the Merthyr Boroughs Parlia-
mentary vacancy shows Mr. J. Winstone to have
headed the poll. Mr. C. B. Stanton, who was second,
has resigned his position as miners’ agent to the
Aberdare district, and will probably contest the con-
stituency as an independent candidate.

An interesting paper dealing with mechanical
ventilation was read on Monday by Mr. J. Keith
before the Institute of Marine Engineers.

A meeting of the North Staffordshire Institute of
Mining and Mechanical Engineers will be held at
Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday, 13th inst., when Prof.
W. A. Bone will lecture on “ The National
Importance of Fuel Economy.”

In Committee on Ways and Means, on Wednesday,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced a resolu-
tion applying the principle of the excess profits tax
to royalty owners. On the following day the Report
stage was reached, and the resolution passed.

A paper dealing with the problems of the South
Lancashire coalfield will be read before the Man-
chester Geological and Mining Society, on Tuesday
next, by Mr. G. Hickling.

On Wednesday last the Chancellor
Royalties 0F the Exchequer carried in Com-
and War mittee his resolution amending the
Profits. Mineral Rights Duty to which refer-
ence was made in our issue of last
week. By the terms of this resolution he will be
empowered to appropriate 50 per cent, of what may,
conveniently be described as excess profits from
royalties. His reason for dealing with royalties in
this way rather than by the Excess Profits Tax seems
to have been because there are so many hands through
which mineral rents, royalties, and wayleaves pass.
In considering the effect of this resolution upon royalty
and wayleave owners, we may divide this class into
the following three heads—viz., (a) owners of sliding
scale royalties, (b) owners of royalties based on
tonnage, (<?) owners working their own minerals. It
is only the first of these upon whom the Excess
Profits Tax will fall—that is to say, it applies only to
those cases in which royalties and wayleaves vary
according to the price of the minerals worked.

In the debate upon this resolution, Sir Courtenay
Warner expressed surprise that tonnage royalties
were not included. He drew attention to the fact
that the output of certain minerals had been greatly
increased by the demand created by the war, and
these royalty owners were profiting considerably in
consequence. It is, of course, true that the increased
income thus obtained is directly due to the war. But
nevertheless Mr. McKenna’s refusal to include such
cases is to be commended upon grounds of equity.
For it is clear that a royalty owner does not derive any
permanent advantage from the more rapid exhaustion
of his property brought about by an increased output.
The capital value of a mineral royalty depends
solely upon the quantity of unworked mineral
available. This is a typical wasting asset, and to
appropriate the excess income in such a case would
amount to mere confiscation of private capital. To
coal owners, whose royalties are largely based upon
output, this distinction is, therefore, only common
justice; and, moreover, any increased income will
benefit the exchequer in a greater yield of the
statutory duty, as well as in increased income tax.

Sir A. Markham wanted the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to take not 50, but 100 per cent, of the
excess yield, basing his request mainly upon the
plea that the State itself is responsible for the high
prices now ruling for iron ore; and others went so
far as to advocate that iron ore mines, as well as

royalty owners, should be brought under the defini-
tion of controlled establishments. But Mr.
McKenna held to the opinion that in the long run
he would get more under his proposal than under
the provisions of the Munitions Act, the working
of which is as yet upon its trial.

We have still one class of royalty owner to consider,
i.e., the owner who works his own mineral. It is
clear that if the owner of a tonnage royalty is
exempt, the working owner must be so also; because,
paying no royalty at all, he could scarcely be
arbitrarily assessed on a sliding-jscale basis.

>	We have received a circular letter

Lord Derby’s from Lord Derby asking us to do

Appeal. we can to ensure the success of
his recruiting scheme, upon the
success of which depends issues most vital to the
national interests. This we are glad to do, and if
by any word or argument encouragement can be
given by us to this final attempt to prove the efficaey
of the voluntary system of enlistment it is both our
duty and our privilege to do what is in our power to
that end. We believe that amongst the large circle
of our readers there are not many more who can
properly be spared for ‘enlistment. The response
to their country’s call that has been already made
from the mining classes has been magnificent and
even extravagant, especially when we remember the
large demands upon this particular branch of the
community for the pressing needs of munition work.
But there may still be some whose services in the
field would be more valuable than their home duties.
Of this only the authorities can properly judge; but
if by chance this should meet the eye of any
unstarred men of military age we would venture to
impress upon them the urgency of the nation’s needs.
Fortunately this urgency does not arise so much
from the fear that our enemies can now win the war
as from the absolute need that Great Britain should
be strong when the enemy begins to flag. It is only
thus that we can hope to secure the ends for which
we have been fighting. Long before Lord Derby’s
new recruits can be fitted for active work at the front
we all hope and expect to see a new condition arising
which will eventually set a term to the war. Every
man who now offers his services will contribute to
that result, and will hasten the ultimate discomfiture
of the enemy.

There must be many who are in doubt whether
they can be properly spared from the work upon
which they are now engaged. Let such men not
hesitate to seek official advice. We note, for
example, the proposal recently made by Mr
Frederick Mills, managing director of the Ebbw
Vale Coal and Iron Company, who considers that
it might still be possible to permit some thousands of
Welsh miners to enlist, without interfering unduly
with the output of coal. The Government, he says,
having reduced the export of coal to neutral countries,
a large number of miners might be spared by closing
certain collieries. The younger men could then
enlist, and the older men might be drafted to other
collieries which are short of labour. Without
expressing a decided opinion upon the advisability
or even the practicability of such a plan, it is one
that might be deserving of consideration, although
there are obvious objections to such a course. As an
abstract proposition the suggestion has only academic
interest. It is when we endeavour to throw it into
a concrete form that the difficulties become apparent.

It is stated, also, that a daily average of 15,000
Welsh miners are idle owing to congestion on the
railways, and the consequent shortage of wagons for
the conveyance of coal from the pits. Here, again,
without expressing a definite opinion as to the alleged
facts, there seems to be a case for better organisation.
No one should be idle at this juncture in the affairs
of the nation, and'a daily loss of 120,000 hours from
such a cause would be lamentable in the extreme,
although it can scarcely be said to touch directly the
present question of recruiting.

The main objection, however, to any drastic
measures of reorganisation of our established indus-
trial systems lies in the time factor. If we could
proceed leisurely to remedy one by one the defects of
our industrial methods, it might be possible to

liberate many men without unduly depleting the
ranks of our munition workers, but such a procedure
would necessarily be too slow for our present require-
ments. We wish to secure a conclusive peace in
the shortest possible time. That we were wholly
unprepared for this titanic struggle is in itself a
sufficient proof that the conflict was not of our
seeking. We must, however, above all things,
endeavour to avoid a repetition of our initial error in
recruiting many who could have been better employed
in the factory or workshop. The Home Office has
made clear the position of colliery workers in a
communication to Sir Thomas Ratcliffe - Ellis,
which we reproduce in another column.

We do not believe that the splendid wave of
national enthusiasm which spread throughout the
country in the earlier phases of the war, with
such satisfactory results in the massing of Lord
Kitchener’s army, represents anything like the
limit of voluntary /effort. If that enthusiasm has
not been maintained it was owing to a failure to
appreciate the magnitude of the national task. The
eyes of the country have now been opened, and the
determination to secure a satisfactory conclusion’ to
the war is greater, if possible, than ever. Let us all
unite in this endeavour and do our best to respond
to Lord Derby’s appeal. Only a short period
remains to test the soundness of the nation’s spirit.
The voluntary system, upon which rests the glory of
our past history, will stand or fall as the result of
the next few weeks. It is for each and all of us to
play our part in this critical decision.

A difficult situation has arisen,
Tonnage more particularly in the South Wales
and the coal trade, owing to the scarcity of
Coal Trade, tonnage, which has now reached an
acute stage, the immediate effect of
which has been a great increase in outward freight
rates and a fall in pit prices caused by the accumu-
lation of stocks. Local opinion seems inclined to
attribute this condition to the supervision of the
Government over the supply of tonnage. A certain
proportion of tonnage has, of course, been under
requisition by the Government, but control is
apparently also exercised over other classes of tonnage,
and shipowners find themselves required to make
regular reports of the position of their steamers and
to give guarantees concerning' their employment
after the completion of licensed foreign voyages. It
is suggested that one result of Government policy in
this and other directions has been to divert British
steamships to distant markets, and their employ-
ment under time-charters in the service of neutrals.

With regard to this matter, the President of the
Board of Trade has stated in a letter recently
addressed to Mr. Clement Edwards that his Depart-
ment is doing all that is possible to secure the supply
of more tonnage for the Welsh coal trade, as well as
for other national purposes, and he is shortly to
announce the steps that he proposes to take for this
purpose. In the meantime, the Board of Trade has
disclaimed any intention of requisitioning the entire
British mercantile marine. What seems to be
contemplated is to take steps to deal with emergency
cases as they arise, and to endeavour to remedy
such conditions as have occurred in South Wales by
a better regulation of the employment of British
shipping carrying cargo under licence. All this
seems to point to an effort to secure a better organisa-
tion of tonnage.

That something can thus be done to improve the
present scarcity seems to be clear. There are com-
plaints about unnecessary delays in the Admiralty
Transport Department, but we should be sorry to
lay any undue blame upon officials who have had
thrust upon them the gigantic task of naval and
military transport in the present emergency. We
are nevertheless inclined to agree with Sir Norman
Hill, in his report on the British shipping
trade prepared for the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners’
Association. He states that the present methods of
the Government lead to an extravagant use of
tonnage, which would not be possible under
ordinary commercial conditions. In other words,
the economical use of a ship is a secondary con-
sideration so long as official responsibilities are