March 10, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

463

Of the total exports of coal during February, the
mean value of the large coal exported was 22s. 7*ld.;
through-and-through (unscreened), 17s. 10 3d.; and
small coal, 17s. l’09d. The average value of all
kinds of coal exported was 19s. 9’6d., an increase of
Is. 2-5d. as compared with the previous month. Other-
wise divided, it fetched the following:—Steam coal,
20s. 3’3d. ; gas coal, 17s. 0’7d. ; anthracite,
23s. 10’2d. ; household, 21s. l*9d. ; other sorts,
17s. 9 6d. The average value of the coke exported
was 31s. 6*8d. per ton, and of the manufactured fuel
23s. 10-2d. per ton.

Lord Coleridge, independent chairman of the
Coal Conciliation Board for the English Federated
area, on Wednesday considered the men’s applica-
tion for an advance in wages of 5 per cent. The
meeting adjourned until the 22nd inst.

The Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board failed
to agree on Wednesday to the men’s application for
an 18J per cent, increase in wages. The matter was
adjourned until the 20th inst.

A lecture “ On the Search for Concealed Coal Fields
in England and Wales,” will be given by Dr. A.
Strahan, Director of the Geological Survey of Great
Britain, before the Royal Institution, on 17th March,
at 5.30 p.m.

There has always been an element
Miners’ of remoteness about labour affairs
Wages in in the United States: the datum
America. level of comparison between Old
and New World conditions has
never been the same, and, consequently, industrial
relations in America, except as a sociological study
of great interest, have attracted but little attention
in this country. It is safe to say, however, that
these conditions will have to be watched in the future
much more closely than they have in the past.

Thus it is well to note that the wages agreements
in the most important coal fields expire during the
next few weeks, and that the demands put forward
by the workmen’s organisations include advances of
from 10 to 20 per cent, on the current rates of wages.
Too casual a survey has led many to believe that
American industry has derived unparalleled com-
mercial benefits from the European war; on the
contrary, many branches, however, have been most
prejudicially affected by the conflict, and throughout
1914 and 1915 the American coal trade, which relies so
extensively upon internal prosperity, suffered from
acute depression. It is true that the serious declension
of the British export trade has seemed to open the door
wide to the American operator, but the actual
increase in the volume of American coal exports has so
far been small, relative to the huge output and great
capacity for expansion which characterise the great
American coal fields, those at least producing soft or
bituminous coal.

Up to the present a scarcity of tonnage and
questions of credit have discouraged the impetus
which the war has undoubtedly given to the American
export trade. On the other hand, the economic basis
of the coal trade in the United States has for many
years been unsatisfactory; huge profits have been
made out of coal, but the entire constitution of
American industry and its dependence upon political
influence has rendered the. incidence of success very
unequal; the absence of statutory control over the
railroads, the co-existence of State and federal
legislation, the capricious authority exerted by legal
tribunals nominated by powerful commercial and
political interests, have combined to prevent anything
like an even distribution of the plums. Nevertheless,
the average margin between cost and selling price,
although, for the reasons already given, it may not
truthfully represent individual profits, has certainly
been small, even from our own standpoint, and
unbridled competition has brought many concerns to
the point of exhaustion. Taking a detached view, it
is apparent that labour in America has also suffered
harshly from these influences, even if it has been too
fond also of borrowing weapons from the armouries
of its so-called oppressors.

The point for us to observe is that trading con-
ditions in America are steadily on the mend. There
has been an enormous influx of wealth into the

country, and if there have so far been few oppor-
tunities of employing it, owing largely to the tonnage
problem, we may be sure that our American cousins
will not wait until the conclusion of the war to put
their money in circulation. Apart from the activity
in munition work, there has already been a great
development in the manufacture of by-products, in
which America hitherto has lagged in the rear. We
know also that large concerns like the Consolidated
Coal Company have booked huge contracts for coal,
very little of which has so far been delivered. The
demands now put forward by the United Mine
Workers, which may have been assisted by the
depletion of labour created by the call of numerous
aliens to the European armies, are an earnest of this
coming activity, even if, as is usually the way with
such demands, they borrow much from the future.

The merits of the demands do not concern us
greatly, but we have a material interest in divining
whether they are likely to be conceded, and, if not,
whether failure to agree will result in open conflict.
The present condition of the United Mine Workers
of America provides us with a clue on the second
point; it is an inordinately ambitious body, but
has little of the strength possessed by our own
Miners’ Federation. In the first place, the
union is now in a state of penury, owing mainly
to three disastrous strikes in Ohio, Colorado and
Vancouver. The first of these ended in what is
claimed as a victory, the establishment of the run-of -
mine system of payment, instead of the screened coal
basis, the point’ at issue, therefore, resembling closely
that which has ^iven so much trouble in South
Wales. The sanguinary struggle in Colorado, which
was quelled by the introduction of military, with the
loss of 38 lives, ended in a complete victory for the
owners, who have been able to set up their own
system of labour representation outside the national
union, despite the intervention of President Wilson.
The Vancouver strike, which was an ill-advised and
impertinent attempt on the part of the Mine Workers
to trespass beyond their domains, like the earlier
attempt at Cape Breton, was also smashed by the
Provincial Government. During 1914 the ’ Mine
Workers expended on these and other strikes no less
than 2,910,081 dols., and in 1915 1,259,515 dols.
The total income for 1914 was 3,222,742 dols., and
the expenditure 3,389,835 dols.; in 1915 the income
was 1,858,604 dols., and the expenditure 1,776,984
dols. But the union owes nearly 900,000 dols. to
the branch associations, so that the men are not
in a position to stand a prolonged battle with the
employers. Experience tells us, however, that the
richer a union becomes, the more diffident it is about
squandering its wealth in this way.

But there are other indications which are inimical
to any strike on the general wages question just
now. In his address to the annual Convention held
during January, President White declared that

the policy of working, pending settlements is essential
to the well being of our organisation and its membership,
and the welfare of the public. There is no longer any
need of remaining idle during negotiations, and of
destroying the markets of the organised territory by
permitting a few who speculate in stock coal to make
money out of the misfortunes of the people. .

This policy, which was approved by the Convention,
is unexceptionable, but the second of the two
sentences is that which sticks in the mind. The
United Mine Workers of America at present have
about 350,000 members, or less than half of the total
number of persons employed in the industry, even
when the Canadian excursions are eliminated. Large
territories are outside its aegis; the Western Federa-
tion of Miners is an independent body, and the
important exporting State of West Virginia brings
little grist to its mill. The intention obviously is to
persist in the education of the non-union miner,
rather than waste resources on dubious conflicts over
general wages questions. President White even
insists that for many years the organisation “spent
millions of dollars in prosecuting strikes in the
organised localities, while the partially organised and
unorganised fields of great moment to the future
welfare of the organisation were not molested in
their peaceful method of despotism.” 11 It is quite
evident,” he says, “that it is to the interest of these
non-union fields to promote all the strife possible in

the organised fields in order that legitimate markets
that belong to organised territory may be forfeited
through local strikes and secured by those who
operate mines in the non-union territory.”

President White at any rate sees the necessity of
the union setting its house in order before it goes out
to battle. It is complained that numbers of delegates
are fed from the “slush-funds” of the capitalists,
and that the spies of the “ Iron Heel ” dominate and
sow disorder in the conventions. The Colorado
lesson has not been lost, and the ostensible reason
which the convention gave for opposing President
Wilson’s “preparedness ” campaign is that the armed
forces of the Republic would chiefly be utilised to
settle labour disputes ; it has been proposed to expel
all members of the militia from the union. The
authority of the union has also been sapped by the
declaration of local illegal strikes by officials whose
zeal has outrun their discretion. Of these President
White says “the great trouble with many of our
leaders is that they want the exercise of power, but
they do not care to assume the responsibilities.” A
common failing of trade union leaders!

Without expressing an opinion on these sentiments,
it is apparent that there is a tendency in the “ organ-
ised” districts for operators and workmen to co-
operate against the “savages,” as they would be
called in Russia, and not merely against trade rivals,
for it is significant that the operators and the union
have agreed to act in concert with a view to securing
amendments in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and to
protest against the legal interpretations under that
Act. So far, several attempts have been made, but
unsuccessfully, to convict the union of offences
against this Act, on the ground of conspiracy.

The probability is, therefore, that the expiring
agreements in the American coal trade will be
renewed, on a basis of compromise, and that the
parties thereto, in their own interests, will not
hazard the risk of a disastrous stoppage. Of course,
the pacific attitude of the men’s chief leaders, whose
policy was strikingly endorsed at the Convention,
may be a strategic move to put the buying public off
their guard, but the signs of the times point in
another quarter.

At the Surveyors’ Institution, on
Estate Monday last, Mr. G. Turville
Management Brown read a paper upon a subject
in Mining of great importance to colliery
Areas. owners from many points of view ;

for the questions covered by the
title of this paper on “ The Management of Estates
in Mining Districts and Mineral Valuations ” touch
some of the most difficult problems of mining law.
Amongst these may be mentioned colliery leases, the
law of support and surface rights, rating of mines,
town planning in colliery districts, mine valuations
and other matters incidental to these subjects. The
field thus covered is far too wide for adequate treat-
ment within the limits of a single paper, and the
author was therefore compelled to touch lightly upon
topics of the most controversial character. As we
are reproducing this paper fairly fully in the present
issue, w.e may be pardoned for availing ourselves of
the opportunity thus afforded for commenting upon
some of the author’s conclusions. Let us in the first
place compliment Mr. Turville Brown upon the
great ability he has shown in skimming the cream
off this complex mixture of topics, which he handles
with great dexterity and impartiality. One may,
perhaps, question his conclusions respecting our coal
supplies when he says that there is no reason to fear
that the competitive power of our collieries as against
foreign coal will be impaired during the years to
come. This seems to be too optimistic a view in the
light of the rapidly rising working costs of coal mining
in this country. Some colliery owners would urge that
we are getting very near the limit of our competitive
power for all but the very best qualities, and these
are by no means inexhaustible. It is doubtful
whether even mineral owners can now take so
hopeful a view of the potential value of undeveloped
coal areas as was customary some ten years or so
ago. As regards iron ore supplies, the author
advocates a Royal Commission on the lines of the
two Coal Commissions, but we fail to see how this