April 19, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

801

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A Dictionary of Spanish-English and Spanish-American
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AND

Journal of the Coal and Iron Trades.

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5. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S.

HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

(At present on Active Service).

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1918.

The London market has been somewhat short of
inland coal during the week, and the stocks in hand
have in many cases suffered. House coals, however,
are arriving freely.

A strong enquiry is reported on the Tyne and
Wear, and tonnage is waiting for steam coal.
Durham coals are in brisk demand. The quotations
are the official ones. In Lancashire, the pressure for
house coal is still strong. Supplies of industrial fuel are
about equal to demand. In Yorkshire, the supplies
are reduced, owing to the comb-out, and few surplus
lots are obtainable. Coal production in South Wales
is up to the average, and while this continues
Admiralty contractors are inclined to disregard the
allocation scheme. Every effort is made to get coal
away for Government purposes. The collieries in
Scotland have had the benefit of a slight increase of
tonnage, and the market tone is good.

Stagnation continues in the freight market.
Enquiries from neutral ports are pressing, but
unavailing. Allocations for .French ports are pro-
ceeding steadily.

The Coal Controller notifies that all coal contracts
(export or bunkers) must be limited to three months
from the first of the month following the date of
contract.

A new Recertification Order has been issued, for
the purpose of recruiting a further 50,000 men from
the collieries. Recruiting under this Order will begin
on May 1, and will be carried out, as far as possible,
on the same lines as those already in operation.

The Board of Trade is empowered by a new
Defence of the Realm Regulation to authorise any
person to work any unworked seam of coal in or near
any open mine.

The March exports of coal, coke and manufactured
fuel totalled 2,638,828 tons, compared with 3,025,442
tons in March last year, and 3,281,793 tons in March
1916.

The University of Illinois has just
Percentage issued another of those valuable
Of Extrac- monographs which have resulted
tion Of Coal from the activities of the Engineering
Seams, Experiment Station at Urbana. The
work which is being conducted in
that establishment, although referring more particu-
larly to Illinois conditions, is of general interest to
all who are concerned in mining research. This last
bulletin deals with the percentage of extraction of
bituminous coal. It is a subject which is also being
investigated by a committee appointed by the Home
Office in Great Britain—appointed for the purpose of
investigating the losses of coal which take place in
underground working. These losses arise from
various causes, amongst which may be mentioned
waterlogging, the physical conditions of the seams,
barriers and areas left for support of public or
private property. A great deal of evidence upon this
subject was taken in this country by the Royal Com-
mission on Coal Supplies; but since that enquiry
took place the matter has assumed increased import-
ance, owing to the greatly enhanced value of coal and
the wider scope for utilising inferior kinds. Thus, the
loss of coal from avoidable causes has become far
more serious than it was in 1905, when the Royal
Commission issued its report.

The result of this enquiry led the Royal Commis-
sion to the conclusion that the ordinary and unavoid-
able loss in British mines was about 10 per cent.,
although under certain conditions, such as the
crushing of pillars, the unavoidable waste might

sometimes amount to as much as 40 per cent., and in
the undersea workings in Cumberland as much as
75 per cent, of the coal is sometimes left behind.
Exactly what percentage of coal is lost by wasteful
working is, of course, not accurately known. The
author of the Illinois bulletin, Prof. C. M. Young,
finds reason for believing that in America, for every
ton of coal extracted, an equal quantity has been left
behind. This low percentage of recovery is ascribed
to economic conditions and to efforts to produce
cheap coal. It is probably equally true that in Great
Britain, in the early days of mining, the methods of
extraction were not designed for the purpose of
obtaining & high percentage of recovery. Since the
introduction of improved methods of working, how-
ever, and especially since the more general adoption
of the longwall system, there has been a great
improvement in the yield of coal in this country.
Yet it will probably be admitted that there is still
room to increase considerably the percentage recovery
in British mines, and there is every inducement to
do so, upon both economic and commercial grounds.

In the United States this question has apparently
gone through phases similar to those in our own case.
It was not until the appointment of the American
Coal Waste Commission in 1893 that much interest
was taken in the subject; although some of the larger
and stronger companies, particularly in the anthra-
cite district of Pennsylvania, were sufficiently far-
seeing to adapt their methods with a view to
extending the life of the pit. Prof. Young says that
in general those methods of mining which were
cheapest and promised the largest profit on output
were adopted. The prevailing tendency throughout
has been toward the production of cfieap coal by
wasteful methods. There has also been over-produc-
tion with its attendant evils, still further stimulating
cheapness, and increasing reluctance to adopt
improved methods. Thus, except in special cases,
the percentage of recovery in the United States has
been lower than in Europe.

Prof. Young very rightly questions the accuracy
of the prevailing opinion that an increased percent-
age of recovery necessarily entails a rise in the cost
of working. It is certain that experience in some
cases leads to the opposite conclusion. One of the
chief coipmercial factors that have operated in the
United States, he thinks, is the low cost of coal in the
ground, which has led colliery owners to regard loss
of coal as a matter of little.consequence. In many
parts of the Illinois coal field coal rights have been
purchasable at less than 50 dols. an acre, which, with
a very moderate estimate Of working thickness,
amounts to no more than a cent per ton of coal—it is
even less in many cases; and Mr. Rice, in 1909,
placed the cheapness of coal in place as one of the
chief contributing causes to the loss of fuel. At that
date coal rights in Illinois were so cheap to purchase
that the leasing system was rarely adopted, and
where it existed the royalty was only from 2 cents
per ton run of mine hoisted in the southern part to
5 cents in the northern part of the State. In general,
the cost of coal in place varied from one-thousandth
part to one hundred-and-thirtieth part of the total
cost of production. Even now the average value of
coal in the ground is not more than about one-tenth
of a cent per ton. But as this value is rising rapidly
the question of high recovery is assuming increased
importance.

Prof. Young points out that a low percentage of
extraction increases the cost of production, because
for a given output it means a larger area of working
and longer haulage roads. This involves higher cost
of ventilation and more expensive supervision.

There are many points of interest in Prof. Young’s
bulletin to which we cannot now refer. He has
written a valuable monograph upon this important
subject; and the technical part alone, dealing with
methods adopted to meet various conditions existing
in United States mines, deserves careful study in this
country. We have heard much of the superior
capabilities of American miners, as judged by the
output per man. These pages go far to show that
efficiency of man power in a mine is not to be
measured by tonnage produced alone, but is concerned
also, and in no small degree, with the percentage of
recovery attained.

The effect of Mr. Fisher’s Education

The Bill upon the mining industry is at
Education the present time being actively dis-

Bill. cussed by the various mining organ-
isations of the country. When this
Bill was first brought before Parliament1 we ventured
to express the opinion that it had been framed with
the view of making a real advance in national educa-
tion with the least possible interference with existing
machinery. Its main effect will be to raise the
general standard of education throughout the
country. In the achievement of this object every
industry will certainly benefit in the long runj but it
is equally inevitable that this result will not be
attained without a certain amount of interference
with the existing order of things. In the mining
industry the main point of interest lies in the pro-
posals concerning continuation classes. With certain
exceptions, the Bill proposes to enforce com-
pulsory attendance at these classes for all persons
between the ages of 15 and 18, the minimum require-
ment being fixed at 320 hours per annum,

involving something like 7^ to 8 hours per week.
Employers of labour would be obliged to afford
facilities for attendance at these continuation classes;
and it is intended that the time required for this pur-
pose, including travelling, when added to the working
time, is not to exceed, in the aggregate, in any day
or week, the period of employment permitted by law.
This would mean in practice that these young persons
would virtually be withdrawn from their occupational
employment for practically two days per week. More-
over, since Saturday is not a schoolday, this educational
work would have to be taken out of the remaining five
days. Mr. Fisher is stated to have recognised what
this would mean to the mining industry, where some-
thing like 15 per cent, of the workers would come
within the provisions of the Bill. It is believed that
in consideration of this fact he will be prepared to
accept one whole day’s attendance ar classes per week
in the case of workers of this class.

Since many youths, not yet 18 years of age, are
employed on haulage roads and in loading colliery
trams it can scarcely be asserted that their work is so
unimportant that it can be withdrawn at any time
without detriment to the daily routine of the pit. If,
therefore, colliery work is to be carried on as before,
it would be necessary, under the provisions of the Bill,
to hold in reserve a sufficient number of youths to
replace those who are absent on any particular day for
the purpose of attending continuation classes. Exactly
what this would mean it is difficult to say until the
Bill has assumed its final shape. Possibly the reserve
would have to be somewhere between 25 and 40 per
cent., and it is not easy to see where this extra
number is to be found.

Mr. W. Jarvie read a paper before the Mining
Institute of Scotland upon this questiofi a few days
ago, and he called attention to the difficulties that
would arise in this connection. If every colliery
had a floating reserve of labour, what would be done
with this surplus during school holidays ? If, on the
other hand, the reserve did not exist, and the collieries
were compelled to carry on short-handed, this must
eventually result in a diminution of output, which,
upon a moderate basis, Mr. Jarvie places at 2-34
per cent.

In the opinion of many who are altogether in
sympathy with the objects of the Bill, and who
would hesitate to put any obstruction in its path, it
would be possible to modify the continuation school
provision without sacrificing any of its material benefits.
There are those who believe that Mr. Fisher is
insisting too strongly upon the principle that the
continuation school must be day school, and that
the attendance must be taken out of the employers’
time. This is naturally in great measure a physio-
logical question, depending upon the effect of fatigue
upon the receptivity of the youth. Mr. Jarvie,
however, reminds us that one of the reasons advanced
for the establishment of the eight hours day in
mines was that this shortening of the hours of labour
would provide more opportunity for recreation and
study. There is also a further point. Young miners
begin their technical education from the moment
when they enter the pit. One of the objects of a
general education is to afford a better opportunity of
rising to a higher grade. Is this object to be better
secured by attendance at continuation classes, or in
technical classes as now carried on ? We are not
prepared to answer this question off hand. It is one
of the defects of any general scheme, applicable to
every industry alike, that it is seldom possible to
consider adequately the special requirements of
individual occupations. In carrying out the principle
of the greatest good to the greatest number,
minorities may have to suffer. Mr. Fisher has
apparently made up his mind that evening classes
after a day’s work are not desirable. That may be
true as a general proposition, but we take leave to
think that in the mining industry evening classes
have done much good in securing, by a process of
natural selection, the more persevering and deter-
mined youths, many of whom owe their present
official positions to the advantages they have thus
secured.

This same point has been taken up by the Education
Committee of the Federation of British Industries.
This body has taken pains to ascertain the views of
industry generally upon the whole question; and
while they heartily support the proposal to establish
compulsory education up to the age of 14, they are
not in agreement with the scheme so far as it affects
those between 14 and 18 They have ascertained
that this proposal is viewed with great alarm in the
industries throughout the country, especially as it would
become operative at a critical time in the industrial
future of the country, when it is absolutely essential
that the minimum of dislocation should take place.
They suggest, therefore, that it would be preferable
to substitute a liberal system of whole-time education
for selected youths, instead of part-time education
for all. A similar view was taken in Germany,
where, at the inauguration of a compulsory part-time
system, provision was made for its gradual introduc-
tion, in order to suit the convenience of the trades
concerned and the prevailing local conditions. The
compulsory minumum was, in fact, first fixed at only
two hours per week. There is clearly, therefore, not
only a strong case for a modification of this part of
the scheme, but also an indication of the way in
which this can be brought about.