October 11, 1918..

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

761

The new federation of coal traders is to be styled
“ The Coal Merchants’ Society of Great Britain,”
and membership will be confined to those engaged
in the rail borne distribution of coal.

The Ministry of Food has arranged to be repre-
sented at a conference of miners in Cardiff, regarding
the local food supply.

The Ministry of Reconstruction is appointing a
committee, which includes employers and trade union
representatives, to consider the continuation of
compulsory wage awards in the transition period
after the war.

The National Union of Scottish Mine Workers
decided to ask the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain to call a conference relative to the Govern-
ment allowances to dependants of sailorsand soldiers.

Although it is yet too soon to
After	reckon upon any definite limit

the War.	to the Great War now raging in

redoubled fury throughout the
length and breadth of the greater part of two
continents, it is not too soon to consider the
problems that must arise when the nations at
length lay down their arms and return to
the paths of peace. It is in this spirit that the
Industrial Reconstruction Council have inaugurated
a series of lectures, the first of which was given last
week at Saddlers’ Hall by the President of the
Board of Trade. No less opportune was the
preliminary meeting held recently at Manchester for
the purpose of forming a British Manufacturers’
Corporation for the promotion of British export trade.
These two bodies, representing on the one hand the
Government, and on the other individual private
effort, should be regarded as complementary to one
another The President of the Board of Trade
has, in fact, already expressed the opinion that
whatever scheme the Government may devise for the
recovery and expansion of trade after the war, this
• must be supplemented by the efforts of manu-
facturers and traders themselves if ultimate success
is to be expected.

It is worth while, therefore, to examine the situa-
tion in some detail, in order to arrive. at a proper
understanding of the part which the Government can
most effectively take in the great work that lies
before the nation. It may, we think, be safely
assumed that the country, as a whole, recognises the
impossibility of a return to the old pre-war methods.
As Mr. Barnes admitted in his speech at Saddlers’
Hall, even the restoration of former trade union
conditions, to which the Government is pledged, will
not be insisted upon in their entirety if the men are
wise enough to accept a quid pro quo in place of those
so-called privileges which are, in fact, detrimental to
their own best interests. At the same time, he
suggested that an acceptable bargain might be made
upon the basis ef shorter hours of work, an adjust-
ment of certain standard rates of wages and greater
security of employment. There are also many other
questions upon which views have been profoundly
modified by the experience taught by the war. If
there are men or women in this country who have
not profited by the lessons of the past four years,
they must be either mentally abnormal or wilfully
obtuse.

Leaving aside, however, these domestic problems,
let us follow Sir Albert Stanley in his statement of
the share which the Government proposes to take
after the war for the purpose of facilitating the
recovery and expansion of trade. The keynote to
this expansion is obviously to be found in increased
productivity ; but productivity alone is not enough.
There must also be found a means of marketing what
is produced. British overseas trade must be main-
tained in the face of the increased competition that is
bound to arise. This is where the Government can
give most effective support, and Sir Albert Stanley
fully recognises this fact. He admits that no Govern-
ment is capable of telling its manufacturers and
merchants how they should conduct theif~business;
but it can assist them in obtaining the fullest
possible information as to foreign market conditions.
It can help in maintaining an adequate supply of
raw materials, and it can stimulate and encourage
the development of the Empire’s resources. Nor do
its functions end here. There are certain industries
which are essential for the maintenance of the safety
of the State and the prosperity of the Empire. We
have seen how these have, in the past, been allowed
to fall under foreign control. We have seen our
industries threatened by unfair competition, and we
have permitted certain “key” industries to be
practically at the mercy of potential enemies. The
reason for this short-sighted neglect need not now
be discussed. It is enough to say that it was the
logical result of a mistaken policy, and of too slavish
a devotion to laisser fair e principles.

If, however, the State is to give special assistance
to such industries, it is not only reasonable but also
essential that some measure of State supervision
should be exerted in order to ensure that no unfair
advantage is taken of the position that would thus
arise.

With regard to the future control of railways,
Sir Albert held the view that, while pre-war condi-
tions should be restored, there should be no return
to the overlapping and waste resulting from the old

system of working. The future position of canals,
also, would have to be carefully considered.

Amongst other matters involved in the internal
development of the United Kingdom, the first place
was given to the‘conservation of our coal supplies;
and this was followed by a reference to the cognate
questions of electric power and water power develop-
ment. Upon these important points, however, he
did not enlarge; and it may be presumed that he
adhered to the recommendations recently made by
the sub-committee set up by the Reconstruction
Committee.

Upon one point, viz., the continuation of Govern-
ment control after the war, he spoke plainly. “It
is,” he said, “of great importance that there should
be no attempt at Government control of industry
and trade after the war, except in so far as such
control may be necessary during the transition from
a war to a peace basis.” It may be admitted that a
sudden withdrawal of control on the conclusion of
peace would be inadvisable. There would inevitably
be a period of confusion and disorder unless steps
were taken to prevent a scramble for materials, plant,
and tonnage, and to secure their fair distribution
amongst competing industries.

It is impossible to find fault with the reasonable
attitude towards the control of industry which was
taken on this occasion by the President of the
Board of Trade. It would seem that the chief
thing remaining to be done lies in the direction of
the more complete organisation of the industries
themselves, the machinery for which already exists
in embryo in the Whitley scheme, and the various
industrial bodies such as the British Trade Corpora-
tion, the British Manufacturers’ Corporation and
similar institutions. There is some danger, at this
stage of the developments which are springing up
around the central idea of reconstruction, of over-
lapping and a certain amount of confusion. This is
probably inevitable, and serves only to show the
zeal with which our industrialists are attempting to
carry out the principles of association and organisa-
tion which are recognised on all hands to be an
essential factor in the process of national recu-
peration.

The Exhibition of New British and
The Keyset “Key” Industries now on view at
Industry, the Central Hall, Westminster, has
been opportunely timed by the
executive committee of the Tariff Reform League,
for the purpose of bringing prominently before the
public some of the most important economic lessons
of the war. The collection of industrial exhibits
brought together with this object not only possesses
a high educational value per se, but it serves also, as
nothing else could do so well, to bring home to the
popular mind what is really involved in the process
of “ peaceful penetration ” by which Germany,
before the war, stood to win far more than even a
successful military campaign could have gained.
Speaking in the House of Commons on March 23,
1916, Mr. Lloyd George said “There are industries
which we have discovered to be essential to self-
defence. Germany has very cunningly and craftily
been building them up, not with a view to trade, but
with a view to war. We found ourselves almost
done, because we had not got cerfain industries in
this country. We have built them up slowly, but
we have built them up, and we have built them up
successfully. There are several new businesses
which are essential to war as well as to commerce
which we have built up, and it will be a fatal blunder
if we ever allow these industries to go down. That
is a question neither of Protection nor of Free
Trade. It is essentially a question of national
existence.”

There is, at present, some amount of uncertainty
in the public mind as to what constitutes a ‘‘ key ”
industry. In its popular acceptation the term
is generally understood to mean those great
industries, such as coal mining and steel production,
upon which all other industries directly or indirectly
depend. This, however, is not the true significance
of the term. The true “key” industries are not
the great staple industries of the country, but a
number of small industries of comparatively secondary
rank in themselves, but nevertheless of fundamental
importance to the industrial life of the nation. We
may cite, as an example, the case of dyes, which are
essential to the textile and paper industries, and for
which we paid Germany something like £200,000,000
a year to manufacture for us. Another instance is
that of the manufacture of magnetos. Before the
war all our internal-combustion engines, whether of
aeroplanes or motor cars, were started by magnetos
made by the single firm of Bosch of Stuttgart, the
manufacture of which depended upon processes which
were carefully kept secret. The same may be said
for optical ‘glass, heat-resisting and other special
glass, upon which depended numbers of instruments
and appliances indispensable for the manufacture of
a long range of products required for the prosecution
of the war. And not only were we handicapped in
this way in our preparations for war; for these same
articles were equally necessary throughout the whole
cycle of our industrial life. The Germans controlled
both our means of peaceful competition and our
facilities for making war. Whether it was tungsten
for our armour plate, monazite for our searchlight

carbons, coal-tar “intermediates” for our high
explosives, we found ourselves, as the Premier said,
almost done.

It will doubtless be remembered, that almost
immediately after the outbreak of war in 1914, this
country found itself in difficulties owing to a shortage
of miners’ safety lamps, because manufacturers had
been dependent upon Germany for the special heat-
resisting glass used in their construction, and no
British manufacturer was then able to produce glass
capable of meeting the Home Office test. Chemical
laboratories experienced similar difficulties in regard
to essential glass apparatus, and innumerable
instances can be adduced in other directions to show
how deeply we had permitted Germany to obtain
control of our manufacturing capacity. A visit to
the exhibition at the Central Hall will help to convey
the depth and breadth of this penetration. An
excellent handbook to the exhibition has been com-
piled, and a mass of information is there given upon
the various industries affected ; and especially upon
the means whereby British manufacturers have been
able to overcome their difficulties and recover the
control which they should never have relinquished.

Some additions could still be made to the long list
of products shown at the exhibition. There are, for
example, the refractory and pottery industries, both
of which have been affected by the same sinister
influence of foreign control. The pottery industry,
in particular, was in grave danger of being held up
on the outbreak of war, owing to the stoppage of
supplies of Seger cones from Germany, for without
these the industry was greatly hampered. As in other
cases, however, British enterprise has enabled all
obstacles to be eventually overcome; but there can
be no question about the extent of demoralisation
by which this country was threatened in the early
days of the war. Truly, as Mr. Austen Chamberlain
remarks, we have been living in a fool’s paradise,
and it is time we awoke to realities.

Yet there are still, apparently, some who have not
yet learned the lessons taught by the war; and there
are others who, for various reasons, would bid us
forget them. But facts are stubborn things, which
even politicians will find it difficult to camouflage
with any effect. The country has been in grave
danger, and British manufacturers will be fools
indeed if they permit the old conditions to be
re-established. Our emancipated industries must
remain free from foreign domination. No attempt
to return to the former conditions can for a moment
be tolerated.

THE LONDON COAL TRADE.

■Thursday, October 10.

There is very little change this week on the London
coal market, for whilst every merchant’s book is full of
unexecuted orders, the arrivals are scant and far below
the needs of the metropolitan centre. Considerable
anxiety is felt as to the incoming winter’s supply, as so
few of the traders have been able to secure anything like
an adequate quantity for putting anything into stock,
and the demand seems to show nd sort of abatement. The
recent railway strike to a certain extent still influences the
London market, not so much, perhaps, from the actual *
tonnage point of view, but the dislocation of the traffic
and the consequent delay in transit, especially with empty
wagons, has been very apparent. The combination of the
various merchants’ societies as a National Council of
Coal Traders is steadily progressing as a national federa-
tion. The initial meeting at Cannon Street Hotel, under
the presidency of the Mr. E. Smallwood, J.P., M.P., was
a success. Mr. Geo. Gentry, the hon. secretary of the
London Coal Merchants’ Society, was appointed pro-
visionally the first secretary, and the office, pro tem., is
to be at 8, Coal Exchange, London. The title is to be
“ The Coal Merchants’ Society of Great Britain,” and
the membership is to be confined to those engaged in the
railborne distribution of coal. The annual subscription
is to be one guinea. A central office is to be opened with
a permanent secretary and staff, and for the time being
the headquarters of the council will be at the St. Pancras
Midland Hotel. From October 7 the prices of gas coke for
household" and industrial purposes will be controlled by
a new Order of the Board of Trade. The effect of the
Order will be that the price of gas coke shall not exceed
in any district the price of the second list of house coal.
Industries using gas coke to the extent of 50 tons- per
month will, however, obtain a rebate of 10 per cent.
The deaths of two well-known men on the London
Coal Exchange has been announced this week—Mr. H.
Bollard, so many years connected with the Mapperley
Colliery Company, aged 62, and Mr. W. C. May, aged
48, formerly mineral manager (subsequently traffic super-
intendent and goods manager) of the Great Eastern
Railway Company. Both until quite recently were
regular attendants of the London market. The seaborne
market still shows a fair amount of trade, and cargoes
are coming forward with good regularity, but as the
consignments are principally gas coals, the house coal
market is very little affected. The cargoes are all sold prior
to arrival, and are seldom offered on the open market. On
Monday 13 cargoes arrived in the River Thames, and 23
for Wednesday. The attendance has been very meagre.

From Messrs. Dinham, Fawcus and Company’s Report.

Friday, October 4.—There was very little business done
in the seaborne house coal market to-day, there being no
available cargoes on offer. Arrivals, 7.

Monday, October 7.—There was no alteration in the
seaborne market to-day. Supplies are coming along very
slowly. No cargoes on offer. Arrivals, 13.

Wednesday, October 9.—There was a fairly good
supply of colliers at to-day’s market. The weather being
somewhat cold and damp caused a fair enquiry, but the
supply was again limited for household purposes. No sales
reported. Arrivals, 24.

The value of the coal output of New South Wales last
year was <£87,779,613.