The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY OCTOBER 21, 1920. MINERS TALK SENSE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 170347, 21 October 1920, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY OCTOBER 21, 1920. MINERS TALK SENSE.

" Let botli owners and miners coin centrate on output, because ouvpiit means money." So Mr Brace, a Labour meinber who- was formerly President of the South Wales Miners' Federation, advises in the course of a statement on behalf of the miners, and if the men who are now - striking- arc prepared to act in the spirit of that counsel a remedy will soon be found for present troubJ.es. The whole difficulty in dealing with the miners' claims to this date has been that, as a body, they have seemed unable to imagine any connection between production a.nd money. As the Minister for Labour, Sir Robert Home, points out, every increase

of wages given has been followed by a decrease of output. A statement issued recently by the British Coal Association shows thai that has been the case from lUi7 onwards. In May 1920, when they had received four increases of wages in three years, the miners were producing- only about threequarters as much coal in a given number of shifts as in March 1915. Some decrease o£ individual output mig-ht be expected Avhen the comparison is made with war-time efforts, but it is another matter when the total production 5 has declined, notwithstanding that a much larger number of men are now employed in the mines, and, when the last increase was asked for, was still declining. Mr Brace had other suggestions to make besides that of a concentration on production. He proposed that the rise now asked lor of 2s a day should be granted us a temporary measure', until a permanent scheme of wage rates could be framed by the National Wages Board. That would not be any great concession if his view of the importance of production was accepted by the men, because j a larger increase than 2s a day, to take effect from October Ist, had been promised by Sir Robert Home, provided that the procluo tion shoxild be reasonable. Miners' wages may be on a low scan, still, in view of the expenses of the times, but increases have beet, made to them during recent years which offset more nearly those of the cost of" living than the advances of probably any other section. The obvious way to provide for greater increase is -by increase of production. The suggestion that the .Government should appoint a committee to decide the proportion oi: profits workers and owners should have does not promise to be helpful, because the owners' profits have been fixed under Government control. The profits of the Government—much smaller thnn tiu-y would have beeu if the output had not shown its great decline—have been drawn wholly from the export of coal. In effect, as local prices are fixed, there are no profits on the domestic business.

Increase of production is needed to enlarge the profits from which more wages can he paid, at ihe same time that the foreign sxehange'rate is kept .down, the national debt reduced, and conditions conserved which will tend to cheaper living'. To impoverish the whole country, which the miners do when they reduce their output, and still more when they go on strike, is the last way Ly vhieh their end can be attained. A danger which the worker had cause to fear in older times w«u unemployment, with its consequence of no wages, and, to avoid that perih he was apt to reduce iis efforts, with the idea that there ■would thus be enough Aibour for nil. But that danger, recalled by Mr Brace, though, it may inthe sub-conscious mind as things jtast can do, has no real existence at the present time, least of all for the miners. There will be a market for all the coax •that they can produce. Some unemployment there has been in Britain, but a main cause of that lias been the refusal of consumers k> buy goods at high prices, when, owing to the inadequacy of production, they could not be more cheaply sold. More production is the first need of the present time, and when that is realised bv the miners and other classes, the main step will be made towards economic recovery. Parties *n Great Britain now are "seeking a formula," in the British wav, which will allow the coal strike. to be settled before it can become ioo great a calamity bv concessions, probably on- both sides, which will not hurt eititer's fan>j because they will be disguised! If the nation keens its old reasonableness they will find it.