THE COAL INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 33, 2 November 1929, Page 9

THE COAL INDUSTRY

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS LEAGUE OF NATIONS ATTACKS . PROBLEM One of the most interesting events of this year’s Assembly of the League of Nations was the announcement by Mr. W. Graham, president of the Board of Trade of Great Britain, of his intention to move for the convocation, at the earliest possible moment, of a conference dealing particularly With conditions of employment in the coal industry (writes James One). The League of Nations has been concerned directly or indirectly with the coal industry for some years past. Siace the present difficulties of the British coalfields are due in large part to the economic and financial chaos on the European Continent, arising, on the one hand, out of the financial debacle of Central Europe after the war, and, on the other, through the erection of a multiplicity of trade barriers throughout Europe, it may be said that the whole economic and financial work of the League, which aims precisely at restoring financial stability and reducing or abolishing customs barriers, is calculated to restore prosperity to the British coalfields. The work of the Financial Conference at Brussels in 1022; the restoration to economic stability of the finances of Austria, Hungary, Esthonia, Bulgaria and Greece; the work of the great Economic Conference of 1927 — all these helped to counteract the chaos of the war to diminish British unemployment. Removal of Handicap. The International Labour Organisation of the League of Nations, by its efforts to ensure a uniform system of hours in the coal industry everywhere and,to help towards the establishment of a fair scale of wages in countries in which labour formerly worked under “sweated” conditions, has again done much to remove the handicap under which the more advanced countries, headed by Great Britain, have been working. The League’s recommendations on rationalisation have anticipated the measures which coal owners are now finding to be necessary! In addition, however, the League has attacked the coal problem itself. Only last April the Economic Committee issued “An Interim Report on the International Aspects of the Coal Industry,” which constituted an extraordinarily valuable survey of the general conditions in the industry. Possible Remedies. The Economic Committee suggested three possible remedies. Firstly, a working agreement regarding distribution and output and kindred matters among European countries; secondly, the establishment of an international committee representing Governments, coal producers, miners, consumers and other interests, to consider from time to time the position of the coal industry ; and thirdly, an agreement to abolish subsidies and rebates and other devices intended artificially to stimulate coal production or ease financial and economic difficulties in the coalfields. The Economic Committee has also suggested that there might be an agreement upon international lines regarding wages, hours, and other conditions of employment. It is more than satisfactory to see a responsible delegate of a Great Power at last showing himself prepared to take advantage of the expert opinion and material which the League alone can offer. The coal problem is essentially an international one, and only international methods can find a remedy.