GERMANY ARMED FOR COAL WAR

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 2

GERMANY ARMED FOR COAL WAR

RUTHLESS SCRAPPING *OF OLD METHODS. How German efficiency in the mining industry far outstrips British colliery methods was the principal impression left on the mind of a working English miner after a tour of the European coalfields. The miner was Mr A. H. Gill, a Nottingham pitman, who was selected as a working miner to accompany a special mission, of miners’ officials which went to Germany, France, and Poland to study mining conditions in those countries. “Germany,” writes Mr Gill, 'is using brains instead of wasting, or debating I with, brawn. She has no use for inI ‘efficiency in either men or machines, j Employer and employee are pulling I their weight at a common load. A I common woe has created a national harmony. There is no serious theat to industrial peace. “Non-profitablo units of productivity ! arc being ruthlessly scrapped and one | hundred per cent, output demanded ' from the survivors. The war has moved from the battlefields to the markets. In the inevitable price-war England and Germany will b.e, and are now, the chief contestants. 1 §

‘‘Germany is prepared tor the coming coal-dumping competition. She is creating a mighty flow of electrical energy from the type of colliery refuse with which we build unsightly hills. Her best coal is reserved for competitive markets. The report drafted by the mission will contain startling facts concerning German enterprise in the above respects. “The German miners and their leaders welcome the methods employed by the coa(owners. The magnificent surVace equipment and labor-saving devices, with the elaborate co-operative system of selling, are considered by the miners to he valuable and necessary factors in the maintenance of present wages and continuous employment, ’’('hey have placed their industrial fortunes in tiie hands of those deemed most competent to guide them.

“This, the human factor, is certain to lie of great advantage to the German competitor when he pitches his coal against that of an English rival harassed by political obstructionists and industrial fanatics. “A battle for the coal markets is on. The wages of the English miner hang on the ability to compete in Continental markets. Can we meet this mighty, national effort on the part of Germany? Wo can.

“Let the spirit level of national honor he applied to the political and industrial conscience of employer and employee. Lot the hatred and uncharitableness thus discovered he immediately expunged. Then in the now relationship gained England has but little to fear.”