COLLIERY TROUBLES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 70, 23 March 1907, Page 14

COLLIERY TROUBLES.

Although it has been announced that a conference is to be hold to-morrow (writes tho Sydney Mornnig Hi-rald of 12th inst.), tlio position, at Polaw-ilain and Hebburn is fur from satisfactory. There seems to bo home peculiar difficulty m tho way of working a coal measure) amicably, for certainly no other industry can approach coalmining in tho rrrsiElei.eo of tho disputes that nriso. Throughout the present troubles the Minors Federation has shown ai conciliatory disposition and his given very good udvico. But one cf tho ui-.forlunato things about the industry is thai its labour organisations find it no easy matter to hold rj firm roiu. So far as can bo seen the present disputes havo arisen on no general pm.ciplo, nnd by means of no concerted plan. Wo arc experiencing the effects of merely sporadic discontent, beginning perhaps with a sinijlo individual case, and only slightly spreading, at tho first, from that oenli'o. Tho men themselves for tho most part recognise the folly of this sort o* thing so fnr ns their real interests nro concerned, and tho hardship which it must bring on many in no way connected with the want of tact or temper which, on oni» Bido or other, cows the seed of strife. As many members of tho federation put it, Uioy nro heartily sick of a. Blato of nfnurs whereby a few boys can throw a wholo mine into idleness. That they are bick of it thows their good Fense, but it is nocofsnry to go further and doviso radical amendment of labour organisation as it applies to tho coalmining industry. On tho surface thrro Bcems no particular reason why all the difficulties should not bo poltled. Indeotl, as Mr. Chapman remarked, perhnpo their mort annoying foaturo is their frivolity. Some Uavo cortiiinly been childish in tho cxlromo. Of ■■ourao, apart from this there will always bo friction in the coal trado over rates of pny which necessarily vary, -and arc, impossible to s-ottlo onco for all. But this inijiht bo reduced to a. minimum if a good fcolinir existed. But this feeling unfortunately is ju<-t what is absent. Although there h no direct connection between tho trifling disputes that aro at present dislocating tho trade, theso aro all, aa a matter of fact, biirface symptoms of an unrest which introduces a fundamental factor. Difficulties with miners havo led to a general introduction of coal-cutting machinos, nnd tho question of man versus machine nppoars to bo really at Uio bottom of tho discontent. Naturally thiß is not a quotable explanation from tho minors' point of view. But Ihero is little, doubt thnt it closely approaches tho truth. The remedy can only lie in a clear understanding of tho historic fr.ct (.hat in any conflict between men and tho introduction of machinery it is tho men who como off worse. No i-conomio fnllncy in gtcMcr than that which imagines that tho machino ia somehow going to bo the onomy of tho men, and labour is now surely too intolligont to think co. Unco this prejudice is out of the way accidental heartburnings will be easily assupgod. But if worso counsels prevail loes of trade is inevitable, anil those who must suffer most will bo those who i.avo beon foolish cnougli to court [ disaster.