MINERS' WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 22, 27 January 1936, Page 14

MINERS' WAGES

CLAIM IN ENGLAND

NATIONAL AGREEMENT

You have been good enough to allow me to write at length in two articles, but I have not been able to do more than discuss the general outlines of the coal-mining position, writes the Marquess of Londonderry in a letter to the "Daily Telegraph." It is now suggested to me that I should ask again for your indulgence to deal in fuller detail with one or two particular points. .

The first has reference to a national agreement. It is not clear what the mine workers' claim really amounts to. Is the demand for uniform wages throughout the industry, or for a national register, so to say, of varying district wage rates? :

All economic reality is abandoned if an arrangement is set up under which the wages of the miner are not'derived from the marketable value of the coal. It is fully understood that there are the widest differences between the various coalfields in their geographical position, geological conditions and methods of working,.the classes of coal they produce, the uses to which these can be put, and the demand for which they cater. WAGE AGREEMENTS ABROAD. Many districts are as far apart from others in these respects as if they were separate industries. Some coalfields are old and approaching exhaustion; others are modern. In some a large amount of time is taken from tha statutory length'of the working day in reaching the coal fate; in others the men can start work a short time after their descent. There are districts mainly producing house coal for inland consumption, with a stable' market on which to depend, .while the fortunes of others inevitably vary according, it may be, to the fortunes of the iron and steel industry or the export: trade: One district finds a market for the. bulk'of its output in the immediate neighbourhood.of the pits, and yet another has to bear heavy charges for transport to markets at a distance. It is not without significance that this is the only great country in which, the idea of a national wages agreement is advanced. In Germany,, France, and Poland three large coal-producing countries of the Continent, with a system of separate coalfields comparable to our own, it is recognised that wages must be. dealt with separately in the different fields. . In days when weight was more readily accorded to expedience; than; it tends to be today, and issues were appraised more closely on their merits, the necessity for district variations in miners' wages was freely acknowledged, not only by the head of the Government, Mr. Asquith, as he was then, but by the spokesman of-the miners themselves./ the late 1/lt. Stephen Walsh. A CONFESSION. During the debate on the Minimum. Wage Bill in 1912 Mr. Walsh spoke as follows:— "It has been said that the very variations in our schedules are a proof of the difficulty we experience.. I should have thought it was a proof o* the fairness of our trade, showing that we ourselves' have •; gone- into the schedules with a genuine -and honest desire not to place a greater embargo upon any districts than they could contend against. * The conditions of living, have caused the variations in the schedules: ". " '

"Would any person say that for the Forest of Dean or the Bristol • district, of Somerset; where ; the workman is half-miner and half-agticulturist, where the cost of Jiving'is very,much less than in Lancashire and-in.?York-shire, we ought to put forward the same claim for the miner in those districts that we should do for < those working in Lancashire and Yorkshire? It is unthinkable!" /:.: >, '.>-"■

Sometimes it is argued that the remedy for these district 'differences is complete unification of the industry, with a pooling 6t all proceeds and uniform" wages everywhere. Even if this were practicable, it,would ably result in the concentration of al] production, and therefore" all'"emplbyment and all wages, in the-most favoured districts. .. . ■

The result would be the^creation oi new "distressed:areas" on a': country' wide scale. A vast new., social problem would be raised; a problem fai more serious than that'with which we are now engaged.

In so far as the advocates of unification do face this aspect of the problem, they are apt to solve it—on paper, oi from, platforms—by another word: nationalisation. But nationalisation merely means throwing on to the tax payer the risks and consequences oi an. unsound economic, policy. It re moves all checks while introducing 'new difficulties* not ' least of; whici would be the conduct of a Sta< export trade. - •■■ ■ FALL IN OUTPUT. We in the coal industry ar« no! likely to forget that under Governmeni control the; output'of :c6al A'per>persor fell to lfUcwt pe.it shift in 1920, al compared with 20.3cwt' in' 1913.' When and in1 what circumstances one may ask,: would a nationalisec mine ever be closed down? And i: there were money to' be spent on th< development of a coalfield, upon whici district would it-be.spent? On tha district which was.represented in Par liamerit; by ' the greatest' numbers o miners.l ' > ;

Nationalisation ,is no solution. Oi this issue the findings of'tlie Samue Commission left no doubt.

If the miners' present demand is fo: a national "register" of varying dis trict wage-rates, I can see no value.ii a "register" of this description. I coal prices are co-ordinated so that on' district is unable to undercut ar; other, the safeguards for which th men legitimately ask" are abundantl. provided. .

No district will be tempted to lowe its price to take away the trade of ar other. The revenue out' of whiri wages are paid is thus , safeguarded and a fair share of the realised pre ceeds in each district is guaranteed t the men under the existing.agreement: Indeed, in the last five years, instea of 85 per cent, to : which . they ar entitled, their actual share has amoun' ed to from 95 to 98 per cent, of all ths was available for profits and wages.

As to. the sale organisations then selves, the details are rapidly bein worked out and schemes are emergin which effect the ' elimination of a competition between colliery and co liery, make evasion impossible, an co-ordinate commercial arrangemen' as between district and district.

I see it is suggested that we at wrong in stating that district agrei ments have brought peace to the ii dustry. It is, however, nearly te years since the great stoppage of 192 which was the third national strike i five years; and we are confident th; but for the readoption of- distrii agreements trouble on a •ational sea! would have recurred.

Notwithstanding the pacific effor of the responsible leaders, a nation; agreement holds out possibilities < large-scale trouble-making, which c: perience has shown to be too strong temptation for the more turbulent an implacable elements at work among the men. . .