The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1925. BRITISH COAL CRISIS.

Evening Star, Issue 19006, 30 July 1925, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1925. BRITISH COAL CRISIS.

More pits arc closing; more furnaces aro ceasing to operate. Such is tho tale of Britain’s allied coal and iron industries. A mild comparison, to bring the matter more vividly home to oujrsclves, would bo that in Now Zealand at the height of the season dairy factories and freezing works were closing down because of demand at a payable price being almost non-existent. Tho Court of Inquiry into the coal mining dispute finds neither of the parties to it really responsible for the position, which it declares to bo the inevitable sequel to tho economic upheaval due to tho war, aggravated by tho rivalry of other nations in the coal industry and the rivalry of other forms of power generation, hydro-electric power and oil. But if other coal-producing nations manage to survive in tho struggle for existence, why cannot Britain, favored by the quality and quantity of her coal deposits and tho nearness of her pits to seaports? The answer is bad methods and, wo aro afraid, a had spirit. The court puts the matter very mildly when it states that there is considerable room for improving tho efficiency of tho coal industry as a whole, and thus affording aid to the economic position. Mr E. T. Good has recently been contrasting British and American industry to tho humiliation of the former. In a pithy, if unpalatable, article he writes: “American miners have in the last two years averaged just about £3 per man-week, whilst British miners have averaged about £2 15s. But that is only half the story. Thanks to big output per unit of labor they obtain cheap coal as well as high wages in the United States, whilst we have dear coal concurrent with low wages, because our production per man is very low. Forty years ago we produced Uocwt of coal per man-shift, and the Americans produced 30cwt. That fairly represented tho difference in natural conditions. But to-day we produce only ITicwtper man, while the Americans produce very nearly SOcwt. Labor policy is mainly responsible lor that. Our low output, deliberately planned by Socialist Laborleaders, means that we aro in this posi-tion-—namely, if we pay the miners well coal is too dear for trade purposes, whilst if we have anything like cheap coal we have to sweat tho minors.”

It is little wonder that America cherishes the motto of keeping free from European entanglements, and has applied it to the industrial sphere as well as tho political. There is no groat Socialist Labor party in America. Its trade union movement is incomparably less developed than in Britain, and its unions do not specially design their rules and policy to hinder production and make things scarce. In America they work while in they talk; therefore American labor thrives whilst- British labor agitates, it is not altogether correct to say that the reason for tho contrast is that America is prosperous while Britain is under tho cloud of depression. It would ho far nearer the mark to say that the chief reason for America’s prosperity is that her people work instead of bickering over work. Cause and effect are hard to distinguish in tills puzzling complex, but common sense points to tho truth of what is stated as to one great reason for the pitiful state of tho coal industry. There has been an attempt to immeasurably worsen the position by drawing in other brandies of industry to fix it permanently on an inherently rotten basis. The miners’ leaders seem doubtful of the success of that appeal to the baser and more foolish instincts of tho men in other industries under the guise of comradeship and solidarity. At any rate they have another string to their bow. Tho Executive Committee of the Miners’ International is now meeting in Paris, presided over by Mr Herbert Smith, an Englishman. It is poised to strike a blow to ensure the international solidarity of the countries which are to bo eventually involved in the struggle if tho British coal pits close down at the end of this week, in any case production is to be limited so that Britain shall not be tho sufferer. That last sentence is delightfully naive. Tho workers’ interests are to be served by tho limitation of output. Surely that stupid fallacy lias been exploded sky high, so that it should be a hard mat- - ter to piece the fragments together again so as to bo decently presentable! America’s output of four tons per man per shift gives her such a pull in tho market that she is able to sell coal cheap and yet pay the miners £8 per week. Further limitation of output on the part of the miners of Britain, Franco, Germany, Holland, and Czecho-Slovakia would only play into her hands, for it would result as it has done before in tho closing down of more and more European pits. If Europe wishes to present America with another monopoly, and thus further tighten round herself the Transatlantic bonds of which complaint is already rife, then by all means let the Miners’ International proceed with its suicidal scheme. The ca’ canny system was originally justified on the plea that in slack times it would “ spread ” employment among those dependent on an industry. Its real object was not so much that as to hurt the capitalistic employer. It has hurt him, but it has hurt the worker more, for it has spread unemployment, instead of employment, by causing industries to become unprofitable and to bo shut down in consequence. In spite of such facts tiie only remedies the miners’ leaders offer are still shorter hours, the abolition of piecework, and tho nationalisation of tho mines, which has failed badly in Russia and Germany. And all the while this pernicious policy is being pursued there is a double process of impoverishment going on. The purchasing power of the men thrown out of work decreases. There is less general trade, adding again to unemployment. The burden of public assistance is increased, and this has to come out of taxation. And bloated taxation is a sure killer of industry. Heaxy taxation has been and is a contributory cause to the conditions against which the miners are now rebelling; and yet they propose to intensify that cause. They are greatly to be pitied, for they have got ‘themselves into a position from which no one can extricate them, and they cannot extricate themselves as long as they listen to their incompetent and ovil-intentioned leaders. The men will have to settle with their leaders before they can settle with the colliery owners on steps to rescue liiemsolyes and the industry.