THE COAL CRISIS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 32

THE COAL CRISIS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

(Written for the Otago Daily Times by an English Coal Owner.)

To-day— the 12th of March 1892— has been played the first act in the most remarkable labour drama that the world has ever seen. Hitherto labour and capital can hardly be said to have walked hand in hand, or to have shown that cordiality and affection for, and confidence in, each other that should exist between two immense and interdependent organisations with so great a mutuality of interest. Strikes and lockouts ad nauseam we have had for many years — strikes, in which the workman not only struck against his employer, but at him ; and manifestations of hostility in .which labour not only flouted capital before its very face, but sometimes even " blew a trumpet in a manner calculated to provoke a breach," not, as might have been expected, of the drum of the capitalist's ear, but "of the peace." "Nous avons change tout cela " may now say the leaders of the men. " The lion and the lamb are lying down together— nay, more, they have gone Shunting, and their quarry is no less than the opulent railway magnate, the royalty exacting owner of the soil, and the oppressive illuminator who runs the gasworks ! " I am unable to state which is the lion and which the lamb, but the fact remains that a bloodless, even a friendly, combination has been entered into whereby the price of coal is to be kept up ; likewise — and this is of much greater importance—the colliers' wages. Of course the coal owner is not openly particeps wiminis in this unholy alliance. He does not aaknowledge anything- but sorrow and regret that the course of trade should be disturbed, the lot of the poor embittered, and thousands of people thrown out of employment, in order that the price of coal should be kept at its present level. He hardens his heart with the thought that for 12 years, until quite recently, the poor and rich alike bought coal from him at less than it cost to raise; that year after year his bones and brain ached, while his weary labour served only to earn money wherewith to pay calls on unremunerative investments in colliery property. And he says, " If this new and untried method of forcing up prices will do any good, try it ! It won't hurt me much, anyhow." The idea has frequently been mooted, but has always fallen owing to want of cohesion on the part of the men. The leaders were perfectly confident "If we can reduce the output we shall prevent a fall in prices." Pickard, M.P., once stated, "By holding up my little finger I can raise the price of coal in Great Britain 2s a ton ! " And, lo ! he has done it ; not only 2s, but ss— los in cases. For some time people bore the prospect calmly; many well-informed men thought the "holiday" would not come to pass. Suddenly a panic set in ; such a scare as has not been known since 1872. After many long years of absence the merchants again haunted our pit banks. "Leave the price to you" was again seen, like an echo of a long-forgotten legend of childhood, on our orders. An old widow woman living in a cottage in this neighbourhood ordered two tons ; other folk bunged up their cellars with enough fuel to last the whole summer, and the more the price advanced so much the more did the longing for possession grow. It was like the love of money in the old Eton Latin Grammar, which grows, so we learned, as the money itself increases. s As new price lists were po3ted up at the landsale wharves, the language of intending purchasers was "somethink hawful"; but they swore and bought, and occasionally even had recourse to the argumentum baculinum. Meantime the men were not idle, but worked like slaves, and we did our best to encourage them. All odd work was stopped ; old bords were raked out, and slack was sent up in what the weighman called "owdacious quantities." A fortnight before it was not worth filling ; this week it has gone off about as quickly as does coal dust, according to scientists, in an explosion. The men helped us nobly; they shoved in as much slack among their coal (at coal price) as they dared. No stopping a place for a day as a gentle reminder ; they knew that. In the pit every man, for once in his life, worked as he would be worked for. A staceman would hardly pass the time of day : it was pick, pick, pick all day long; while his loader, who, under ordinary circumstances, is content to sit for hours " wcetin' for the boss," foraged round for an empty truck, and— one can hardly believe it— raised the playful sprag to smite one who would gladly have saved him the trouble of shoving his tram

to the face. Of course all this hurry and bustle did not tend to a reduction of the output, but while anxious to bring about this most devoutly-to-be-wished-for consummation in a general way, each individual miner registered a private and solemn vow that he at least would have as much money as possible for the " play-week." And so it came about that while the public were panic stricken and yelling for coal, the owners were able to provide it in exceptionally large quantities, and at — to the latter — very satisfactory prices. As usual, most of the profit went to the accursed middlemen. One London firm is stated to have made L 30.000 in the week ; another merchant is declared on excellent authority to have cleared a profit of over one guinea per ton on contract supplies, sold at 35s in London. In the East End, where the miserable slum dwellers buy their supplies 'by the penn'orth, or less, the price went up 50 per cent. Two and fourpence per hundredweight was paid on March 8. Some merchants in country towns declined to advance ; one said he " thought of the poor." May they think of him when they all meet, in the workhouse! Some coal owners' even refused to raise their prices ; they were frightened of both their men' and their customers. No • doubt they will obtain their reward some day. Opinions vary as to the duration of the " play." My opinion is that a week will sicken the men who are entirely without union pay, and whose overdraft at the grocer's is not encouraged. Meanwhile many large works are almost at a standstill,' while others— notably railwayshave reduced hands to the lowest possible requirements, and thus a great deal of misery will be caused and aggravated to an intense pitch if the weather should continue as bitterly cold as has lately been the case. The North Eastern Railway Company alone have reduced their ordinary trains by 181 per day ; the London and North Western have set down a portion of their enormous works at Crew, and, if the strike be prolonged for more than a week many others will follow suit. Not that all the colliers in Great Britain will be off work — South Wales, an enormous district, is bound by a sliding scale arrangement ; part of Staffordshire by a wages board, and some of the Scotch collieries have agreed to work short time instead of taking, like the others, all their physic . at once. But a stupendous number of workmen have laid down their tools, content — though many of them, I fancy, dislike the plan— to abide, by. the decision of their leaders. During the past week the complexion of affairs has been very materially altered by the strike in the Durham coalfield. Not a bogus strike this time, but a really determined struggle against a 10 per cent, reduction. " Selling prices," say the men, "have nothing to do with wages. All the old-fashioned sliding scales and arbitration boards are mere musty relics of antiquity. We decline to submit to any reduction. ' If you coal owners like to give away your coals, that is your fault and not burs. Forty per cent, we have got, and ,4-0 per cent, we will keep." A thinking man must perforce speculate on the result of all this. Will the men succeed, in proving that the laws of supply and demand are non-existent? Will, the trade of the country be seriously damaged, possibly driven away ? No one can tell. My, own impression is that after a', short and merry time of brisk demand and -high 'prices we shall enter when the men return; and we have counted.the cost of keeping our establishments idle for a, week, on a period of reaction and depression. Everybody is supplied with, and nobody is in need of, coal, furnaces are damped down; works are closed. Over 300,000 men will be "playing" from to-day, ' and nearly 100,000 m Durham "will be fighting in grim earnest for what, they believe to be their rights., If this fight continue, then shall we in other parts of the country feel ,the benefit, and the catastrophe threatened by the headstrong action of irresponsible agitators will be temporarily averted.