Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] MONDAY, JULY 13, 1925. COAL CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 July 1925, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] MONDAY, JULY 13, 1925. COAL CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

The crisis in the British coal tirade illustrates the interdependence of industry and the hopelessness of any attempt to bolster up artificial conditions in defiance of economic laws. For some years the situation of the coal industry, formerly one of Britain’s principal sources of wealth, and, indeed, the basis of Britain’s industrial organisation, has been precarious. During the war the Government assumed control of the industry, and in 1919, in view of the grave unrest in the mines, Mr Justice Ban key was appointed a Royal Commissioner to make an investigation. 'His report recommended, inter alia, nationalisation. Ft was pointed out that this was a question of policy which hardly came within his charter. Nationalisation was far too important an issue to be decided off-hand by a Judge, or a Government, or even by the mining interests themselves. It affected the people as a whole, and the people as a whole had a right to be consulted. However, the miners were encouraged by the report to persist in their agitation, which culminated in the strike of 1920. They demanded the nationalisation of the mines, or, more correctly, the .continuance of Government control as a substantial step in that direction. This was their general objective. They also had various grievances, for which redress was sought, and chief among which were the inequalities in th« wago rate. In a number of British collieries the coal is difficult and costly to win. The profits from these are small, and the wages paid are lower than in mines more fortunately circumstanced. Eventually the miners recognised that their demand for the nationalisation of the mines would not succeed. They abandoned it temporarily, and were content with an increase in wages, to be paid out of a national pool derived from the profits of the export trade. The prosperity of the coal industry depends on the export trade, for the latter supplies, or used to supply, the profits. On coal sold for home consumption there is practically no profit. As long as the export trade was brisk high wages were possible. Experts believed that th:s trade would

continue to yield a surplus sufficient to permit the wage level then fixed to be maintained. Their predictions were falsified. Very soon the surplus began to fall away, and with it disappeared the fund from which profits could be drawn and wages kept at their inflated standard. The peace established in 1920 was short-lived. The .following year came a second protracted strike. Finally the dispute was settled by an agreement, which, with modifications, lias served as a model for later agreements. The present crisis threatens to be even more .serious than any previous one. A cable to-day states that the efforts to bring the owners and miners together has failed.