THE PRICE OF COAL.

HL Deb 18 July 1918 vol 30 cc993-1000

EARL RUSSELL rose to call attention to the recent advances in the price of coal, and to ask His Majesty's Government for an explanation thereof, and whether it is the fact that the majority of coal pits are working only one day or two days a week, and what justification exists for this wasteful employment of labour.

The noble Earl said: My Lords, I had occasion the other day to order some coal for ordinary domestic use, in common, I dare say, with many of your Lordships, and, as is not unusual, the execution of the order was delayed. I received in the course of a very short period no less than to o circulars from my coal merchants. The first informed me that the price had been raised 2s. 6d. a ton. The second, following at an interval of, I think, not more than a fortnight or three weeks, informed me that the price had been raised a further 1s. 6d. a ton.

This is, of course, a time of year when in normal circumstances one rather expects the price of coal to he reduced. We remember that before the war at this time of year we used to receive innumerable circulars quoting the lowest summer prices; but for some reason—as to which I desire to ask His Majesty's Government for an explanation—at this particular period of the year now the price of coal is being raised. I think that this is a matter which requires some explanation, and as one of the persons who in this matter, in common I expect with most of your Lordships, is suffering from the rise in price, I should like to inquire who it is that is making the profit on this increase. Does any part of it go to the owner of the coal, or does any pare go to the Government? Or is the increased price entirely due to increased wages, or to the increased cost of transport? These are questions to which probably it will be interesting to have an answer.

Driven by these circumstances, having ordered the coal somewhere about May and being informed before I got it that there was an extra 4s. a ton to be paid on it, I was interested to make some further inquiries, and I learned from some very reliable friends, much to my surprise, that in a great many coal pits it is said to be the habit at present to work not more than two or three or four shifts a week, and that during the rest of the week the coal pit is not worked. A particular instance was given me by a gentleman connected with some mechanical works near Swansea. He informed me that these coal miners who were turned adrift during several days of the week came and made up the week in his works, because their pit was closed and they were not allowed to work. I pursued my inquiries as well as I could further, but without applying, I admit, to any Government Department, and some one who professed to know told me that it was part of a policy of fairness among different coal-owners, that various pits should be worked an equivalent amount of time. That may be all very well as a matter of fairness, but if till statement that was made to me that there are pits in the country which have been worked only for a small number of shifts per week is true, I think it will be obvious to every member of the House—and I am sure that His Majesty's Government will at once admit it—that this is an uneconomical way of employing labour. We are, as we all know, extremely short, of man-power in this country, and we have none to waste. If it be true that there are coal miners who are employed for a fraction of a week only, and who are idle—or, at any rate, idle as far as their proper job is concerned—for the rest of the week, we are not using efficiency in the getting of coal, and we are not employing our man-power to the best advantage.

I think, therefore, it would be interesting to inquire whether there is any truth in these assertions which were confidently made to me. If there be any truth in them, what is the reason, and could it not be arranged—even still preserving fairness as among the owners, if there is anything of that sort at the bottom of it—that at arty rate some pits should be worked full time alternate weeks or alternate months. I cannot imagine that it would be an economical way of working a coal pit—I do not profess to know anything about working coal pits—or any other business to work it only a small fraction of a week and leave it idle for the rest. If the reply be that I am misinformed, that would be the answer that I should be most pleased to receive; but if it be true that the pits are worked only a fraction of a week, I hope that steps will be taken to alter the system, because I am convinced that it must be an unecomical method of working.

LORD SOMERLEYTON

My Lords, I will reply as fully as I can to the Question of the noble Earl, which may, I think, be divided into two parts. In regard to the first, as to the recent advance in the price of coal, I think that the explanation may be considered, if not satisfactory, at all events to a certain extent satisfactory, which is as far as we can generally get. There have been two recent increases in the price of coal at the pits' mouth. The first—2s. 6d. per ton as from June 24, 1918—was put on to meet the increased cost of production due to the largely enhanced cost of equipment, materials, &c. The second—1s. 6d. per ton as from July 8, 1918—is calculated to be necesary to meet the increased war wage granted by the Government to mine workers. With regard to the increase of 2s. 6d. per ton to meet increased cost of materials, &c., it should be borne in mind that this is the first increase since July, 1914, except in order to meet increases of wages, so that no previous provision in the way of increased prices has been made to meet the greatly enhanced costs of all equipment and materials. With respect to the 1s. 6d. increase this is worked out as far as possible to cover the increased war wage of 1s. 6d. a day which has been granted to the miners.

The whole question of the sum necessary in the way of addition to price in order to cover the increased war wage is extremely complicated, and has to be worked out with regard to the number of miners working and the number of days' work done by them, the various differences of wage and work done by different grades of labour, and the actual output of coal sold, exclusive of coal used in the working of the mine or supplied to the miners. In any case, should any profit accrue as a result of the increase, such profit would go to the Treasury and not to the mine owners.

Many people have standing orders with their coal merchants for the supply of so much coal per month, according to the capacity of their cellars. In this case, if the principle was to be admitted that because coal had been ordered it could be charged only at the current price at the date of order and not at the date of delivery, serious injustice would be done to the coal suppliers. Furthermore, people who are unable to store coal in considerable quantities, such as the small householders amid poorer classes, have to pay the price when they can accept delivery, and I do not think it would be fair that people who are presumably wealthier, as those who live in larger houses, should have this advantage over the poorer classes. The official form for ordering coal states clearly that the price to be paid is the price "current at date of delivery."

When the time comes for the price of coal to be reduced the consumer will get the advantage then; and instructions generally to the merchants are that large orders should not of necessity be completed unless all the orders they have on hand have received a fair proportion of the order so as to divide the available supply of coal fairly among the consumers. This answers the first part of the Question as thoroughly as I can answer it.

With regard to the second part, I may say that the latest statistics available show that for the four weeks ended May 25, 1918, the coal pits situated in England wound coal on 5.30 days of each week, in Wales on 5.34 days in each week, and in Scotland on 5.44 days in each week. With regard to the Swansea district, to which the noble Earl alluded, I do not think it would be quite correct to say that the men are working there now only two or three shifts a week. "Swansea district" may, of course, include part of Carmarthenshire and part of Glamorganshire. The average number of days upon which pits wound coal in the period I have given in Carmarthenshire was 4.85 and in Glamorganshire 5.37 per week. It may have been true a few months ago that the Swansea district was not so busy, but things have changed entirely, and only in the anthracite district is there any degree of slackness in the trade at all, and with the orders which are now coming in from abroad for anthracite this state of affairs is not likely to continue. I trust that I have now answered the Question in every detail.

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE

My Lords, this question raises a matter of great importance to the country, and I think that the reply which the noble Lord opposite has given answers the particular points raised by the noble Earl behind me. It cannot be disputed, of course, that these rises in the price of coal have caused no small uneasiness in the mind of the public. The figure has now become an exceedingly formidable one, particularly to the small consumer of coal, and the hardship is not greatly mitigated by the prospect of not being able to receive even the moderate supply which the smaller consumer would like to have at his disposal during a winter which may be severe.

There is one minor point in connection with this on which I should like to say a word. The position of the royalty owner is in some cases affected by these advances in the price of coal. In many cases the royalty owner receives his share per ton obtained, either on a tonnage rate or sometimes on an acreage rate, or at a rate per foot per acre—a flat rate in either case. But there are other instances in which the royalty rises with the average price obtained for coal at the pit mouth. I cannot help feeling, in the case of this last rise, made in consideration of an additional wage which it is necessary to give to the men, and fortified as it is by the fixing of prices for coal, that it is not right that the royalty owner should receive the full benefit of so considerable a rise as this; and my impression is that it will be found that at any rate a great number of the owners of mineral royalties, iron as well as coal, throughout the country, will desire not to take advantage of the very remarkable profits which they might obtain under such a rise as this. It is the fact, of course, that in such a case a considerable proportion of the extra profit falls under the Excess Profits Tax and is paid to the State. But it will be found, I think, that in a great many instances the royalty owner will not desire to take advantage of these quite exceptional circumstances to draw so large an amount from the profits of the concern. It must be remembered—and it is only fair to state this on behalf of the not entirely popular class of royalty owner—that the payment of a royalty forms an almost infinitesimal point of consideration among the outgoings that have to be met by those who work the mine—that the tax imposed on the industry by the existence of the royalty is, in fact, an exceedingly small one.

Then as regard the hours worked it was clearly a misapprehension, or at any rate an over-statement, of the noble Earl that the majority of coal pits are working only one or two days a week. As a matter of fact, as has been explained by my noble friend opposite, the pits are working in some cases for six days, and in most cases for five days a week. But it is, unfortunately, the fact that the number of miners who are working full time is comparatively small—there is a percentage, varying in different parts of England, but in some cases of over 20 per cent. of shortage, and in many other cases up to 15 per cent. of shortage of anything like a full week's work. I think it is reasonable to state that if the average week's work was anything approaching a full week there would have been no drop in the output of coal such as has so unfortunately taken place within the last year.

It is right, I think, that all those who are interested in the industry should combine to make as strong an appeal as they can to the men to put in a full week's work, just as their brothers and sisters do in the munition factories and in many other heavy industries of all kinds. It has, as you know, always been the custom or the privilege of the coal miner to work as and when he pleases. Coal mining has always been one of the very few trades in which it has never been expected that a man should work regular hours. There are only one or two trades in the country of which the same can be said, where a man has stayed away, without any real danger of penalty, when it has suited him. Those who remember the business for a long time can recall that during the periods of great prosperity in the coal trade—occurring, perhaps, about once in a decade—individual miners at those times seldom worked more than four days, and often less. It is difficult for an industry to change its point of view, and it is no doubt not a simple matter in these times for men to put in a full week's work when, in similar circumstances in peace time, they would certainly not have done so; and all that can be done is to make a sort of moral appeal to them not merely to earn as much money as they can—which everybody is exceedingly glad they should do—but to regard the matter from the point of view of public duty; incidentally, as one is glad to think, to their own profit, but as performing a real piece of national work in putting in a full week's labour at the face of the coal.

EARL RUSSELL

My Lords, I am obliged to the noble Lord opposite for his very full and adequate answer, which I think entirely met the points that I raised. But there is one thing about which I was not clear, although I think it might fairly come by implication from what he said. I understood the noble Lord to give the average of what these pits had worked, and to state that although possibly something of the kind might have been true in the Swansea district it was true no longer. I also understood him to mean, although he did not actually say it, that it was not and never had been and would not be the policy to work any pit except for a full week's work whenever possible. Although he did not actually say that, perhaps I am right in putting that construction upon his remarks.

THE MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY

My Lords, although the noble Earl who raised this debate is satisfied with the answer given by the noble Lord, I am not sure that the noble Lord has really taken us fully into his confidence or told us exactly the facts of the case. Lord Somerleyton has given us some figures which show that the pits have been working four or five days, or other fractions of a week, throughout the country. That is a figure which may give a great deal of satisfaction to some people, but it is one which is open to a great deal of question; and I think the noble Marquess, Lord Crewe, touched the point clearly when he said that the real figure we have to get at is the number of hours worked by each man.

I am not sure whether the noble Earl, Lord Russell, is aware of the many difficulties with which we have to contend. There are shipping difficulties, and the difficulties of railway transport, it is not my business to-day to make any attack, or even to offer any criticism, on the way in which the Government have handled these matters under the Shipping Controller and under the Coal Controller; but I should not like your Lordships to think that there is any degree of satisfaction about the way in which these matters have been handled. It is true that while you can say the pits have been working, it has been work of a very irregular character. The coal mines situated near the sea, and, therefore, dependent on shipping for the carrying of their coal, have had to work in a very irregular way, and have had to cease working altogether when those shipping facilities have been absent.

The other point, which I think is one of considerable importance but which touches a far larger question, is the curious phenomenon, if I may use the expression, that by the rate at which you raise wages by so much does production decrease. That is one of the features of our public life to which we shall have to turn our attention after the war or we shall have no power of possibility of competing with foreign nations. It is not for me to go into details on that point to-day; but I certainly think that, when the noble Lord who answered this question and gave figures which on the face of them sounded satisfactory, it would be a far better index if he had been able to give us the figure of excess profits on which coal-owners are going to pay this year—because I do not think that this figure will be a very large one; and also if he had given us what the output of coal is this year compared with what it was last year. Those are the figures at which we want to arrive, and which it is necessary we should maintain, if we want to show that the industry of coal mining in this country is in a satisfactory condition.