The British coal trade

Front matter

Jlarbaro College Hibrarp

FROM

The bequest of George G.. Wolklns.

Preface

This book is intended to be a popular account of the coal mining industry and of the coal trade of the British Isles, in which special attention is paid to the economic and social aspects. Whilst on the technique of mining or selling coal, and on the geology of the Coal Measures I have written for the lay reader, there is a good deal of inf ormatibn in some of the chapters which will be new, I believe, to students of economic and social science — at any rate it has not previously been collected in one book. Many of the facts which I have obtained orally from persons engaged in coal mining, or by my own observation, are not generally known and have not been published before.

The growing part which the coal trade and the miners are destined to play in the economy and the politics of this country has always been before me as defining the object and scope of this book. Stricter and more extensive legislative regulation of the mining industry will be demanded, and the nationalisation of mines will be seriously proposed and discussed. No adequate discussion of such measures by the public or in Parliament is possible whilst there is widespread ignorance of the modern methods of working coal, and of the conditions vi THE COAL TRADE

of employment of miners. My purpose has been to provide knowledge of facts and a point of view. It is always the lives and personality of the workers in an industry which appeal to me as the most important aspect of it, as indeed they are to the nation ; so I have grudged no space for the chapters dealing with miners' lives and their organisations.

I collected materials dealing with the history of coal mining, the finance of mining enterprises, mineral royalties and coal leases, a comparison of American and continental mining methods with our own, export duties in coal, the retail coal trade, the nationalisation of mines, and other subjects, but want of space forbade my treating them adequately — I also rejected them in some cases because they were too technical, and in others because I had determined to avoid controversy. Thev took has had to be written in my spare time, so that although I have been engaged on it for some four or five years, there has been no time for me to make minute verification of all my information. I can hardly hope, therefore, that there are not a few errors or misstatements ; but I believe they are not many, as I have read carefully the earlier written portions without finding anything serious amiss. One great difficulty arises from difference of usages and technical names in the principal coalfields, which are so confusing that both the employers and the miners' leaders are constantly troubled by them when they meet together in national conferences. I must also point out that almost the whole of the

PREFACE vii

book was written before the outbreak of the Great European War ; and some of my rather confident predictions may be vitiated, or at least postponed, by this tremendous and unexpected calamity.

My thanks are due to so many persons for information and assistance that it is hard to name them. In particular I must express my indebtedness to Professor Galloway, whose kindness I have much appreciated. Colliery owners and managers have always answered my questions with the greatest readiness and frankness. Amongst the miners' representatives I am indebted to Messrs. Robert Smillie, J.P., President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, Thomas Ashton, J.P., William Brace, M.P., Tom Richards, M.P., J. Winstone, J.P., George Barker, Vernon Harts-

m

horn, J.P., Hubert Jenkins, Edward Gill, T. I. Mardy Jones, and several others. To Mr. David Evans, of Cardiff, I am indebted for much of the information connected with the sale of coal and with shipping ; and I have had much extremely valuable assistance in collecting information and statistics and in seeing the book through the press from Mr. Edgar L. Chappell, Secretary of the South Wales Garden Cities Association. Other friends also have given generous help.

To the Business Statistics Publishing Co., of Cardiff and Newcastle-on-Tyne, who issue the South Wales Coal Annual and the North Country Coal and Shipping Annual, I am also indebted, not only, in common with the general public, for these excellent annuals.

viii THE COAL TRADE

of which I have made extensive use, but also for kindly allowing me the use of their proof sheets of the issue for 1915, and for permitting me to reproduce several valuable illustrations* I wish also to thank the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Co. and the Ashington Coal Co. for kindly providing me with several photographs.

Preface To Second Impression

The first impression of this book having been exhausted, a second is being printed from moulds of the original edition. The opportunity has been taken to make a few verbal corrections of errors which somehow crept into the original manuscript. It has seemed better thus to limit the changes, rather than to attempt any revision of the book so as to make a new edition. The time for this is not appropriate because the coal mining industry and coal trade of this country are in an extraordinary state of flux, and any description of present conditions would very soon be out of date.

The interference of the War with the normal condition and expansion of the coal trade is indicated, however, by some of the principal statistics for recent years which I have collected and printed in a new Appendix to this book. (See page 864). It will be seen that the output for the United Kingdom began to decline in 1914, went still lower in 1915, recovered a little in 1916, and since then has continually decreased. Some three or four different causes have

PREFACE TO SECOND IMPRESSION ix

combined to give this result ; curtailment of the export trade to neutral countries through shipping difficulties and high freights ; difficulties of obtaining pitprops and materials for further development of collieries ; shortage of labour due to recruiting ; also in the last two or three years, in some coalfields, a tacit adoption amongst the hewers of a " stint," or maximum number of trams to be filled per day ; and since 16th July, 1919, the reduction of the statutory working hours from eight to seven. This Act of 1919 brings the average time spent by men below ground to about 7 hours 40 minutes. A further reduction to a statutory working day of six hours will come into effect from 1st January, 1921, if Parliament resolves that the condition of the coal- mining industry then permits it.

One of the first effects of the War was to increase the price of food, and generally to raise the cost of living. This was reflected everywhere by demands for wages to be increased. In 1915 Mr. Asquith, then Prime Minister, gave an award to the effect that wages should be increased substantially, but that the Conciliation Boards of the various districts must settle the amounts separately. In South Wales the increase was 17 \ per cent., and similar advances were made elsewhere. Immediately afterwards the Wages Agreement of 1915 expired in South Wales, and a new standard was adopted at 50 per cent, above the standard of 1879. Since 1915 there have been considerable increases of the percentages throughout the country, whilst in September, 1917, a general War Wage of Is. 6d. per day for all adult workers and 9d.

x THE COAL TRADE

for boys for every working day that the man attends for work was granted for the whole country — subsequently increased, in June, 1918, to 3s. and Is. 6d. respectively. 2s. a day extra was granted from Jan., 1919.

Coincidentally with the fall of output there was a great increase in demand for coal for Admiralty and transport purposes, as well as for munition-making, and export to France and Italy. A considerable shortage of coal developed in the home market ; and in 1917 the Government was obliged to assume control, and private customers were rationed. The supply of coal was a vital national question, and there was much investigation of labour troubles and of the conditions of mining before the Government went to the length of assuming control of the industry. Much extraordinarily interesting information was thus made public for the first time in the history of the coal-mining industry.

A list of the principal special Government publications dealing with coal-mining during the War period will be found on page 863 of this impression.

Government control of the mining industry has taken the form of guaranteeing to the colliery companies the same average rate of profit which they made during the three years previous to the outbreak of war. This arrangement has been criticized as tending to introduce slackness into the management. The great rise in the price of coal which has resulted from the increased working costs during the War is shown in the table on page 867. When the statutory reduction of hours was brought into operation (July, 1919) and the miners refused to pledge themselves to Govern-

PKEFACE TO SECOND IMPRESSION xi

ment not to strike, the Coal Controller raised the price of coal by 6s. per ton for all retail and wholesale transactions — a measure which was extremely unpopular with the miners as well as the public. The demands of the miners for nationalisation of the coal mines, as a means towards realising better conditions of work and a higher standard of life, came to a head in 1919. The Sankey Commission, appointed towards the end of February, 1919, held that a case for nationalisation had been made out, and put forward a scheme. This, however, was rejected by Government, which in August put forward its own%plan of uniting the privately-owned collieries in groups to be worked for private profit under strict Government control. This was rejected by the miners, on the ground that it would create huge " trusts " working for private profit, and also by the Labour movement as a whole of the Trade Union Congress held in Glasgow during September, 1919 ; and the demand for the nationalisation of the mines with joint control was reiterated. At the time of writing, it is clear that some practical scheme for the nationalisation of mines must receive very careful consideration by Government and by Parliament at no distant date.

In conclusion, there are some further acknowledgements to be made for assistance which I received in preparing this book. The original manuscript was scarcely completed for first printing by the time I sailed for India in* 1914 to take up my appointment m Allahabad. As a result it fell to Mr. Edgar L. Ohappell, now Housing Inspector in the Ministry of Health, to complete some of the chapters, provide xii THE COAL TRADE

statistics, and arrange the appendixes and the photographs and many of the diagrams. This work he carried out with the greatest care and judgement, and my indebtedness to him is altogether insufficiently acknowledged in the Preface, which I wrote soon after leaving England. Very regrettable, too, has been the accidental omission of an important acknowledgement. Most of the matter referring to early Trade Unions amongst coal miners, in Chapter XVII., was based on manuscript notes collected by Mr. and Mrs Sidney Webb for their works on Trade Unionism. These original notes were, with others, deposited by them in the library of the London School of Economics ; and I was much indebted, not only to Mr. and Mrs. Webb for so kindly offering the use of these notes, but also to the then Director of the London School of Economics, and the Librarian, for the permission and ample facilities given for using them. This acknow ledgement was purposely omitted from the Preface with a view to placing it as a footnote on the first page of Chapter XVII. ; but through my absence it was unfortunately overlooked — a circumstance which ] much regret.

I wish again to thank the Business Statistics Pub lishing Company of Cardiff, and particularly Mr C. P. Hailey, of that firm, for very kindly assistin me in the preparation of the tables which will be foun in the new Appendix of recent statistics on page 86 of this volume. The object of this Appendix has bee to bring up to date the principal series of statisti of output, labor, prices, and freight rates, which ar< scattered through the body of the book.

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Coal and Coal Seams

III. Uses op Coal

Introduction

A great industry by which in this country five millions of people are supported, which has a history extending over centuries, and which is the foundation of nearly all the manufactures and commerce of this great Empire — how is such a mighty organisation of human energy to be described and explained in one small book ? The task is indeed great, and the author must perforce pick and choose, presenting to the public a general outline of the whole, and dealing more fully only with such features as will be of general interest. There are scientific treatises dealing with the origin of coal, and there are many technical treatises dealing with all the methods of mining and the problems and duties of mining engineers ; there are even works devoted to the book-keeping and business sides of coal-mining, others dealing with the finance and economics of the industry, and others yet with the sale and oversea carriage of coal.

But all these books deal with stones and machinery or facts and figures ; and it is not, I think, such inanimate matter which really interests the great

t

2 THE COAL TRADE [chap. i.

public, but rather the human picture of the industry. A great army of men is engaged delving in the bowels of the earth for the " black diamoiM " ; a quest which kills too many men, and makes millionaires of others. What are these men like ? What is their work ? What is their home life ? What are their organisations and their political ideas ?

Owing to the nature of their occupation the miners are very much a class apart from the rest of the community, and their work is less known and understood by the people at large than it should be. I shall try in this book, therefore, to give a sympathetic picture of the miner's work and life, besides dealing with the economic and commercial aspects of the coal trade, and very briefly, by way of introduction, with scientific and technical matters. This chapter may serve as a brief summary of the principal subjects dealt with in the book.

Coal occurs in layers or seams, usually from one to ten feet thick ; and it originated from accumulations of the tree trunks and other vegetable matter becoming buried and mineralised during the course of long ages. It is found in certain " fields " or districts of which the principal fields in the British Isles are (1) the Northumberland and Durham field ; (2) the Yorkshire — Derbyshire — Nottingham — Lincolnshire field ; (3) the South Wales field, and (4) the Scotch field (Ayr — Lanark — Lothian and Fife). The lesser coalfields are (5) the Lancashire field; (6) the Cumberland field; (7) the North W es (Flint— Denbigh) field; (8) Midland field, chap, i.] INTRODUCTION 3

which includes the following, often spoken of as separate fields, although they are unquestionably connected underground : North Staffordshire, South Staffordshire, Shropshire (Coalbrookdale), Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire (Forest of Wyre) ; (9) Forest of Dean field ; (10) Bristol and Somerset field; (11) Kent field. In Ireland the principal coalfield is (12) that of Leinster (Queen's and Kilkenny counties), whilst there is also (13) the Tyrone field in the North.

The Irish coalfields are worked on a very small scale, and their total output is scarcely more than that of one large colliery company in England or South Wales. It is probable that several of these English coalfields are in reality connected by the coal seams extending underground from one to the other (see Chapter IV). The Yorkshire — Nottinghamshire field undoubtedly extends eastward under the greater part of Lincolnshire, almost to the sea, as new borings are continually carrying further eastward the limit of coal proved. Further there is good evidence in favour of the theory that a concealed coalfield lies beneath large parts of Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.

Coal, although quarried here and there from the earliest ages, was first systematically mined in the neighbourhood of Newcastle and on the Firth of Forth in the fifteenth century, and it was carried to London by coasting boats during the sixteenth century, and known as " sea-coal." It was impossible to work far below the surface, as the mines

4 THE COAL TRADE [chap. i.

became flooded out with water, until the invention of steam pumping engines, which began to be used towards the end of the eighteenth century in the Durham and Northumberland coalfield.

Staffordshire collieries were developed in the seventeenth century, and working along the outcrops began in South Wales in the middle of the eighteenth century. The great development of deep mining in South Wales, Scotland and Lancashire dates only from the middle of the nineteenth century, and there was not much trade in the export of coal to foreign countries until this time.

Coal was first used for heating houses, and its use for smelting iron dates from about 1735, and for raising steam from Watt's invention of the steam engine in 1782. At the present time, much the la ger part of all the coal mined is used for raising sfcsam, but much is used for gas for lighting purposes, some for conversion to coke," and some for burning in producer-gas engines. For the latter, anthracite is chiefly used, which is practically pure carbon and contains no tar or volatile matter. House-coal, on the other hand, is bituminous ; and when heated gives off much gas, oils, tar and other bituminous matter. Steam-coals are those containing less bituminous matter than " house " and " gas " coals, whilst " hard " and " dry " steam coals approach nearly to the anthracite.

Coal used to be got simply by quarrying at the surfaces, and later by cutting " levels " or " slants " into the hill-side, and working galleries from either chap, i.] INTRODUCTION 5

side. The sinking of a shaft, and the use of a winding engine came with the exhaustion of coal near the surface. Now there are few levels and slants, except in Wales ; and over 90 per cent, of the total output of the country comes from deep pits. From the bottom of the shaft the workings are opened out radially in all directions along " main roads " and headings, and each hewer is assigned a working place on the " face " of the coal. The " face " is constantly extending outwards, assuming normally the shape of an irregular circle round the pit bottom, which may, however, be pushed out in one direction more than another if the coal is there easier to work, or of better quality.

A very large amount of capital must be spent in sinking a pair of shafts and erecting elaborate machinery before any return is obtained by working the coal. It is a somewhat risky investment, as difficulties may be encountered or the quality of the coal may be poor. Many economies are being realised in the working of collieries by amalgamation of a number of collieries in one ownership or at least under one control.

The principal class of workman employed underground is the hewer or collier, who actually gets " the coal. He is mostly paid by piecework on a complicated scale and he generally earns good wages (30s. to 65s. per week), although they may be reduced by many causes, and fluctuate more or less in accordance with the price of coal. In nearly all mines the use of a safety lamp is imperative, so that

6 THE COAL TRADE [chap. i.

the miner works under difficulties, almost in the dark. The other considerable class of underground workers is the hauliers, who fetch the coal from the face to the shaft bottom. They are paid a day wage and earn much less than the hewer.

Trade Unionism is strong amongst miners, although of later growth than amongst most of the great industries of this country. The first or general method of regulating wages was by the sliding scale, which determined how wages should vary in proportion to the price of coal. The fluctuations of wages between good trade and bad trade proved too great for the miners under this system ; and it has been replaced in each coalfield by a conciliation board composed of equal numbers representing masters and men. Each conciliation board determines from time to time the percentage at which wages in their district shall stand above the base which is separately fixed for every grade of labour in each seam of every colliery. In spite of the elaborate machinery of the Miners' Federations and Coalowners' Associations, and Conciliation Boards, the whole system broke down in 1912, mainly owing to the inadequate and uncertain earnings of men working in abnormal places, or who were otherwise prevented from earning a full day's pay. The result was the National Coal Strike of 1912, which has forced Parliament to establish other big machinery for providing a minimum wage for underground workers.

There is an extensive series of legislative enactchap, i.] INTRODUCTION 7

ments providing for the safety of workers in mines, and especially for preventing explosions of gas or coal dust. These Acts culminated in the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1911, which imposes stringent conditions on the colliery proprietors and is designed to increase the efficiency of inspection. At present it seems to be inadequately enforced in certain collieries and districts.

The miners are to a large extent a class apart from the rest of the community, although their aloofness from the general public and detachment from other organisations, is showing signs of disappearing. In recent years there has been a great spreading of education amongst the miners, and the standard of life has risen considerably both in regard to the general level of intelligence and in regard to the degree of comfort expected in their home life. The miners include all sorts and conditions of men, drawn, especially in the newer coalfields, from the most varied employments ; but a surprisingly large proportion of the hewers, who are the ttite of the miners, are serious, earnest men, devoting their spare time to reading or study in classes, or to work on local government bodies, or for the Federation, or in connection with socialist organisations, or with their church or chapel. The hewers, repairers, and a few other grades of workers are highly skilled and earn good wages in the majority of pits ; but the average type of hewer differs very much from one coalfield to another, and is evidently dependent upon the rate of wages earned. In other

8 THE COAL TRADE * [chap. I.

words, where the hewers have the opportunity of earning high wages with comparatively short hours of labour, as in Durham and Northumberland, and in South Wales, there is undoubtedly evolved in the second and third generations an aristocracy of workmen who are a very great asset to the whole country, and would be more so if they could be better housed and could be brought more into touch with the general current of English life. This is suggestive of the progress which might be possible for the working classes of all trades, if higher wages could be paid to them.

The coal trade is of enormous importance to this country and presents several features of peculiar interest, prominent amongst which is the rapid growth in recent years of our export trade in coal. This continues to grow, particularly from the Tyne ports and from South Wales, in spite of the opening up of coalfields in our own colonies and in so many other foreign countries. When compared with other staple commodities of English commerce, coal is seen to be heavy and bulky in relation to its value ; and it is the only single commodity of the nature of raw material which is produced upon a great scale in this country. Coal, therefore, has a peculiar influence upon our foreign trade, and there is a curious paradox that the export of coal, by reducing inward steamship freight rates and raising the home prices of coal, and so of other commodities dependent on it, at the same time both benefits and injures our home manufactures. The importance of coal as a chap, i.] INTRODUCTION 9

raw material lies, however, in the fact that it is of service not in one industry only but in all ; and at the present time it is the original source of practically all our artificial heat and light and power. The energy obtained from oil, from water, and from wind is for industrial purposes practically negligible in comparison with the like services obtained from coal. A new industry is arising in the preparing of coal in various forms for the market, and in the manufacture of bye-products which are put to the utmost variety of uses, from driving motor-cars to making scents or delicate shades of colours. . The establishment of extensive coking ovens with plant for the recovery and separation of bye-products is a new industry which has come over from Germany ; and those who look into the future may anticipate the time when coke, not coal, will be the usual form of fuel, because the bye products obtained from the bituminous part of the coal will be worth far more than the coal in solid form. Coke of the highest quality may indeed itself become a bye-product produced in such quantities that it becomes a cheaper form of fuel for household and general purposes than most qualities of coal now used ; and this is the only bright point in an outlook which is rather dark for the coal consumer.

The price of coal has not only been rising for many years past, but seems likely to do so in the future. This has been caused partly by the increasing stringency of the regulations for the safety of mines, partly by the increase of wages which haa

10 THE COAL TRADE [chap. l

been very properly granted to miners, and partly as the result of the increasing cost and difficulty of working coal in thinner seams, or at greater depths, or in old mines at a greater distance from the shaft — all of which tendencies result from the exhaustion of the coal which is most easily and cheaply worked, and which was naturally, therefore, the first to be worked.

The late Professor Jevons wrote in 1863 upon the Coal Question, and foretold serious injury to the trade of this country ; not so much from complete exhaustion of the coal, which would take some hundreds of years, as from the rise of prices incidental to the working out of the coal seams which were cheapest to work. The discovery of extensive coalfields in South Yorkshire, Nottingham and Lincolnshire, in Warwickshire and in Kent, and the probability of coal being found in Wiltshire and Berkshire, which could not be foreseen at that date, may tend somewhat to postpone a serious rise of j)rice which would deal a heavy blow to English industry and shipping, but the danger is nevertheless still with us ; and Englishmen must take heed that in the future, in commercial competition with ' other nations, we rely less upon exploiting our vast store of natural wealth, and more upon the resources which scientific skill and practical education can place at our disposal.

Chapter II Coal And Coal Seams

Nature oj Goal

The term " coal " includes those mineral substances which have resulted from the decomposition and consolidation of vegetable matters, and which now occur in the fossil state. Ordinary coals are always black in colour, but differ very much in other properties, coal from some seams being bright or glistening, from other seams dull black. Sometimes the coal is broken only with great difficulty with a heavy Jiammer ; at other times it is quite brittle, almost friable, and falls to powder if dropped from a few feet high, or touched with a pick or hammer. Some coals break into large, irregular, square or rounded blocks ; others are especially flaky in character and contain white laminae, or films of mineral matter, which add greatly to the amount of ash remaining when the coal is burnt.

All of the properties just enumerated are of great economic importance ; and it is essential for a proper understanding of the coal trade to have familiarity with the properties of coal. For example, the cutting price paid to the collier or hewer, when he wins coal from the face, varies considerably with the hardness and other physical properties of the coal. He must be paid at a high rate per ton for the very hard coal, the lowest rate for coal which breaks up easily into lumps of the right size, and a high rate where the coal is very friable and much of it falls away in dust, which it is useless to send up to the surface. This is particularly the case in South Wales, where the steam coal is required in large lumps, and the hewer is paid for the large coal only. Again, brittleness of the coal affects its handling. Where the coal is brittle, the tracks underground should be well laid, the railway wagons should have spring buffers, and the coal must not be tipped from a great height into the wagons, or from wagons into the ship's hold. It was especially to avoid breakage of the coal through tipping from a great height at the Cardiff Docks, that the Lewis-Hunter Crane was invented, which takes half a truck-load of coal at a time, and lowers it to the bottom of the hold, where the bottom of the box is opened and the coal is distributed without falling any distance to speak of. " Self -trimming " vessels, the decks of which can be opened all over, are built specially for use with such cranes.