Mining Industry Reconstruction
One more stage in the chequered history of the mining industry has been reached with the acceptance of the principle of the Govern- ment's new wage-system and the return of the men to work. But there still remain the problem of output and the perpetual sense of grievance which it would be idle to suppose has been banished by the settlement of the wages issue. The major question of the reconstruction of the mining industry as a whole is one which is certainly controversial, and therefore, under the Prime Minister's ruling, cannot be tackled at present. But the greater part of all the trouble which has persisted in the coalfields arises from a sense of past grievances, and in particular from the conviction that the industry has never undergone the reconstruction necessary to high efficiency. It is still a function of the Coal Commission set up in 1942, as of the statutory body that existed before the war, to promote amalgamations of collieries in areas where there are too many separate undertakings; but little has been achieved. If such concen- trations could be effected by voluntary efforts that would be- an important step in the right direction ; and it will be interesting to see what will result from the plan on which the mine-owners have recently been working. Last week the Central Committee of the Mining Association announced that its plans were nearly complete, that they covered "every aspect of the industry in which organised action can improve operative efficiency, labour relationships, and commercial arrangements," and that agreement had been reached to facilitate concentration. If large-scale reconstruction could really be achieved by voluntary means that would indeed be welcome, but past experience has emphasised the limits to What can be done with- out compulsion. Tinkering may do something, but it will not meet the case. Half the trouble in the coalfields is in the last resort due to the fact that no national policy for coal is forthcoming, and that the miners are still disturbed about the future. What they want, unquestionably, is nationalisation.
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