The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-18 00:00:00

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
HIGH PRICE OF COAL?

As the dark rlaN of winter creep on apace,
bringing thoughts of well-lit fires and cheerful
hcarths, the price of coal presses irresistibly to
the front, and rop!e. ask %%iv, i respon.ible for
the rates widen bare ru:o,l upon the Cool Ex-
change during the past Iwn veors. Why coals
should be I 0 dear it is for any one
clearly to .ay. We ell remember that sow,

years ago a feeling of alarm prevailed when we
were told that our coal beds were being exhaus-
ted much more 'rapidly than they could be re-
plenished, aud that unless more care was exer-
cised, or a substitute found, the chances were
that this article of priceless value would soon
become extinct. The statement attracted so
much attention that the Government of that day
appointed a Royal Commission of Inquiry. It
consisted of the most eminent authorities, and
their investigatious extended over nearly three
yeare. The Commission reported that there
was ineentestible evidence of our coal supply
being practically inexhaustible, and that, even
allowing for an increased rate of consumption,
our present took of coal would last over the
next 800 years. That is to say, making no al-
lowance for man's ingenuity and his power of
adapting existing prices to changing circum-
stances—a power which has witnessed a marvel-
lous development even during the last half
century—the collieries of Great Britain will fur-
nish coals during a period equal to that %auk's
has elapsed from the Nommu Conquest to the
present day. In the face f the fiuding A the
1 R 'yal Commission, the famine price to which
coals have reached is perfectly incomprehensible.
, The idea that there is a scarcity of supply being
dismissed, we have to fall back upon the strength
of the demand for an explanation. Grauting
that the demand has largely increased, owing to
the more general application of steam power to
our manufacturing indnetrioN, and to our means
of conveyance by land and sea, what becomes of
the laws of political economy ? We are told
that in the existence of an unlimited supply, the
pelt): thereof should not be materially affected
by the demand, however large it may be, seeing
that a high rate of profit never fails to attract
capita! to a particular industry. But if we
attempt to apply this rule to the coal trade, we
find our calculations completely baffled. With
vast quantities of coal in the bowels of the earth
there is a diminished out-put. The store of
coal in London is now at such a low ebb that
inerchents find the greatest difficulty in execut-
ing orders, whilst at the collieries there is no
stock on the banks, every ton being bought up
eagerly the moment it comes to the surface.
The matter W:IP considered to be of such
national importauce that last session the House
of Commons appointed a Committee of Inquiry.
An elaborate report was issued, but it was gene-
rally felt that the question had not been probed
to the bottom, and that the cause of the coal
famine had been insufficiently explained. If you
ask the colliery proprietor, the coal merchant,
or the miner, who is to blame, von will receive
replies based more or lees upon self-interest.
The collieryproprietor pleads that his men now
work one-third less time at one-third more wages
than they formerly did; the merchant declares
that he makes no greater net profit now than in
the days of cheap coal, seeing that the difference
in price is made not by him but at the pit's
mouth; the miner assures us that considering
the perilous nionre of his avocation, the holiday
he takes is none too much, and that if his mas-
ter gives him an extra sixpence a ton in wages,
he puts on se. eral shillings for it when treating
with the public. But whatever the cause, the
prospect of a fuel famine can be looked at only
in the light of a national calamity, and should
we have a severe whiter, the sufferings of the
poor would be terrible to contemplate.