The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-01 00:00:00

Animadverting on Mr. Mandella's Motion in the
House of Commons, and ako on the foregoing letter,
The Times of Saturday has the following well-timed
leader :

Every one will admit that Mr. Mandelles Motion of last
night was well timed. The increase in the price of Coal is a
national question of trancendent importance it affects
every houeholder who sees his Winter stock shrink
leg, and finds that, instead of being able to replenish
it at the reduced prices he confidently anticipated
with the return of Spring, he must buy at a price
greater than he paid at the approach of Winter ; it effects
still more pale fully the man who lives on weekly wage., who
has neither had capital to buy nor cellars to store the Coal
he needs to sustain the life of his family, and upon
whom the cost of obtaining fuel In these hard days
of gray easterly winds presses with unparalleled severity ;
hut, even e hen we have realised most fully the
position of such a waee•eamer as this, we have not
probed the whole influence of the increase in the price
of CAL The mainteaance of prices of Coal such as
we have been accustomed to Is the condition of our supre-
macy as a manufacturing nation. Cheap Coal is cheap labour.
The latent energy of Coal, stored up for unnumbered thou-
sands of years in our subterranean treasure houses. Is the
motive force of all our greet zaanufactures. If we lose this,
we are indeed forlorn. Why is it that raw cotton comes from
the Southern States of America to be spun into the fabrics
which are expected to the East Indies, the native home of
the cotton plant? Why is it that wool is brought from
Australia to England to be woven into the broadcloth that is
sent back to Australia In the shape of ready-made clothes
Why Is it that tin from Bum, that copper from Chill and
A ,istralia, that saga. from the A 'Miles sod the AI amities. are
poured Into England in their rough and unnumufactured
condition to be seaeliad and refined and adapted for use by
those who require them 1 It is not because we have an
unusual upply of 'alma. Other countries—lreland, for en-
ample—have amp!e aupplies of labour/ and, indeed, the re-
serve supplies of labour are every where abundant, and are
always forthcoming where there are means of employing
them to advantage. We have developed supplies of Labour
for this reason, and for this reason only—that we have the
means of mains it to work. We owe our position simply to
this—that we have got at hand the piled up natural force in
directing which human labour is most efficiently employed,
that the substance in which this force Is accumulated is In
Itself so bulky and cumbrons that it is less toilsome
to bring the raw materials to it to be converted lute
the finished product than to carry it to the place of
producUon of the raw materials to manufacture them
there; and it follows that if through the diminution
of our store the basis of manofacture can no longer be ob-
tained from our mines with the same facility as from other
reserves, the homes of production will shift with the shifting
cheapness of Coal. The centre of gravity of the industrial
world will always be found where the labour of approprlattug
the motive forces of nature is least This Is, at all events,
the principle of migration of induatrv. Men cannot without
some delay transport themselves in nations from one field to
another, as the return they obtain for their industry varies ,•
them is a good deal of friction impeding the migration of
races ; but the course of change always tends to pursue the
homily of Nature. and we can often see the ripple of the
movement before the current hu reached its full foree.

Mr. Mundell& last night held no theory. All he submitted
to the Rouse of Odninons was that we were at present con-
fronted with a grave danger. Coal has doubled its price.
Householders are alarmed. Manufacturers are stinting their
work, and deliberating upon the course it becomes them to
pursue. It is well to ascertain what is the cause of this
disastrous rise to the cost of the fl-et element of our in-
dustry. Accordingly, Mr. Mundell& asked for a Select Com-
mittee to inquire Into the reasons of the present &Arnim
and scarcity of Coal Nobody had • word inlay against the
Motion, and the Government, through Mr. Bruce, essentod
to it ; and, indeed, it could not du less. There are three
theories to account for the present exaggerated price.
The first—the most pleasant—is that it is due to cause.
which are, for the moat, accidental and temporary, and that
it has been aggravated by panic. Men who know what
their waute will be during the next three months, and see
prices Gang, are rushing to Coal dealers to secure supplies,
and their competition forces the market up beyond all
reason. Mr. Mundell mentioned some facts which counts
mance this view. lie referred to a colliery where the Lahr. ur.
cost of raising a ton of Coal eighteen months slues was
is 60., and the pri,e in London was Bs. to 205. The lab Our
cost is now 3s. 24d., and the price Its London is ebs. to Ws.
This is instructive, because it shows that the increased price
of Coal is not due to the increased wages of labour; but we
must not jump to the conclusion that, because the labour-
cost of aeon of Coal in a particular colliery has not mate-
rially risen the advance in its price is factitious and per-
manently untenable. The demand may have so risen on the
supply that colliery-workers have been forced to resort to
mines where the labour-cost of raising a ton is double what
It was in the less: productive mines of two years since,
although the cost In Me. Mutidella's colliery has
not risen more than 26 per cent ; and the market
price will be ruled by the least productive collieries, the ad-
ditional profit in Mr. Mundelia's example going to the lessees
during their lea•es, and to tine mine-owner ultimately. On
the other hand, it is conceivable that panic has loan the
miin element to the rime of prices, and that middlemen have
been driven, without any fault of theirs, to protect them.
selves from the competition of purchasers by doubiing their
quotations. A second theory refers everything to the depre-
ciation in the value of gold. Here, again, a plau•ible argu-
ment can be offered. Gold has declined in value, but In
different propirtions with respect to different commoili•
tier. The Lill first appeared in the matter of been and
mutton and other agricultural products ; next it passed into
manufactured articles; next into the implements of manu•
fecture, iron, &c. ; POW it Is passing to the motive force of
manufactories. Supposing this to be the truth, it would
explain the theories of Mr. Liddell and Me Bruce yesterday.
trade has been brisk, said Mr. Liddell; there has bean great
"- in the Iron Trade and other trades using Cosi,
. . . . . . . . --cs and

prosperity i_
said Mr. Bruce but why hae there been this brisku;es as.
this prospsrlty If It be heessues the movement of prices
becomes perceptible in different forms of industry after
different intervals of time, according to their dependence
upon special classes of consumer., foreign or colonial, or any
other diversity of causes, the whole thing in explained. Such
things have been, and such things may be again. We know
that in the leth and 17th centuries society was disturbed,
and in some measure disorganized, throughout Europe
because certain classes—Kings particularly—found the
customary payments upon which they depended to be
diminishing in efficiency, and twisted to irregular methods
of increasing them. It may be that textile manufac-
turern have found the prices of their goods rising, and
have pressed upon 'mains makers and ironworker.,
and these ere now in their turn preening noon Coal pro-
dicers. Supposing this were the real explanation of our
position, we should have to confess that we were peeing
through an unpleasant, hut still a terminahle crisis. PIiCOS
might ultimately be double what they have been, but they
would at leneth arrive at a position of equidbrium. There is
a third theory —suffiliviAble, however, into two. The first
suggests that we are feeling the begbinfog of the end of our
peculiar resources; the second—it is unfoldni with great
vigour in a letter from Mr. John Bali, which we publish
elsewhere—is that. not we only, but all the world are being
warned of the exhaustion of the stored-up force the Coal
puts at Our disposal.
We desire to Imitate the prudence of Mr. Mundell' In
committieg ourselves to no theories. The House of Com-
mons is shout to appoint some of Its beet members a Com-
mittee to Inquire into the matter, with the assistance of such
witnesses of special knowledge as can he brought before
them, and we may wait for the light thus promised us
Mr. Ball's letter is a coatribution towards and, rstandlng
the question, not the less worth attention because it contains
many euggestions from which we must dissent. There
may be that combination among Cold- dealers of which he
e oaks, but they are too numerous a class to maintain a
steady combination, and it is more simple to believe In
an unthinking rush of consumers making dealers put
up prices as the only means of weeding out competitors. The
declaration that we have got to the end of the natural forces
we can employ as our servants In also a conclusion to which
we must demur; while the underlying assumption of Mr.
Bull's letter, that one English experience does not merely
Imply a displacement of the centre of manufacturing force,
but an exhaustion of the world's reserves, appears to be a
patriotic tallacy. But the question contains many lessee;
it most he sifted and examined by many minds approaching
it with diderent experiences; and we may be satisfied for
the present if we are able to realise something of ita lot-