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

THE COAL FAMINE.

The following letter, on the subject of our coal supply
and the effects of a failure there 4, ha l been sent to
The Times for publication, and will interest every
reader:—

The cry of alarm awl indignation caused by the extract&
nary rise iti,the price of coals meets us on every side but we
bear very little of the facts that aloes can guide us to
rational conduct us. The subject is vast and comp.icated.
It would take a volume to discuss it thoroughly, but half-a.
dozen paragraphs may suffice for a few broad proposition.
that are essential to a fair consideration of it
•• - •

1. The very existence of England as a great nation lis-
pends upon the continuance of a sin ply of coal of good
quality at a price not ruoch higher then it has now reached
2. Whenever thecoaleupply is exhausted Great Britain mutt
return to a condition economically similar to that which pre-
vailed before the Norman conquest. If during the interval
the cultivation of forest be wi.ely develope I, it may become
a more populous, though smaller Norway, with a milder cli-
mate and a larger proportion of the soil available tor agri-
culture, Some of the rougher forms of manufacture may be
still carried on by the help .1 water power, but In the nome
market g,ods easy of carriage will probably be supplied
more cheaply from countries posseesing more ahundant
sources of mechanical power, Agricultural progress will
have been checked by the imp-visibility of applying ma-
chinery to aid the work of man and beast, and, with no great
markets near at hand, the prospect for this and the Sister
lelotil,•I an active export trade in provialons II very un-
favourable.
- - - • - • •

3 Long before the complete exhaustion of the coal fields
the increased coat of raising the mineral from the deeper
beds, and the inferiority of its quality when it becomes
necessary to resort to thinner semis, will operate so much
to the disadvantage of B-itish manufactures that they must
gr ,dually bo beaten out of the field in the markets of the
world.
- - • - • • -••-

4 In spite of the lah,urs of the Coal Commission, the
estimate of our available supply of coal are iliscord•rd.
Everthing that has been added t• Mr. 110111 original figure
--less thin Sk,ooo millons of toos—is more or less conjec-
tural as SO its amount, and even as to its very existence It
Is safe to assume that the whole of the promised additions,
arid fully one-half of the estimated produce of our known
coal-fields, will be found less good in quality, or much more
difficult of extracti as, than our present supplies, and it is a
sanguine supposition to reckon on more than 40,000 millions
of tons as obtainable under conditions that would enable Us
to maMtain the competition with other countries.
•••

5. The consumption of British coal has gone on at a steadily
increasing rate, and the average annual increase for a good
many penis has been three millions of tons if that rate
were maintained unchecked, the whole provision of 40,000
millions of tors, indispensable for maintaining the industrial
pros,erity of this country, would be exhausted in about 124
years from this time. Belt sooner or later, the exhaustion
of that portion of our reserves would irrevocably mark the
commencement of the decline ef the British Empire.
6. Under almost any conceivable circumstances I do not
believe that the present rate of increase could c ntinue for
so long a period, and we may, perhaps, safely estimate that,
without any extraordinary check to consumption, the re-
inaloing period of prosperity may be stretched te 200 Inure.
What men may be done to avert the inevitable day is a
mater that lios altogether within the control of the British
nation collectively.
• - • -

-
7 The vast increase In the consumption ef coal ha. been
accompanied by a c ,rrespotitlii,g waste of the material.
Waste in our dwelling-roome, waste in our kitchens, waste
of gas, aid friglit'ul waste in the furnaces of our steam-
engines, has he en acconipmiiiii 7 still more wanton waste at
the pit's mouth in all our collieries. It would coat some-
thing—perhaps as much as would be saved in attitude year—
to reform our fire-places and our steam.englnee, but literally
nothing to save the coal that Is wasted by hundreds and
thousands of tuns throughout the ooal districts of England.
Ile would be a bold man who set aside the authority of Sir
William Armstrong on this tineetion. Yet I think that in
reckoning the possible cc ,notny none-halt the present con-
sumption he has not taken into account all the departments
in which retrenchment has been introduced of late years. but
we shall be quite within the mark if we assume that the re-
sults now obtained from an annual consumption 01 110 mil.
Ilona of tons might be fully secured with an annual reduction
01 30 millions of tons.
With these data before us we have to deal with the enor-
mous as unprecedented increase of the price of coal that
has occurred curing the last six montie, Speaking on the
let inst., Sir W. Armstrong estimates the average Increase
of price throughout the country at Bs, per ton, and shows
that this is equivalent on a year's consump ion to a tax of
forty-tour millions sterling. Although some of the largest
consumers are at the s.mno time coalownera, and Come in for
a small competitive share of the hurtles, the pressure on the
Inhabitatits of towns, and especially on Londoners, Is very
much heavier than the shove intimate, and It is not too
such to Pay that for a large part of the population it is
equivalent to doubling all theiexisting taxes.
Ilut the ml chief cannot sty here. If the present prices
should continue the mice of ail manufactured products must
begets.' ins rester or lesa degree—and that very soon ;
and tilos all the hari leli fps that are caused by sudden changes
in the so i al and economical conditions of a country will In-
fallibly ensue.
When we ask how this change has come about nc suddenly
we are told by the most competent men that It Is due tea
comparatively slight delLiency in production, the supply
being, at the utmost, vapor cent, less than the demand. the
sudden rise Is easily explained. It Is the old story over
again. A crew of 010 men find the ship Is sinking; the
, boats can hold 2,0 but there Is a desperate scramble, for
! eel, man fears that he may be one of the ten left In the
lurch.•
Tile present coal famine is not an unmitigated evil. If, as
I believe, It was to be desired that the price should have
risen steadily from year to year till it reached ab iut double
the rates prevalent before the late disturbance, it In very
doubtful whether • gradual change, causing a severe in
convenience, would bang finite.' to enforce the lessons of
prudence, and to Induce economies that involve no slight de-
parture from tontine.
A still greater advantage will be gained If it induces the
men who are responsible for the future destinies of England
to look this coal question sten-lily in the face, and tow that
It is literally and absolutely the question of the future of
he British Empire. Two fallacies connected with the matter
are so common that they deserved a word of notiee, though,
If elementary scientific education were not still a deside-
ratum, no grown-up man or woman could be entity of tole.
rating them.
"All that you say of the decline of England holds good."
igy some of my acquaintance, "for almost every other coun-
try itt a still great--c dein.. it cold he the inillapeueahle
tiaais of prosperity, prosperity mud diaappear from the world
and we must all ilecilno t.iget her. " Such objoottirs forget that
the one permanent source of energy for our planet is the solar
radiance, whether in the form of light, haat, or magnetlem,
and that coal is merely a convenient form in which the solar
energy of past ages is stowed away. The melons of the
-myth priaseasein it. permanent stores of force available for the
future wants of mankind must either be the great mountain
listricts. where the water raised by the sun fall in such
abundance as to an ply motive power, or where the same
Kolar force the cenataat elptasphehtp aureate
which we whit% or. mob am trUelt intighte

Ii most contlnuoui and Intense, and where. by processes yet
to he discovered, its energy may be transformed into an
available and portsble form. The day is not distant, perhaps,
when the homes of the great nations that must at a future
time do the manufacturing work of toe world will begin to
fix themselves in upper India or tropical America.

The second fallacy is yet more strange, though men of
firrt.rare culture and first-rate ability, who would think them-
selvt s disgraced by the perpetration of a false quantity, do
not blush to give it utterance. "Long before the coal is ex-
haustrd," say they, "men of science will invent something
else that will serve our turn as well." That our grandfathers
should have conceived the possibility of perpetual motion
was excusable : but that the belief in it should Mill be
allowed to survive in an altered form, that all the best
scientific work of our generation should be still unknown
even in its broadest principles, is tmly marvellous. Men of
science, or any other men, can no more invent a source of
mechanical energy than they can invent matter. Besides the
solar energy there is no permanent source accessible to us
except in so fares this iscombined with the moon's attraction
and the earths rotation in the force of the tides, which may,
to a limited t xtent, supply our needs in certain coast and
estuary stations, but never can be widely available. As for
stores of anything besides coal being forthcoming from the
earth's crust, there is nothing wotth mentioning except a
moderate supply of mineral oil. We know the constituents
of the outer rind of our planet, and we know that, with
trifling exceptions, their affinities have been satisfied, and
that there are no imprisoned forces that we can set free.
The function of man as the intelligent minister anti con-
troller of nature is simply to direct the forces that exist.
By studying the laws that regulate them he succeeds'in
transforming them, but he can neither increase nor diminish
their amount by the minutest fraction. It is now no dream
to look forward to imprisoning the sunbeam, and netting
them to do our daily work; but It LI not in these Wands of
the northern Atlantic that such • feat can be accomplished.
We must first catch our sunbeams; how would it have fared
with us during the Mat six months?

Let us now ask ourselves what should be done. If the
Government of nations approached the ideal standard—if
It resembled that of • well.womstituted club, whose educated
members put the moot intelligent men on their committee
and acquiesced in decisions deliberately formed, the matter
would not be very difficult. Finding that certain private
persons had got legal claims to property eseentlal to the
very being of the community, the nation would buy out
those persons on liberal terms, the property would be
managed with a steady regard not only to present but
future interest., the price be kept high enough to Induce
economy, and the profit., which must constantly increase,
be applied to the extinction of debt and afterwards to defray
a large part of the national expenditure.

Nothing like this will be done first, because no adminis-
tration would have the courage to attempt It ; secondly, be-
cause, if such a measure were possible, the flout° of Commons
and the people who elect it would constantly press for a
lower price, and instead of husbanding the resources of the
future the result would b. to increase consumption. Are
we then to do nothing I The present crisis will pass away,
but we shall always be liable to a recurrence el it, which
might easily arrive at a moment when the results would be
still more mischievous.

As to consumers, the remedy Is in their own hands. The
heaviest part of the burden on townspeople, and especially
here in London, is not due to the conduct of the working
colliers, nor to the machinations of the coalowners, but to
combination among the coal dealers. These people, who
are fattening / it the present distress, may be very Won
brought to reason or utterly dispensed with. Joint-stock
co operative association., with bare honesty and the most
moderate skill in management, ought to secure us against
future coal panics. I sire two project. for the supply of
London announced, and it will speak ill for the intelligence
of our c runtrymen If any such companies are not established
in England within the next year.
Apart from the interest of the private consumer there is.
mains the national question. I, for one, do not consider it
destraole that pro's should return to their former level. To
enforce economy at home, to discourage exportation abroad,
to secure for the National Exchequer some share at least of
the incalculable wealth which mere chance has thrown to
some private persons and their successors, are all objects
worthy of the efforts of a Government to whom the future
fate of this Empire Is net indifferent. True they cannot do
much, but something not insignificant could be effected by
the imposition of C low fixed tax on all coal raised, with a
lane addition-30, 40, or even 50 percent—on the mem of
price charged above • fixed limit. I cannot here go into the
reasons which induce met.) assert that, under clreurnstanoes
such as we have lately seen, a fiscal measure of this nature
would have diminished instead of aggravating the mischief.
If we could once induce such men as Mr. Gladstone, Mr.
Lowe, Mr. Forster, arid the Duke of Argyll to consider this
question in all its bearings, we should perhape find that an
export duty will not always be considered as an utterly inad-
missible proposaL—l am, ,fie., Joan BALL.