Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-07
BRITISH COAL MINES.
Railroads Not Allowed to Enter Fuel
Production Business.

John Atkinson Hobson in the Boston Transcript.
The private operation Of coal m ming I'M
directed by any public authority safeguard
ing the interests of the consumer has been
long recognized as a grave and growing
evil in Great Britain In some respects coal
is even more vital factor in the industrial
life Of Great Britain than Of America, for
we are forced to buy three fourths Of our
necessary foods by the export of coal, OF
manufactured goods in the production Of
which coal Is a big cost, and by our carry
ing trade, which rests on basis of cheap
abundant coal Upon the widespread de-
veIopment of coal mining England's su-
premacy in manufacture and in commerce
throughout the nineteenth century has
rested, and while there is not much sub
stance in the scare OF an early giving out
Of British coal. the prospect Of a continued
rise in the cost of getting 1t, while vast
virgin supplies are opened up In other
countries, arouses genuine alarm among
such business men as keep an eye upon the
future. The growing export trade In coal,
amounting In 1900 to $4,000 900 tons, or
about one-fifth of our total output, awak 8
the growing fears Of patriotic Britons who
regard 1t as the deadly sin of Giving on
our capital" This view, combined with
recent financial needs, has led us to adopt
the distinctiVely protecttoniSt step of an
export duty upon coal.
But while coal plays an even greater part
in English industrial life than in American
the structure of the industry is very differ
ent. The wide diffusion of soft coal over
SO large an area of England, Scotland and
Wales, and the universal consumption Of
this soft coal for domestic and for many
industrial purposes has prevented any por-
ton Of the coal supply from obtaining so
prominent place as the anthracite reg on
of Pennsylvania occupies in the eastern
states of America.
Our railways do not, except to a slight
extent, own or control even the coal mines
needed to furnish fuel for railroad purposes
much less do they control the coal require
for the metal and other industries in the
areas which they traverse. Their charters
of Incorporation, and the state control I'M
der which they operate, would not permit
such publicly injurious extension Of their
power nor would the violation of these
legal restraints be tolerated.
But while there exists no strong monop-
oily of coal operators. the question Of a
cheap, reliable and abundant supply of fuel
Is continually straining the relations be-
tween the coal industry and the consum ug
public, while the struggle Of capital and
labor is nowhere more frequently in evil
dence. Nowhere Is there stronger set Of
forces making for compulsory state arbitra-
ton, or, II that should prove inefficient, for
direct national ownership and control than
in coal mining. reference to events Of
the last few years viii make this evident.
There has been rapid growth Of organiza-
and two important strikes, or lockouts, ac-
cording as they were regarded. have helped
at once to alarm and educate the public as
to the dangers OF leaving to the play Of
private interests the operation OF the great
and essentially public utility.