The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-17
COAL MINERS OF . WALES ARE AGAIN
 MAKING DEMANDS
After Year of Comparative Peace Trouble Between Labor and Capital
 Is Renewed


 respondence of the Associated Press.) After a year of comparative peace, la bcr and capital are again at logger heads in the south Wales coal fields For nearly a generation the colliery owners and the miners have main taincd an attitude of mutual i'll tenn per and suspicion and war has not been allowed to displace their tradi- tional quarrel. A year ago a five-day stoppage of the mines. on which the British navy largely depends for fuel, actually took place, and prolonged deadlock was only averted by the in- tervention of d-George who sum- marily granted most of the miners de- mands over the protests of the own CTS
 The demands now made by the miners may be summarized as follows:
 Immediate concession of Is per cent advance in wages to cover the in- creased cost of living
 An independent audit of the coal owners books to show exactly what are the profits on all classes of, coal ever a long period of years
 That the financial relation of wages to profits be ultimately arranged so that the percentage shall be the same before the war
 Payment to be made for small coalo henceforth on tonnage rate to be established by later negotiations.
 That the selling price of coal be henceforth established by a competent independent authority on basis of the standard wage paid
 It is evident from this complicated and elaborate series of demands that settlement must necessarily involve pFotracted negotiations. The miners contend that the 15 per cent wage in- crease is urgent and should be grant ed at once; the other demands may be taken up more leisurely before any suitable tribunal
 One of the most puzzling of the de- mands is that which seeks payment for the so-called small coal" This is new demand and meets with de- termined opposition from the owners. Hitherto the workmen who received payment on tonnage basis--so much for every ton of coal mined-have been paid only for the large or first quality coal. Every ton of coal which a miner sent to the surface was first passed over the screens and only the residue after the small coal had been screened out was weighed and paid for Ordi-
 
 coal to the surface would receive pay ment for mining only about IT tons three tons having passed through the screens and been discarded as small coal" The men now point to the large Increase in price which the owners sare obtaining for this small coal to- day as compared with the price be- fore the war. This price shows an fn- crease from about shilings ($2. 25) to nearly IS shillings (S450) per ton
 In reply to the mems demand for an Immediate increase of 15 per cent in wages the owners have made de- mand for 10 per cent decrease. The last dispute was patched up by Lloyd George year ago with an award of a IS per cent increase. while the own CTS in return were permitted to add half a crown (67l-eents-to their whole sale price. The miners now declare that the owners are making hand- some additional profit out of this half crown and also out of the sale of the small coaP' and they claim their share on the ground that the basis of their wages has always been the selling price of coal. To this the own CTS reply that all the expenses of min ing, other than wages, have gone up and that some of their mines no long CT pay to work. The balance sheets of the largest coal companies In the district, which show great increase of profit during the war, figure promi- nently in the evidence submitted by the miners.
 While feeling in the coal regions is at high pitch, the attitude of the country at large is one of undisgused impatience with any quarrel between 'canital and labor at time when the enereies of the country are so lar@e- lv concentrated on war. Wide nuhlicitv has been eiven in the coal districts to an editorial in the London Times, which says:
 "The areument of the owners re- veals a total incapacitv to see the sit nation IS everyone else sees it. They are quarrelirg with the men and ha@-- sling over the division of the excess sive profits which both are extract in~ from the public.
 "Tt is the business of the owners to carry on an industry vital to the coun- try without brneiner it to a standstir hv internal strife. They are trustees of 1t 10 the nation. If thev cannot con duet If, then the sooner it is trans ferred to someone who can the better"