Welsh Journals

UNREST IN THE SOUTH WALES COALFIELD WHAT is Industrial Unrest? Does it exist in fact ? Is it a phenomenon created by and peculiar to War? Did it exist before the War? Has it been accentuated during the War, or has the fact of War made it less acute ? Is it inevitable because of the relations existing between the working class and the social system which confronts it? These are the questions that leap to the enquirer's mind when dealing with this deeply interesting subject. To deal with these questions separately and in detail, one would require a volume. Only in a general way can they be answered in a magazine article. The first two questions are easily answered in general terms. Industrial unrest is a form of work- ing class discontent, sometimes organised and manifested by .means of a general strike. Some- times disorganised and expressed through the medium of sectional and local strikes, and at other times represented by a chafing, a restlessness, and a rebelliousness against forms of authority, par- ticulary governmental authority and the authority in their own industry. Occasionally it appears in the form of definite demands upon employers for better wages and conditions of employment. More rarely it takes the form of demands upon the govern- ment for drastic social and economic changes. More frequently it is elusive and almost expressionless save for a growth of sheer irritability plus the senti- ment of a general fed-upness." The second question has recently been answered by the Commission on Industrial Unrest appointed by the Government. The answer is in the affirmative. The Commissioners for Wales-all eminent and able men, men knowing the laws of correct investigation and the value of evidence-have found that Industrial Unrest exists as a fact; that it has assumed the form a class antagonism, and that such antagonism is especially pronounced in the mining industry. They agree that this antagonism has its origin in a period before the War, but the evidence proves that during the War the antagonism has become more acute, and characterises the entire industry. This antagonism had to be recognised as a fact by the government also. Since the War broke out, the conflict assumed such proportions as to be a standing menace to the national interests. The government were compelled to change its traditional policy of Keeper of the ring," and take over the entire control of the Welsh mines in order to save the national welfare from being sacrificed. Apart from the continued hostility in the South Wales mines, it is indeed doubtful whether the government would have attempted to this day the control of the British mines as a whole. Why is it that in our mining industry class antago- nism is most pronounced ? Here the Commissioners are led into a number of vague generalities. This is but natural. Generalisations have made for unanimity, for which a great deal has been sacrificed in the report and recommendations. But the evi- dence is nevertheless to be found in the report itself. Data are provided which show the tendency to com- bination and concentration of capital into fewer and fewer hands. The combined annual output of the three great combines of the coalfield represents more than forty per cent. of the total for South Wales. The stage when the employer exercised a personal and benevolent influence over his work-people is now no more than a mere theme for historical romanticists. Capital is now directed by boards of directors, who have no other interest in the in- dustry save the appropriation of large salaries for themselves and fat dividends-in the second place- for shareholders. The impersonal power of capital faces the miners in its ugliest aspect. The miners in turn appear to have no personal regard for the interest of such capital. If the truth must be told, the men for the most part, have no longer any interest in the industry save that common to capital, viz. :­ of getting the most out of it under the most favour- able conditions. This appears a harsh statement of the situation, but the milder phraseology of the Commissioners cannot disguise it. National or communal interests rarely come up for consideration. True, the phrase has occasionally fallen from the lips of both parties when it has been convenient. But a phrase it remains. With this ugly fact before them, to make remedial recommenda- tions, the Commissioners had no easy task. The recommendations they did make, met with a particularly hostile reception by some of the indus- trial magnates. In one instance they were greeted with a veritable shriek of fury. Upon cold analysis, however, it is easily seen that the Commissioners' recommendations in the main, reveal the spirit of the academic social reformer. It is toying with the