Sir Auckland Geddes told the House of Commons on Wed-
nesday that coal would continue to be scarce next winter, and that the price, already very high, would have to be raised by 4s. 6d. a ton. Consumers of more than five tons a year would still be rationed. The owners' profit is limited to ls. 2d. a ton, but the very large increases in the miners' wages, together with the reduction of the nominal working day from eight to seven hours, would involve a loss of £46;600,000 on the coal- mines if the present prices were maintained. Sir Auckland Geddes estimated the total • output for the year from. July as no more than three-quarters of the output for 1913. The need for coal was never greater than now both at home and in France and Italy, yet we shall he short of fuel. and shall have very little to spare for export. The figures given by the Coal Controller to the Coal Commission on Wednesday unhappily. show that the average miner this year has produced less than nine-tenths of a ton in a shift, whereas he used to produce a ton, and that the percentage of men absent from work has increased by nearly a fourth. We do not grudge the miners their very high wages if they will do their best to raise coat But we shall have a right to complain if these favoured monopolists imitate the few "idle.. rich" whom Mr. Smillie is so fond of denouncing.
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