All over the world coal is a monopolised industry.
| Not a nation
It is a remarkable commentary on the patriotism of | the coal-owners that Sir Arthur Markham, himself a | colliery proprietor, should confess to the House of | Commons, that before Italy joined the Allies in the war, | British owners were selling coal to Italy at 17/6 per | ton. The day after war was declared, and Italy became | an ally, the price was jumped to 34/ per ton.
|The history of coal production in the Commonwealth is | a record teeming with the clutch of peculation. Every | opportunity given the coal owners has been seized on to | force increasing toll from the community. As early as | 1891 the mine owners of the Newcastle area were | endeavoring to restrict competition, but for many years | their efforts met with little success. In 1902 a new | effort was made to fix prices, and give mutual help in | labor disputes. But here, again, the scheme came to | grief.
|In 1906, however, the Newcastle Coal Vend was set up, | and has operated since. The unsigned agreement which | was accepted by all members of the vend, provided for | the fixing of:
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In short the vend was a price and output pool. The | effects of this combination have been an increased price | of coal, and bigger profits.
|In 1906 an arrangement was made whereby these | companies and merchants were given the monopoly of sale | for Newcastle coal outside New South Wales. The vend | promised to sell coal for other States to these dealers | only, and the shipping concerns consented to refuse to | ship to the other States any coal but that of the vend, | the price, free on board at Newcastle, being fixed | annually by the vend.
|This agreement has been responsible for tremendous | increases in the price of coal in every State. | Operating in conjunction with the Shipping Combine, the | coal proprietors have been enabled to dominate the whole | economic life of the continent. Like their confreres in | Britain, bowel-less profiteering has been their sole | objective. The essence of the grip they exercise is due | entirely to the fact that Government after Government | has allowed them a free rein to develop the vend | policy.
|Newcastle coal at the pit's mouth for many years has | ranged from 7/4 to 7/6 a ton. The latest contract made | by the Victorian Government for NSW coal is at 15/ per | ton f.o.b. The Victorian Government has a State mine of | its own at Wonthaggi which produces coal at 9/2 a ton at | the pit's mouth. Yet in spite of these cost-of-production | charges disclosed at many an inquiry, | ordinary consumers can never secure coal at a lower rate | than from 28/ to 30/ per ton. Collie coal has been | secured by the Western Australian Railways at 11/ per | ton. The rate is now about 13/4. Householders have to | pay at present 27/6 per ton for coal not equal in | quality to that supplied the Department.
|It is a literal fact that the Associated Collieries | made it part of the vend conditions that it would sell | to the purchasing agents, viz Adelaide Steamship Coy, | Mellwraith, McEacharn & Co, Howard Smith & Co, and | Huddart Parker & Coy, the whole of the coal required to | supply the trade of the States of Victoria, South | Australia, Western Australia, and Queensland. That | meant absolutely making this State entirely dependent on | the vend for all coal imported into WA from the East. | The shipping companies would not carry coal, except that | ordered from themselves. Now that ships are scarce and | Western Australia is dependent for the most part on | Collie, it would seem that a resolute effort is now in | train to accomplish with locally produced coal the same | condition as obtains in respect to coal from Newcastle. | And it is a curious and an illuminating fact, that the | men controlling the mine to be favored with the monopoly | of railway business in this State, stand in the same | relationship to Westralian industry generally, as do the | principals of the coal and shipping combination to the | commerce of the Commonwealth.
|The Newscastle vend was not established until its | operators had by a system of interlocking directorates | acquired authority over the domestic affairs of many | industrial and commercial institutions. Men who were | directors of the coal and shipping companies forming the | monopoly, were also directors of banks, fire and life | insurance companies, gas, copper, sugar and other | manifestations of the movement trust-wards. They could | be found on the management boards of the Brewery | Combine, the Timber Combine, Dunlops, Amalgamated Zinc, | Dalgety's, Goldsbrough, Mort's Emu Rails, Electrolytic | Smelting, Elder, Shenton, Elder's Metal and scores of | others.
|In Western Australia, W T Loton is on the Proprietary | Coal Mine and is chairman of the Bank of Western | Australia. On the Bank directorate is Sir Edward | Wittenoom, who is connected with Millar's Jarrah, | Dalgety and Coy, and Bovril Australian Estates. Thus we | get a confederation of coal, money, timber and sheep. | Neil McNeil is on the Proprietary Coy, Millar's, and the | West Australian Gold and Copper Mines, Ltd. W H Vincent | is on the Proprietary Coy and McLean Bros. and Rigg. | Frank Wilson helps to complete the chain. He is in a | number of institutions all more or less definitely | involved in the merging of Big Business. R R Pilkington | and Justice Northmore, who are connected with Collie | coal, are typical of the kind of "poor widow" the daily | press is concerned for when Labor proposes an assault on | the power of massed capital.
|By their control of an endless chain of banks, | insurance, and mercantile institutions, these directors | become in fact Kaisers of our economic system. They are | able to dominate the industrial life of the State. Upon | their fiat depends the continuance of small co-operative | groups, such as the threatened mines at Collie in which | the miners themselves hold interests.
|We are therefore face to face with an economic | oligarchy. It is clear that whatever be the quality of | the coal obtained from the various mines now disputing | over the distribution of orders, that there is more in | the controversy than we have yet been told. So long as | a country allows the oxygen of its industrial structure | to become a means of unsocial commercial intrigue, | endless difficulties must arise. The ply of | antagonistic material interests will inevitably | unbalance, more or less frequently, the normal conduct | of dependent enterprises. If Lefroy were wise he would | at once proceed to the State resumption of the coal | fields of WA whether active or potential. A | nationalised railway system liable at any moment to be | dislocated by the competition of privately controlled | coal mines is what would be expected in a world of | madmen. And what we urge Lefroy should do in WA, is | what should be done throughout the Commonwealth.
|Industries vital to the life of the nation should be | taken out of the control of any group of private | citizens. Particularly is this the case when it is | disclosed that the class dominion now exercised over | them is an intensely organised aspect of the latter-day | methods of piratical capitalism.
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