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Some of the arguments for this principle appear to me to be (i) that, as
indicated in my opening remarks, a sufficiently large number of the
manual or mainly manual workers in the industry ardently desire a
progressively effective share in the control of the industry; (ii) that
this desire is natural and legitimate, having regard to the great
increase in the education of the workers and the improvement in their
status as citizens, and that so far from being repressed it should be
encouraged; (iii) that it is the natural development of the system of
Conciliation Boards and (occasionally) Pit Committees which has
prevailed in the industry for many years, though more highly developed
in some parts of the country than others. So far, these organs have been
mainly used for purposes of consultation and negotiation; the time has
come when with a more representative personnel, while not usurping the
functions of a mine manager or, on a larger scale, the managing
director, they must be developed so as to exercise some effective share
in controlling the industry. (iv) While working conditions are not so
dangerous and unpleasant as the public are sometimes asked to believe,
the workers in this industry are exposed to an unusually high risk of
injury and loss of life, and thus have a very direct interest in
devising and adopting measures for increased safety. These measures
nearly always mean expenditure, and thus an increased cost of working,
and so long as their adoption (except in so far as made compulsory by
the Mines Department) rests solely with bodies on which capital alone is
represented and labour not at all, there will be fruitful cause for
suspicion and discontent. The miners are apt to argue that dividends and
safety precautions are mutually antipathetic, and will continue to do so
as long as they have no part or lot in the reconciliation of these
competing obligations. The question is not whether this argument of the
miners is well-founded or not: the point is that their suspicion is
natural, and any excuse for it should be removed. (v) The exceptionally
large items which wages form in the total cost of coal production
indicates the important contribution made by the miners to the welfare
of the industry and justifies some share in the direction of that
industry.

Upon the basis of typical pre-war years, the value of the labour put
into the coal mining industry is 70 per cent. of the capital employed,
and 70 per cent. of the annual saleable value of the coal, and yet this
large labour interest has no share in the management of the industry.

THE MYSTERY AS TO PROFITS

Thirdly, More Financial Publicity. Secrecy as to profits, which always
suggests that they are as large as to make one ashamed of them, has been
the bane of the coal-mining industry. For nearly half a century wages
have borne some relation to _selling prices_, and there have been
quarterly audits of typical selected mines in each district by joint
auditors appointed by the owners and the miners. But over _profits_ a
curtain was drawn, except in so far as the compulsory filing at Somerset
House by public companies of a document called a Statement in the form
of a balance sheet, enabled the curious to draw not very accurate
conclusions. It is not easy for the plain man to read a balance sheet or
estimate profits, especially when shares are being subdivided, or when
bonus shares are being issued, or large sums carried to reserve. The
result has been continual and natural suspicion on the part of the
miners, who doubtless imagined the colliery-owners' profits to be much
larger than they were. The miners knew that whenever they asked for an
increase in their wages they were liable to be told that such an
increase would turn a moderate profit into a substantial loss, but the
amount of the profit they had to take on trust. Selling prices, yes, but
profits, no.

The war and coal control partly killed that, and it must not return. By
the settlement of June, 1921, for the first time the miners have
established the principle of the adjustment of their wages in accordance
with the proceeds of the industry "as ascertained by returns to be made
by the owners, checked by a joint test audit of the owners' books
carried out by independent accountants appointed by each side." That is
an important step, but does not go anything like far enough.

At least two good results would accrue if colliery-owners conducted
their business more in public: (i) a great deal of the suspicion and
mistrust of the miners would be removed, and they would realise why and
when their wages must undergo fluctuations, and the value of the many
other factors besides wages which went to make up the pit-head cost of
coal; (ii) publicity coupled with _costing returns_ would make it
possible to draw comparative conclusions as to the cost of production in
different mines and districts, which would be a fruitful source of
experiment and improvement. Publicity does not involve publication of
lists of customers, British or foreign.

THE LESSEES OF THE FUTURE

How far will the lessees to whom the National Mining Board will grant
leases to work the coal be the same persons and companies as the present
lessees? In this matter it is desirable to maintain the maximum amount
of flexibility and variety. I do not think we have yet discovered the
ideal unit, the ideal organisation for the development of our principal
national asset. So much do our coalfields differ in geological
formation, in tradition, in the subdivision and classification of
labour, in outlet for trade, that it is unlikely that any single unit or
organisation will be the ideal one for every coalfield. So we must
resist any attempt, especially an early attempt, at stereotyping or
standardising the type of lessee. By trial and error we shall learn
much.

All the following types of lessee seem likely, sooner or later, to
demand the attention of the National Mining Board. (I shall not touch on
the question of distribution, inland and export. That is another and
quite separate question):--

(i) _The Present Lessees._--I see no reason to doubt that in the vast
majority of cases the present lessees would be prepared to continue to
operate their mines, paying royalties to the State instead of to the
present royalty-owner. Where the unit is sufficiently large and the
management efficient, the National Mining Board would probably grant a
fresh lease, incorporating such conditions as to unification, joint
control, and publicity as they might consider necessary. If the present
lessees do not want the lease, there are others who will.

(ii) _Larger Groups._--In a great many cases, however, the Board would
decline to grant separate leases in respect of each of a number of small
collieries, and would indicate that they were only prepared to receive
applications for leases by groups of persons or companies prepared to
amalgamate themselves into a corporation representing an output of x
tons _per annum_. This figure would vary in each coalfield. In South
Staffordshire, in particular, divided ownership has had most prejudicial
effects in the matter of pumping.

(iii) _District Coal Boards._--Sir Arthur Duckham's scheme of statutory
companies known as District Coal Boards requires consideration. Without
necessarily adopting his districts or his uniformity of type throughout
the country, there are many areas where it might be found that voluntary
amalgamation was impracticable, and that the desired result could only
be attained by an Act of Parliament providing for the compulsory
amalgamation of persons and companies working a specified area and the
issue of shares in the new corporation in exchange for the previous
holdings.

(iv) _Public Authorities._--I should very much like to see, sooner or
later, in some area, a lessee in the form of an organisation which,
though not national--not the State--should be at any rate
public--something on the lines of the Port of London Authority.

It may well be that in one or more of our coalfields a public authority
of this type, though with larger labour representation upon it and with
a large measure of joint control from top to bottom, would be a
suitable lessee of the minerals in that area. The important point is
that public management need not mean bureaucratic State-management with
the disadvantages popularly associated with it.

(v) I have mentioned several types of possible lessees, but it will be
noticed that there is nothing in these suggestions which would prevent
the National Mining Board from making the experiment of working a few
mines themselves.

To sum up. There _is_ a problem of the Mines. No sensible person should
be deceived by the quiescence of the last twelve abnormal months.
Without using extravagant language, the coal-mining industry is a
volcano liable at any moment to erupt and involve the whole community in
loss and suffering. Therefore, as a body of citizens, we are under a
duty to seek a solution which can be effected between the occurrence of
the recurring crises. As a body of Liberal citizens we shall naturally
seek a Liberal solution, and the foregoing suggestions (for which no
originality is claimed) are inspired by the Liberal point of view. They
apply to the industrial sphere principles which have been tried and
proved in the political sphere, both in the central and the local
government. Apart from State acquisition of the minerals, about which
there can surely be no question, these suggestions merely develop
tendencies and organisations already existing within the industry. They
involve no leap in the dark, such as has been attributed by some to
nationalisation of the whole industry, and they provide for great
flexibility and experimentation. The fact that the official spokesmen of
neither miners nor colliery-owners may like them need not deter us. They
have had numerous opportunities of settling the problem amongst
themselves, but the "die-hards" in both camps have always prevented it.
It is time that the general public outside the industry took the matter
in hand and propounded a solution likely to be acceptable to the vast
body of sensible and central feeling within the industry.

THE LAND QUESTION

BY A.S. COMYNS CARR

Member of Acquisition of Land Committee, 1918.

Mr. Comyns Carr said:--The Land Question I believe to be the most
important subject in purely domestic politics to-day, as it was in 1914.
At that date we were embarking, under the especial leadership of one who
has now deserted us, upon a comprehensive campaign dealing with that
question in all its aspects. The present Government has filled a large
portion of the Statute Book with legislation bearing on the land; it is
not the quantity we have to complain of, but the quality. In 1914 we had
already achieved one signal victory in carrying against the House of
Lords the Land Clauses of the Budget of 1909-10, and although many of us
were never satisfied with the form which those clauses took, they were
valuable both as a step in the direction of land taxation and for the
machinery of valuation which they established. Mr. Lloyd George in his
present alliance with the Tories has sunk so low as not only to repeal
those clauses, but actually to refund to the landlords every penny which
they have paid in taxation under them.

The campaign which was inaugurated in 1913 did not deal with the
question of taxation only, and for my part, although I am an enthusiast
on this branch of the subject, I have never thought that other aspects
should be neglected. We put forward proposals for dealing with leases
both in town and country. The present Government has carried and
repealed again a series of statutes dealing with agriculture. Their
original policy was to offer to the farmer guaranteed prices for his
produce, if necessary at the expense of the tax-payer, and to the
labourer guaranteed wages, to be fixed and enforced by Wages Boards.
Before this policy was fully in operation it was repealed. The farmer
got some cash compensation for his losses; the labourer has got nothing
but voluntary Conciliation Boards, with no power to do more than pass
pious resolutions. There has, however, survived this welter of
contradictory legislation, a series of clauses which do confer upon the
tenant farmer a substantial part of the rights in his dealings with his
landlord for which we were agitating in 1914. The town lease-holder, on
the other hand, has got nothing, and it is one of the first duties of
the Liberal Party to provide him with security against the confiscation
of his improvements and goodwill, to give him reasonable security of
tenure, and to put an end once for all to the pestilent system of
building leases which extends all over London and to about half the
other towns of England. The evils of this system are especially to be
found in those older parts of our great cities where the original leases
are drawing to a close. In such cases a kind of blight appears to settle
on whole neighbourhoods, and no improvements can be carried out by
either party because the landlord cannot obtain possession, and the
tenant has not, and is unable to obtain, a sufficient length of term to
make it worth his while to risk his capital upon them.

HOUSING

The branch of the land question to which the Government called the
greatest attention in their election promises was Housing. On this
subject the Government have placed many pages of legislation on the
Statute Book. One can only wish that the houses occupied as much space.
They began by informing us, probably accurately, that up to the time of
the Armistice there was an accumulated shortage of 500,000 houses; in
pre-war days new working-class houses were required, and to a certain
extent provided, although the shortage had then already begun, to an
average number of 90,000 a year. According to the official figures in
July last, 123,000 houses had been completed by Local Authorities and
Public Utility Societies; 37,000 by private builders with Government
subsidies; 36,000 were under construction, and as the Government have
now limited the total scheme (thereby causing the resignation of Dr.
Addison, its sponsor) there remain 17,000 to be built. This is the
record of four years, so clearly the Government have not even succeeded
in keeping pace with the normal annual demand, and the shortage has not
been attacked, but actually accentuated.

The cause of the failure was mainly financial. Without attacking the
roots of the evil in our land and rating system, and without attempting
to control the output and supply of materials and building in the way in
which munitions were controlled during the war, the Government brought
forward gigantic schemes to be financed from the supposedly bottomless
purse of the tax-payer. At the same time the demand for building
materials and labour in every direction was at its maximum, and
unfortunately both employers and employed in the building and allied
industries took the fullest advantage of the position to force up prices
without regard to the unfortunate people who wanted houses. The Trade
Unions concerned seem to have overlooked the fact that if wages were
raised and output reduced houses would become so dear that their
fellow-workmen who needed them could not attempt to pay the rents
required, and the tax-payer would revolt against the burdens imposed
upon him; thus the golden era for their own trade was bound to come to a
rapid end, and, so far from employment being increased and prolonged,
unemployment on a large scale was bound to result. With the Anti-Waste
panic and the Geddes Axe, social reform was cut first, and, in their
hurry to stop the provision of homes for heroes, the Government is
indulging in such false economies as leaving derelict land acquired and
laid out at enormous cost, even covering over excavations already made,
and paying out to members of the building trade large sums in
unemployment benefit, while the demand for the houses on which they
might be employed is left wholly unsatisfied.

LAND FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES

The Acquisition and Valuation of Land for the purpose of public
improvements is a branch of the question to which a great deal of
attention was drawn during and immediately after the war. The Government
appointed a Committee, of which the present Solicitor-General was
chairman, and which, in spite of a marked scarcity of advanced land
reformers amongst its members, produced a series of remarkably unanimous
and far-reaching recommendations. These recommendations dealt with four
main topics:--

(_a_) Improvements in the machinery by which powers may be obtained by
public and private bodies for the acquisition of land for improvements
of a public character;

(_b_) Valuation of land which it is proposed to acquire;

(_c_) Fair adjustment as between these bodies and the owners of other
land, both of claims by owners for damage done by the undertaking to
other lands, and of claims by the promoting bodies for increased value
given by their undertaking to other lands; and

(_d_) The application of these principles to the special subject of
mining.

The Government in the Acquisition of Land Act, 1919, has adopted a great
part of the Committee's recommendations under the second head, and this
Act has undoubtedly effected an enormous improvement in the prices paid
by public bodies for land which they require, although, most
unfortunately, the same immunity from the extortion of the land-owner
and the land speculator has not been extended to private bodies such as
railway companies who need land for the improvement of public services.
Moreover, it has not attempted to bring the purchase price of land into
any relation with its taxing valuation.

The whole of the rest of the Committee's recommendations dealing with
the other three points which I have mentioned, the Government has wholly
ignored. Powers for public development can still only be obtained by the
slow, costly and antiquated processes in vogue before the war; private
owners of lands adjoining works of a public character are still in a
position to put into their own pockets large increases in value due to
public improvements to which they have contributed nothing, and which
they may even have impeded; the development of minerals is still
hampered by the veto of unreasonable owners, by the necessity of leaving
unnecessary barriers between different properties, and by other
obstacles which were dealt with in detail in the Committee's report. An
illustration of the importance of this aspect of the question was put
before the Committee and has been emphasised by recent events. It was
stated on behalf of the railway companies that they were prepared with
schemes for the extension of their systems in various parts of the
country, which would not only provide temporary employment for a large
number of men on construction, and permanent employment to a smaller
number on the working of the lines, but would also open up new
residential and industrial districts, but that it was impossible for
them to find the necessary funds unless they could have some guarantee
that at least any loss upon the cost of construction would be charged
upon the increased value of land in the new districts which would be
created by the railway extensions. Remarkable instances were given of
the way in which the value of land had been multiplied many-fold by the
promotion of new railways, which, nevertheless, had never succeeded in
paying a dividend to their shareholders, and the capital cost of which
had been practically lost.

On the other hand, the Committee were assured that, given a charge on
the increased value of land likely to be created, there would be no
difficulty in obtaining the necessary funds without Government
assistance. When the pressure of the unemployment problem became acute,
and not before--and then it was, of course, too late--the Government
turned their attention to this problem, and have guaranteed the interest
upon new capital to be expended on a few of these railway extensions,
but instead of charging the guarantee upon the increased value of land,
they have charged it upon the pocket of the tax-payer. The most striking
instance is that of the tube railway from Charing Cross to Golders
Green, now being extended under Government guarantee to Edgware. Those
who provided the original capital have never received any return upon
their money, yet millions have been put into the pockets of the owners
of what was undeveloped land now served by the line, and now that the
extension is being carried out with the tax-payers' guarantee, the
land-owners will again reap the benefit untaxed.

The development of the natural resources of our country was one of the
promises held out by Mr. Lloyd George to the electors in 1918. Schemes
were ready, and are still in the official pigeon-holes, for the
production of electricity on a very large scale both from water power
and from coal, which would not only provide employment, but cheapen the
cost of production in all our industries. France, Italy, and other
countries are at this moment carrying out similar schemes whereby they
will relieve themselves to a large extent from dependence on British
coal. But here, four years of Coalition Government have left us
practically where we were. In France, although in many respects her
social system seems to me less enlightened than our own, the power of
the land-owner to obstruct enterprise and development is by no means so
great. Land Reform in this country is a necessary preliminary to the
fulfilment of Mr. Lloyd George's promises. Development at the public
expense without such reforms will result chiefly in further burdens upon
the tax-payer and further enrichment of the landowner.

RATING RELIEF FOR IMPROVEMENTS

This brings me to the last, and in my opinion the most important branch
of the Land Question, that relating to the reform of our system of
rating and taxation. I am myself an ardent supporter of the policy which
I think has been rather unfortunately named the Taxation of Land
Values. The vital point about this policy is not so much that we should
tax land values, as that we should leave off taxing buildings and other
improvements of land. The policy would be better described as the Relief
of Improvements from Taxation. Its economic merits seem to me so obvious
as hardly to require examination. It is only because the present system
has been in force for over 300 years that it can find any supporters. If
any one were to propose as a useful means of encouraging the steel trade
or the boot trade, or as a desirable method of taxation, that a tax of,
say, 50 per cent. should be imposed upon the value of every ton of steel
or every pair of boots turned out in our factories, he would be rightly
and universally denounced as a lunatic. Yet this is the system which
ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth has been in force with regard to
the building trade and all other industries which result in the
production of improvements upon land.

As long as land remains unused it pays no rates or taxes, whatever its
immediate potential value. But the moment it is brought into use, as
soon as a house, a factory, or a railway is built upon it, or it is
drained or planted--rates and taxes, which in these days often exceed 50
per cent. of its improved value, have to be paid, without regard even to
the question whether its use is successful in yielding profits or not.
Familiarity with this system, instead of breeding the contempt which it
deserves, has bred a kind of passive acquiescence which is exceedingly
difficult to shake. Even such a champion of our land system as the Duke
of Bedford years ago in his book, _The Story of a Great Agricultural
Estate_, perceived the absurdity, although he was apparently blind to
the remedy and to the application of it to some of his estates which are
not agricultural. He converted an ordinary arable field into a fruit
garden, and discovered that his rates were promptly trebled by reason of
his expenditure. Striking, but, nevertheless, everyday examples may be
found if we see how the system works out in urban districts. If a new
factory is built, rates and taxes are immediately levied on the full
annual value of the building, which is a direct charge upon production,
and has to be paid before a single person can be employed in the
factory. It therefore not only restricts the possibilities of
employment, but has to be added to the price at which the goods can be
sold.

THE LESSON OF THE SLUMS

Or take the illustration of a slum area. Each tumble-down tenement is
rated and taxed on the assessment based upon its annual rental value. In
many places in the central parts of towns the total of these assessments
is less than the sum for which the whole site could be sold as a
building area, nevertheless if all the tenements fall or are pulled down
the site may remain vacant for years and no rates or taxes are paid. But
if substantial and decent buildings are erected on the site, immediately
the assessment is raised to their full annual value. The individual or
public body that has cleared away the slum and erected something decent
in its place is thus immediately punished for doing so, with the result
that such a thing is seldom done except at the public expense. The
remedy for all these absurdities is quite a simple one. No one disputes
that the sums necessary for municipal and imperial taxation have got to
be provided. The question is, in so far as they are to be raised from
lands and buildings, how can they be assessed most fairly and with the
least injury to trade and commerce? They should be assessed upon the
value of land which is not due to any effort of the owner or occupier;
they should not be assessed upon nor increased because of any buildings
which he may have erected or any improvements which he may have carried
out.

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