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association of the various grades of workers, both managerial and 
aanual, in the conduct and administration of their respective industries. 
‘he present disorganisation of the coal industry, with its 4,000 mineral 
wners, 1,300 or more colliery companies, and 25,000 odd distributors 
~with ita antiquated and inefficient system of production and 
istribution, its wasteful methods of consumption and neglect of 
aluable by-products, and its deplorable indifference both to the interests 
£ posterity and to the possibilities of the scientific treatment of 
ioal, which is rapidly progressing in other coal-producing countries— 
‘t, by general consent, intolerable. Particularly in view of the resistance 
f the mineowners to even the most cautious proposals for improvement, 
he Labour Party sees little hope of the necessary reorganisation being 
flected by the piecemeal procedure recommended by the last Commis. 
ion, and that judgment is confirmed by the history of the industry in the 
wo and a haif years since the Commission's Report was published 
Tie Labour Party demands the nationalisation of the Coal 
ndustry, therefore, not through any doctrinaire determination fo apply 
formula irrespective of circumstances, but for reasons of immediate 
nd practical urgency. Experience has shown that if the existing 
vaste in production and distribution is to be eliminated, and if the full 
‘alue in energy and chemical products is to be extracted from an 
rreplaceable asset, the first and indispensable condition is to extinguish 
he disorderly welter of conflicting interests which at present paralyse 
he development of the industry. The only effective method, the 
~abour Party hcids, of rescuing the Coal Industry from the ever- 
leepening chaos into which it has fallen, is to unify it under public 
ywnership. It is to convert it into an efficient and honourable public 
i iervice, to develop the treatment of coal and the provision of power 
fon scientific lines as an integral part of the industry, to reorganise the 
I listributive processes under public control, and to administer the 
ndustry with due regard both to the requirements of the community 
ind to the claim of the mineworkers for civilised standards of life and 
work. 
: Though, however, a Labour Government would take upon 
staelf the duty of nationalising the mines, it could not—pending the 
)assage into law of its proposals, the creation of the administrative 
nachinery necessary, and the carrying into full effect of its policy——stand 
dly by and acquiesce in the intolerable conditions prevailing in the coal- 
felds. On the contrary, it would come to the immediate succour of the 
nining pepulation with the greatest possible speed. The disastrous Act 
2y which the Tory Government added an hour to the working day of the 
finers must be at once repealed. The pressure of unemployment on the 
toalfields must be relieved by providing superannuation allowances for 
ihe veterans of the industry (towards which the royalties received by 
mineral owners may properly be required to make a substantial 
tontribution), by a general measure raising the school leaving age, with 
the provision of the necessary maintenance grants, by the regulation of 
recruitment into the industry, and by assisting the migration of miners 
nto other districts and other suitable occupations. The improvement 
» the Unemployment Insurance scheme, which Labour contemplates, its 
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