Coming to the mines, that is, the coal mining industry (with a few incidental mines such as stratified ironstone, fireclay, etc., which need not complicate our argument), the first step to the solution of the problem of the mines, i.e. the collieries, the mining industry, is the solution of the problem of the minerals.  This distinction is not at first sight obvious to all, but it is fundamental.  The ownership and leasing of the coal is one thing, the business or industry of mining it is quite another.  State ownership of the former does not involve State ownership of the latter.  That is elementary and fundamental.  It lies at the root of what is to follow.

Will you picture to yourself a section of the coal-mining industry in the common form of the pictures one sees of an Atlantic liner cut neatly in two so as to expose to view what is taking place on each deck.  On top you have the landowner, under the surface of whose land coal, whether suspected or not, has been discovered.  He may decide to mine the coal himself, but more frequently—­indeed, usually—­he grants to some persons or company a lease to mine that coal on payment of what is called a royalty of so much for every ton extracted.  Thereupon he is called the mineral-owner or royalty-owner, and the persons or company who actually engage in the business or industry of coal mining and pay him the royalties we shall call the colliery-owners.  Do not be misled by the confusing term “coal-owners.”  Very frequently the colliery-owners are called the “coal-owners,” and their associations “coal-owners’ associations.”  That is quite a misnomer.  The real coal-owner is the landowner, the royalty-owner, though it may well happen that the two functions of owning the minerals and mining them may be combined in the same person.  Below the colliery-owners we find the managerial staff; below them what may be called the non-commissioned officers of the mine, such as firemen or deputies, who have most important duties as to safety, and below them the miners as a whole, that is, both the actual coal-getters or hewers or colliers and all the other grades of labour who are essential to this the primary operation.

THE QUESTION OF ROYALTIES

Coming back to the royalty-owner, you will see his functions are not very onerous.  He signs receipts for his royalties and occasionally negotiates the terms of a lease.  But as regards the coal-mining industry, he “toils not, neither does he spin.”  I do not say that reproachfully, for he (and his number has been estimated at 4000) is doubtless a good husband, a kind father, a busy man, and a good citizen.  But as regards this industry he performs no essential function beyond allowing the colliery-owners to mine his coal.