Mexborough and Swinton Times January 8, 1926
Colliery Harmony
Denaby and Cadeby Staff Dinner
Where Reason Rules
A Humane and Progressive Enterprise
The annual staff dinner of the Denaby and Cadeby Collieries Ltd, was held at the Danum hotel, Doncaster on Saturday evening, Maj J.H. Leslie, chairman and managing director, presiding. He was well supported by Mr H Peake, of Bawtry Hall, director, Mr H.C. Harrison, general manager; Mr W.H.Chambers, late general manager; Mr H Hulley, manager of the Cadeby colliery; Mr W Still, manager of the Denaby Colliery; Mr E.T. Hardy, engineer; Mr J.H. Dunk, secretary; Mr C Warren, assistant secretary; Mr C.E. Wales, sales manager, and Mr J Watkin, cashier
The guests numbered 230.
The function was a most enjoyable one entertainment was provided by Messrs Wilkinson, Worthington, Boyes, H Soar, H Ellis and P Murgatroyd. Besides quartets, duets and solos, there were choruses in which the guests took an enthusiastic part.
After the loyal toast came that of the collieries proposed by Mr T Hill, checkweighman at Cadeby and Mr Arthur Roberts, secretary of the Denaby Main branch of the Yorkshire Miners Association.
A Rough Year
Mr Hill said at the end of that year they had all come to the conclusion it had been a very rough one, especially for the mining industry in which that scene employers and employees in conflict. There were always too great evils in a country: the threat of war and the threat of strike. They are a damaging effect on the sable trade of the country, and it was regrettable that such things should be necessary at a time like the present. Through it all, however, so far as their company was concerned, they had sailed very smoothly. He wished all other employers and employees could say the same. There had been no threats on either side, except they had had, as all families have, a little hitch, but with common sense and cool heads had overcome the difficulties, and having done so, had reaped the benefit.
He thought they ought not to pass the evening without making reference to the high standard of engineering at the collieries. If they ever got through the present crisis in the industry it would be through the great efforts put forward by the mining engineers attached to the collieries. They had seen thousands of pounds worth of new machinery put down, and nobody would have expected the results they had attained through that new machinery. The last three weeks they have turned out more coal than they had ever done at Denaby and Cadeby. He attributed the credit of such an achievement not only to the miners below ground but to those men who toiled above, using their brains in the engineering department.
He did not think there was another pit stead so happy in its social cooperation between the management and the men stop they had now introduced a scheme whereby in the near future they will be able to say that no man having become too old to work, would not have sufficient to keep him from the workhouse. The object was one which miners have been talking of for many a year. They were going still further, and he hoped that by the time they met at the next dinner they would be able to say they had a scheme whereby they would be able to give every man weeks play with a week’s pay.
Whether the industry was privately owned or nationalised, they could only get from it what they put into it. In their advocacy of nationalisation the importance of output was never lost sight of. The alterations at Cadeby colliery had brought about something like an increase of 60 to 70,000 tons a year. Today there were drawing something like 1500 tons more coal than they were able to do with wooden tubs. The making of metal tubs was bound to cause a demand for coal, and if every colliery company would take the steps taken at their coal he did not believe the nation would be in the state it was today. The men at every colliery worked as honestly as they did he thought the country would be better than it was today.
He regretted very much that in some of the mining areas disputes had ended in men being in prison. That was very regrettable you believe that no matter what difficulty they were in they ought to get out without resorting to prosecution or destruction. He hoped before next year came round they would have greater improvements and that would go from success to success. (Hear, hear.)
Justice Wanted
Mr Roberts said Mr Hill was an optimist, that generally his sentiments were those he would express himself. The regrettable feature was that that feeling was not national, but only local.
As far as they were concerned locally one could only say the relationship between master and man was the happiest and pleasantest, in fact he made bold to say that the task of the officials connect with collieries throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain could not be easier than the task of the visuals are both their pits. That was because they had reached what Tom Payne called “The age of reason,” the commit on both sides and from a reasonable standpoint believe in their own convictions and in the righteousness of their cause. When a subject had been discussed they have been able to come to a conclusion which was satisfactory to both sides. That was the result of meeting with open minds. There was no prejudice before they started to discuss matters. That he believed was where the good many people fail, but it was one of the reasons why the relationship between the employees and the workmen at Denaby and Cadeby was so harmonious.
He did not know of any community with a population bordering upon 20,000 that was more self-contained than Denaby Main was. He did not wish to say much of the social side of the community because the surveyor of the Urban District Council was present, and he might want the credit. (Laughter.) Whatever had been done for the men and their families had the same corporation as they had on their industrial questions. They could say that the official at their collieries were concerned with men as citizens as well as workmen. That fact had an important bearing on the relationship which exists today.
They were all pleased to see Mr Chambers there again. They are not always agree, but he thought there were characteristics which had been handed down from the time of Mr Chambers which had proved beneficial to those who follow. It was because of the hard knocks they had taken from Mr Chambers they had seen that a reasonable attitude was best in meeting the management.
He sincerely trusted that 1926 would be kinder than 1925. He hoped it would be more hopeful form an industrial standpoint and that as a result of the improvement the workers as a whole would get a better share of what they produced. Whatever improvement took place he could safely say no section of workmen would get more out of it than the men they represented that evening.
Further, he sincerely hoped that what was mentioned by Mr Hill that men who had given their lives in industry and in times gone by I’ve had to go on the scrap heap – he hoped that that scheme would be developed, irrespective of what anybody else did – the government or any authority – he could safely say that so far as the officials at Cadeby and Denaby were concerned, nor workmen who had rendered useful service and had broken down would suffer..
Maj Leslie’s Joke
Maj Leslie in reply to the toast, said the entertainers had given them a very good time, so far, but he thought the directors ought to provide a cinema show, knowing how addictive the Doncaster miners were spending money on cinema shows. (Laughter and applause)
That was the third annual dinner which he had presided, and he was delighted to see them all that evening. It gave him the greatest pleasure, and he hoped their pleasure was as great.
They had passed through an extremely critical year, and he was afraid they could not see daylight through 1926. He had been told they could not get through without bloodshed. (Laughter.) He thought they could, and it was absolutely essential that they should be no stoppage, and both sides had to come together and really look into the thing. It was no use going back to the feelings which ran high during the last few years. They must look upon industry in a new light altogether; they got to get down to it, and sell their products in the world markets before they could get bread and butter in this country. He was talking not only of the Company and shareholders, but of the workmen and it was perfectly futile going on as they had been going on.
There had been some new industries starting in the last three or four years, and they realised that the idea of a big trade union fighting against a big unit of employers was not the least use in starting a new industry. They are arrangements whereby they had a week’s holiday a year, and they realised they could only get results by inducing piece workers to put their backs into the work, and that they must give them some goal to aim at. In some cases they had married men with families to bring up, and in others they had single men with very little responsibility.
He (Major Leslie) could not help thinking the only question was a real thing; it was not a castle in the air. He felt that men in the coal industry did want a holiday if it could be given and if the industry could afford it. It had been mentioned that they had already had preliminary meetings to see how the land lay, and he thought they would come to grips and see whether they had some proposition, to put forward which would appeal to the men. In this matter they had the full support of the officials and the clerical staff who all helped the business to arrive at the state of efficiency they desired.
In America they had arrived at an efficient settlement of the question of the pieceworker, and in that respect were probably further advanced than anywhere else in the world. The real reason for the success of industry in America today was that every man working on piecework wanted to possess a motor car. They all possessed motor cars, but had to work full time to do it. They felt that if they could work five or six days they could run their motor car on Saturday and Sunday and come back to work on Monday for their food, beer and petrol.
“I should very much like to see some goal of that sort,” went on Maj Leslie. We asked arriving at a price of cars in this country – cars, which are both a luxury and a necessity – which in the very near future will enable a lot of workmen to run small motor cars. They would find benefits to themselves and their families in getting away from the place in which they worked to the fresh air.
A Great Engineering Feat
They who ran collieries were quite used to being told they were inefficient, out of date, and out of touch with their men, and one wondered whether they ought not to change their profession altogether. But he did not think the representatives of the workmen thought that about the management of Denaby and Cadeby. He hoped not anyhow. The management really did appreciate what Mr Hill and Mr Roberts said about the developments which were taking place at the collieries.
Mr Hardy had accomplished a great engineering feat at Denaby. (Hear, hear) There was nothing quite like it in England, but that was not good enough for them; they had to go on making improvements year after year. It was not only a question of profit. He supposed everybody worked for profit and nobody worked for nothing, but it went a little further than that when an industry was doing very badly, like the coal industry was today. It was no exaggeration to say that they would not have to close the Barnsley seam at Denaby if they had not sunk the other shaft. By doing that they had cut their costs to keep it going. It was an old pit, and the shaft just been sunk in the nick of time.
The scheme was initiated by Mr Chambers a few years ago, and it was the foresight of men like Mr Chambers and Mr Hardy that brought such things about. To close the pit would have created a hardship upon the men of Denaby as well as on the management had the pit been closed. It was not going to give the management any satisfaction to have three or 400 men out of work. They had to take a view of the market and make sure they could keep the pit’s running and see how men could earn wages, irrespective of the profit to the owners. That was his view of what they had to try and arrive at in bad times.
Mr Roberts and Mr Hill referred to the question of compensation, and he thought that out of the question, they had arrived at a scheme which no other colliery he knew had been able to achieve, perhaps not the pit and even sort of, but it conferred an enormous benefit on the workmen of Denaby and Cadeby. It gave them a sense of security in their old age.
As they all knew, there were many cases which did not come within the scope of the Compensation Acts. They had a moral responsibility towards them workmen, and they believe the scheme they had will enable them to deal with any case from a moral point of view. The representatives of the men had given the management the greatest assistance for the scheme. The men’s representatives fully appreciated their responsibility in the scheme. He thought in every form of business they wanted people to feel responsible and if they were given responsibility one will find it was very seldom that responsibility was abused.
“A Day Off”
Referring again to the question holidays, Maj Leslie said they had been into the scheme and found it bore a very close connection with the question of absenteeism. There were many men who attended 90 to 95% of the shifts in the year, but there were several who brought the average down considerably, and gave it the appearance that the all body of men were not attending work as they really ought to do.
He did not know what the men did when they missed work; perhaps planted sweet peas; went rabbiting on Mr Montagu’s estate, picking winners or something of that kind. (Laughter.) When they open a pit with a certain number of men, it made it very difficult when they found a lot of key men were away, and they could not work the pit.
He took that opportunity of tendering thanks to the staff, officials, workmen and representatives. They were always meeting their workmen on various thing, and there was not a single occasion upon which they had met representatives and the proposition had not being carefully looked into and discussed with the greatest sympathy. He would almost go so far as to say that the men who represented the workmen were perfectly capable of running the pits providing they got the knowledge and experience which the management were able to afford them. The management told the men what to do, and they saw the commonsense point of view and did it. It was the only way in which they could arrive at results. They had now the best tubs they could have to work the place, and they were going down as fast as they could be put down.
“If you will give me a low cost,” concluded Major Leslie, “I will work the pits also the summer, and I can tell you how to get more cops. I should like to wish you the very best for this year, and wish you good luck.” (Applause.)
Key to Success
Mr H.C.Harrison, proposing the toast of the officials and workmen, thank them all for the loyal support that had given him during the past year. It was impossible for 20 men to run a “show” like Denaby and Cadeby. It could not be done without loyal cooperation of all, all the time and every time, officials and workmen and all concerned. He did not care whether they had nationalisation grouping, or state control, they could take it from him the success of any industry lay in the close cooperation between workmen and the people who control that industry.
He was very delighted to see so many present. He wished the place were bigger, they could fill it. He did want to say to all of them how very, very proud he was of the officials who had helped him so well and splendidly during the past year. He had met several deputations but he had not on one occasion, been confronted with a single complaint from any workmen as to is treatment by any official. (Applause)
There were very few people could produce a record of that kind and it all it proved to him that the officials took a real interest not all in the output of the success of the pit, but also in the men themselves. It was only in that way they could get the best results. They could not ignore their workmen, they must not, there were 95% of any undertaking. Three years ago they heard with a certain amount of trepidation of the change and they wondered whether it would be as good as it had been. They must have no fear now. He thought they could feel perfectly safe the hands of the people who now controlled the great undertaking that their interests would be safe provided they delivered the goods. (Laughter.) Goods in large quantities, such quantities as they produce in the week before Christmas. (Laughter.)
Last week he appealed to them to have a “bull” week now and again. It would not hurt them. In fact you do them a great deal of good and without them to keep the pit going for in spite of all the optimism now it looked as if they might be in for a bad time, but that never failed to keep the pits going and with their assistance they would continue to do so in 1926.
Proceeding, Mr Harrison referred to the great changes which have been brought about. The remarkable additions to the mechanical equipment. A great deal are been done, more than people imagined. That nearly revives the old scheme of things on the surface at Denaby, that improve matters underground, foreign addition to the news shaft, the output in a fun, new compressors, a new boiler etc etc . The new shaft was one of the finest piece of work on the part of any mining engineer he had ever come across. (Applause). All these things have been done to musical cheaply, but after that produced it that to get rid of it that was left with their selling department. Nowadays he humorously proceeded, they had to be careful. They had to find their customers and nowadays people are very finicky about coal. Something black would not do (laughter), and he did not blame them, they wanted something to produce both power and he. Probably in the future they would supply it in silver paper. (Loud laughter.)
In conclusion Mr Harrison paid a warm tribute to all the workmen in the various departments at the colliery.
The company at the conclusion of his speech rose and sang “For he’s a Jolly good fellow.”
Mr Harry Hulley, the manager of Cadeby Main, responding paid a warm tribute to Mr Addison whom they always referred to as the skipper. It was due he said entirely to his efforts that the officials and the workmen were such a happy state of mind today at Denaby and Cadeby. It was due to the lady had given those who worked under him and, if they did not respond to his lead they will be letting down one of the best men in the mining world. (Applause). Regarding the work of the past year they are certainly got out more call than ever before but still they were not satisfied. (Laughter)
He still thought they might have touched 21,000 tons at Cadeby in the week before Christmas and 13,000 that Denaby. They were out to make records and one reason was because it will be of benefit all round for it would mean the workmen would be able to go on with bigger wages than ever before. They held themselves at Denaby to be 2nd to none in the world. They realised they had the finest set of work men which it was possible to have in any industry and they were trying their level best right away the general manager down to daughter to maintain that good feeling, realising that the success of any industry depended entirely upon the real cooperation of everyone concerned in it.
It depended upon every single one putting his back into it in order to make it a success. He was happy to say they had this united feeling. Men who left them were always ready to come back, and those who had gone to various parts of the world were always ready to say there was no better place than Denaby. In the coming year he hoped the same success would attend their efforts as had done in the past 12 months. They had started all right. Last year they commenced with an average of 27,000 tons a week. This year there risen to 33,000 which meant if they followed the same lines this year they would have to draw 40,000 tons. (Laughter and applause.) He hoped they would be able to do it. It depended entirely on the efforts of the men. If they gave them the same service as in the past year they had no fear that they would get that tonnage. (Applause.)
Mr W Still, the manager of Denaby, also responded and paid a warm tribute to Mr Harrison, the officials and workmen.