The Coal Industry Commission Act 1919 (c 1) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, which set up a commission, led by Mr Justice Sankey (and so known as the "Sankey Commission"), to consider joint management or

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of the coal mines. It also considered the issues of working conditions, wage and hours.

Background

A Royal Commission, led by Sir John Sankey, was called to examine the future of the mining industry. Leo Chiozza Money,

Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like Geo ...

and R.H. Tawney were the three economists on the commission, all broadly favourable to the miners. Others were appointed from business and the trade unions. The commission offered compromises on wages and hours, and also recommended

. The government rejected the report. No agreement was reached and, when the commission reported in June 1919, it offered four separate approaches ranging from full

to continued private ownership. The government cited this disagreement as a reason to reject nationalisation. The public impact of the report was such that, in Ben Travers' comic novel '' A Cuckoo in the Nest'' (1921), the Rev. Cathcart Sloley-Jones, under the illusion that he was addressing a Member of Parliament, "lowered his voice into a rather sinister whisper: 'What is Lloyd George's real view of the miners' report?'"

Commissioners

* Mr Justice Sankey, chairman recommended modified nationalisation * Frank Hodges, recommended nationalisation * Leo Chiozza Money * Robert Smillie *

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* R. H. Tawney *

* Arthur Balfour, favoured minor reforms *

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Sir Adam Nimmo ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

* Sir Allan M Smith * Sir Evan Williams *

Sir Arthur Duckham Sir Arthur McDougall Duckham (8 July 1879 – 14 February 1932) was one of the founders of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and its first president. Duckham was born in Blackheath, London, the second son of a Falmouth-born mechanical a ...

, recommended reorganisation under private ownership

Notes

{{reflist

References

* AJP Taylor ''The Oxford History of England: English History 1914-1945'' (1965)

External links

Coal Industry Commission Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the First Stage of the Enquiry

Coal Industry Commission Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the Second Stage of the Enquiry
United Kingdom labour law United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1919 1919 in labor relations Coal in the United Kingdom Coal industry

Background

Commissioners

See also

Notes

References

External links