The conditions of life of the whole community in the county of Glamorgan, the staple industry of which is that of coal, in which 17 per cent. of its population are directly employed, are subject to modification through the influence of an arrangement known as the sliding scale, by which the wages of the colliery operatives are determined in accordance with the selling price of that commodity. This scale has undergone several considerable fluctuations in the past twenty-eight years, and these fluctuations have been productive of consequences of no small sociological importance.