The Drop in Coal-Production
Last week Major Lloyd George drew attention to the serious fact that coal-production, so far from having increased, is less each week by too,000 tons than it was a year ago in spite of the fact that 5,000 more men are employed in the industry. The deficit f of eleven million tons in the coal budget foreseen last summer has ( only been made good, as is shown in an article on another page, by the response of consumers to the appeal for economy. The miners themselves, as an aggregate, have contributed nothing to improve the situation, and in most districts have neither been influenced by the bonus on increased production nor by the concessions made to meet the demands of the mine-workers. It is doubtless the case that some older workers are suffering from prolonged fatigue, but absenteeism, which is one main cause of under-production, is chiefly among the younger men. It is time that a new effort was made, through searching and sympathetic inquiry, to analyse the causes of a trouble which is deep-seated, and is psychological as well as physical and economic. The remedy will not be found until the malady itself has been more thoroughly diagnosed. Mr. William Pearson, Lanarkshire miners' president, says that output will not be increased without "beating down the hostile attitude of the owners and managers towards pit-production committees." This may or may not be true, but it is a question which ought to be examined. We know how much valuable work is being done by production committees in other industries. If they are not functioning in this one, then we ought to know why.
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