THE COAL CRISIS
SIR,—I read your gloomy comment on "Winter Coal " with dismay. Must you join the ranks of those who keep up the spate of uninformed and unsympathetic criticism of the miner? And if you must criticise the miner, at least make that criticism constructive and precise. You state that the minera are " not working as they should." What does this vague statement mean? How should the miners work? Next you quote a figure of 15 per cent. as a high proportion of absenteeism. If the Ministry of Fuel and Power would only give the miner a reasonable week's work to get through, instead of expetting him to toil in intolerable conditions for 121 days out of 14, we should hear less about absenteeism, which in present circumstances is only to be expected. And, finally, we have this gem: " It is no doubt true that the miners are doing less work because, through the shortage of consumer goods, they have little to spend their money en ; but that simply means that the fact that the whole prosperity of their country depends on their efforts counts with them for nothing at all. There is no question that the average miner of today is a different type from the miner of a generation ago, and the country is greatly the poorer for it."
The picture which your first few words gives, of the miner shirking his job merely because there is nothing for him to spend his (presumably) high wages on, is utterly false. The supply of goods does not affect the miner's willingness to work at all, and, in any case, unless he is one of the small minority in the industry who is well paid, he has little left over from his £4 15s. a week (national minimum wage minus deductions) to spend at will. Your rext claim, that the miner cares nothing for the dependence of the country upon his efforts, is equally untrue ; the miner is highly conscious of the trust placed in his hands, and he is striving as best he may to be worthy of it. If he fails, it is because adverse circumstances are too strong for .him. This, however, is by the way ; what stings me is the cool way in which you, who serve and are members of the general public, dare to criticise a body of men who for years past were utterly neglected and despised by the public that benefited from their sweat. If the miners today were absolutely dis- illusioned and declined to pull the country out of its present mess, I, for one, would not blame them. It is greatly to their credit that they are finer men and harder workers by far than your comment gives them
Pembroke College, Oxford.
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