Mr. Burt, speaking on Saturday last at the annual con-
ference of the Miners' National Union, held at Newcastle- on-Tyne, gave some very interesting facts as to the coal industry. Last year the coal produced was over 188,000,000 tons, or nearly 14,000,000 tons more than in the previous year, 1893. The number of men employed in the trade also increased by twenty-two thousand. No doubt 1893 was lean year owing to the strikes. Still, last year's production was 2,700,000 tons in excess of the highest ever known, 1891. Certainly these are strange figures to go hand-in-hand with a universal cry of deep depression. Mr. Burt thinks that the question of foreign competition should not be sneered at, but faced and understood. He holds, however, that the worst way of facing foreign competition is by reducing wages and increasing hours. That is sound sense, and every one sees it. to be such in the case of horses. Who would propose to meet foreign competition by under-feeding, badly housing, and over- working his teams ? To meet the strain of foreign competi- tion, you want your hands to be in the best possible trim; but they will not be this if they work too long hours, and have not enough wages to feed and lodge themselves comfortably. Mr. Burt ended his speech with some very sensible, and yet. temperate, talk about the impracticability of Socialism.
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