LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
MINERS' OUTPUT
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sus,—One of your correspondents, A. S. B., says that whilst coal output per man has fallen off, as compared with pre-War days, by only about 10 per cent. here, it has fallen by about 25 per cent. in France. This statement, like many that are going round the country, appears to be based on figures given in the House of Commons recently. But those bald figures were misleading. In France, and also Belgium, an abnormal percentage of the workers at the mines have been employed since the War, and are still employed, on repairs, developments, etc. The bald figures of output per man employed at the mines, regardless of the work they are doing, are useless. Indeed, they are worse than useless, for they are mischievous. The unexplained and grossly misleading figures given by our Minister of Mines have been seized upon, and
are being used, for false agitation by the Socialists. The hard fact remains that British miners, doing no special development work, but with better tools than before the War, are yielding a much lower output per man-shift, and that our direct pit labour costs are far higher than those in any competitive country. This is the root cause of our industrial
Previous page
