THE PRICE OF COAL.
[To THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR.")
SIR, —As the Coal question is at present taking up a deal of public attention, perhaps a few words from a coal-miner himself will be read with some amount of interest. The Leeds Mercury of the 10th has a long piece on the coal famine, took from the Spectator. To this it is I wish to speak. It begins by referring to the scarcity of coal, which is a fact we must to a certain extent admit, but not generally so. I hear of coals being in some instances stacked on the banks of some collieries, so that there is no scarcity there, you will admit. In fact, I saw at a pit not three miles from my home, not more than two months ago, coals teamed down or stacked, as we call it. As to the Ring, or as I understand it, the Masters' Association, I have nothing to say, only that for a number of years the coalowners have, I believe, worked their mines for trifling profits, which when the time came they were justified in increasing to a reasonable amount, but should then stop. Then as to the wages of us miners, the public have some strange accounts of the miners. Well, when the coal had advanced the miners thought their wages should be increased, and so the demand ; then another advance in coal, then another demand en account of the men, and so on, till this time of enormous wages, as you call them. Now for facts. It was at the age of nine years —I am, Sir, &c., THOMAS BARNETT. Lofthouse, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, February 11, 1873.
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