LESSONS OF GRIMETHORPE
Sta,—I fed bound to express my regret at the one-sided summary of the Grimethorpe strike in your last issue. If your readers have ever worked hours on end, bending or kneeling with a roof only 45 inches above their backs, let alone 24 inches, they would see how misleading it is to call the
strikers "idle." The extension of the average stint from 21 to 23 feet may mean theoretically an increase of only 91 per cent, in labour. But anyone acquainted with the industry_ must know it works out very differently from this. May I suggest that those lacking in public spirit are the men who know the true facts about coal-getting but will not give way because they fear the challenge of syndicalism and the loss of their well-paid influential jobs. The "ignorant," I submit, are those armchair critics of the miners who do not bother to delve into this complex problem beyond the surface. Sir, I hope you will find space for this letter among all the diatribes against the miner with which the Press inundates us.—Yours faithfully, Thangool, Sturay, near Canterbury, Kent. TREVOR ANDREWS.
[Coal-mining in any mine is an unpleasant business. The Grimethorpe • strike had nothing to do with that. The question is whether any industry can be carried on if a section of men defy their own union and deliberately violate agreements entered into in their name regarding the settlement of disputes.—EDITOR, The Spectator.]
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