THE COAL TROUBLE
SIR,—In an article under the above title, in your issue of November 37th, Mr. J. L. Hodson, admittedly writing as a " layman," says that the miners at the coalface in the area he visited (Yorkshire) " get from about Is. to 2S. a ton." Mr. Hodson must have wondered how they managed to earn their minimum wage of loos., but it is to be feared that these particular miners were pulling his leg and quoting the basis "cutting " or " getting " wages rate without the various percentage additions, war wages, &c. In Yorkshire the average earnings of coalface workers in the first quarter of 3944 were 26s. 6d. a shift, and the average output per manshift per worker at the coalface 2.6o tons in West Yorkshire and 3.34 tons in South Yorkshire (see Statistical Digest issued by the Ministry of Fuel) ; which gives an average overall figure of approximately 9s. a ton—a very different figure from that mentioned by Mr..Hodson.
Mr. Hodson then asks what becomes of the remaining 73s. out of the 75s. a ton which he pays in his house. In the first place, the wages of coalface workers are not the only labour charges involved in getting a ton of coal into a wagon at the pithead. The Statistical Digest gives 29s. 7d. 'as the average pithead price in Yorkshire, of which 21s. is represented by wages and 3s. 4d. by stores and timber (the owners get is. td.). Secondly, there are transport charges. Before the war it cost about I2S. 6d. a ton to send a ton of coal from the Midlands to London, and the cost is higher now. Thirdly, although it costs the same per ton to get all coal to the surface, the coal has very different selling prices— according to size, quality, suitability for certain purposes, &c.—just as, in normal times, the price of best rumpsteak was higher than that of thin, or of the average for the whole carcase. Fourthly, there are the distribution charges from railway depot to consumer, for which, however, the coal distributive trade and not the coal producing industry is respon- sible. Lastly, it should be noted that the coal price cannot, under present conditions, be varied without the permission.-of the Ministry of Fuel and
Chairman, The West Yorkshire Coal Owners Association. Quebec House, Leeds, r.
Previous page
