CURRENT LITERATURE
THE OTHER STORY OF COAL. By T. J. Parry-jones. (London : G. Allen and Unwin. 2s. 6d. net.) Tnis depressing work is written by a man who has been a miner for thirty years, who has the powers and perseverance to complete a book in fluent though not perfect English, and who as a County Councillor should not have an entirely narrow outlook. We doubt that it could have any provenance but South Wales, for its bitterness is extreme. Mr. Parry- Jones, apparently a theoretic Socialist and nationalizer, gives a rare good mark to present-day coal-owners and a very few bad marks to miners, other than Communist extremists. We do not doubt his honesty or think that these are only thrown in to give an effect of fairness. To him the miners are prac- tically all patient, high-principled, down-trodden toilers (there are necessary inconsistencies in this picture). The owners, directors and managers are as a whole an unprincipled set of rascals. Of course, this is not true, but what have most of the masters done to dispel this view ? What we deplore is that it should be possible for a man like Mr. Parry-Jones, and presumably thousands of other men of smaller powers, to believe such things. Such bitter antagonism • cannot flourish if it is wholly one-sided, nor indeed arise where there is any intercourse that is not antagonistic. The outlook would be brighter if the owners would study this travesty of themselves as human beings and as business men, and would, as they easily could, prove it false.
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