WAGES AND OUTPUT.
ITO THE EDITOR. Or TEE " SPECTATOR."3 SID,—Some people will swallow with avidity any statement that casts discredit on the miner. Their judgment appears to be influenced by their prejudice. I sin a miner, and it is not my desire now or at any time to palliate or deny the somewhat atrocious crime of being one. What I proposed to do in my last letter was to give your readers the truth about the coal- hewer. That at the coal-face he does not in the. least spare himself, I declare, if my thirty years' experience is of any value. "Employer" made mention that the average man em- ployed at the mines did not care to earn mare than a certain sum per week. I say the exceptions in Northumberland and Durham are as rare as "comets" or "black swans."
Now "Shipbuilder" comes along supplementing the above statement of " Employer " with more statements obviously contrary to fact. I wish we had in use a more awesome sub- stitute for the word "fact" It is used with too much levity. My knowledge of shipbuilding is absolutely nil. But I do know that the first qualification of a critic is sympathy, with a determination and the capacity to understand the thing criticized. Therefore "Shipbuilder" is not qUalified to give accurate judgment. His rinses I regard as out of all perspective.
He avers that the truth of the statonent appears to be borne out by the fact (another fact) that miners prefer to work only five days in the week. I invite "Shipbuilder" to procure the percentage of absenteeism of coal-hewers in Northumberland and Durham; also his attention to lice following question. If what he states is true of the majority, why do coal-hewers go to work on a "Batt Saturday "? His next argument, "Com- pare their output with that of the miners in the United States." Now, a dexterous logician is not necessary to furnish an answer to the above question. Any ignorant miner (for- sooth!) could inform " Shipbuilder " why the output is greater from the Huthon and Brock-well Seam than the Harvey or from -the Low Main than the Plessey Scam. In the United States a coal-hewer will fill cars for a week off one shot. Iu the top seams of Northumberland and Durham, to get two or three tubs of coal, say ten-hundredweight tubs, is reckoned a good shot. The United States cars hold about twenty hundred- weights.
Finally, " Shipbuilder " writes : " No doubt Mr. Cutter is quite right if he simply means that the miners (and the ship. yard men) do care to earn larger sums, if they can do so without working longer hours or working border." Now, Sir, can any student of human nature nationalize or localize so cardinal an instinct? Is it not palpably universal and not to be classified with any degree of precision. Such a spirit is applicable to, and characteristic of, employers and shipbuilders equally as well as shipyard men and miners. I am most reluctant to entrench on valuable space, but unquestionably "truth needs a publisher." I quite appreciate the crisis in which our country is gripped. I only desire, after a thorough inquiry, what is slue, not merely to minces only, but (as Mr. C. Bradlaugh said in his debate with Mr. IL M. Ilyndman) to rag-pickers, scavengers, and bottlewashers. With regard to most things there is an experience that cannot be transferred. It must be used to be understood. What I have said for the coal-hewer is not from abstract thought, -but from the vital, full-blood fact of subjective experience.—I am, Sir, &a.
Nezobiggin-bp-Sea. J. B. Coma. [If Mr. Cutter's fellow-miners are really willing to con- sider the interests of other classes as well as their own, the
controversy now raging may be amicably adjnsted.—Eo. Spectator.]
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