The Miners' Long Pull
When the British miner is called upon for a spurt in production he nearly always responds. What distinguishes the effort made in the first four months of this year, in which nearly all of the three million extra tons called for by the Prime Minister have been produced, is that it has been sustained for so long. Output per man-shift at the coal-face has been held steady at 3.2 tons, which is a respectable figure, and Saturday shifts have been regularly worked. It is true that stock margins have been narrow, some consumers have had to suffer inconvenience, and the country has only just managed- to ease through despite the fact that the winter has not been a very hard one and no inordinate heating demands have therefore been made. More- over. coal has had to be imported, and that can never be regarded as anything but a disgrace. But the winter,* over, and the Minister of Fuel and Power has already forecast that we will begin the next one in better shape. From now on everything depends not on the sudden spurt but on the long pull. There is no obvious reason why this should not be forthcoming. The mining labour force is rising slightly. Much of the improvement in productivity in the past year must have come from a more effective use of machinery, and the process of mechanisation still goes on. The long-term plan for the industry was published last November. and only this week in the House of Commons the Minister of Fuel and Power secured the second reading of a Bill to raise the limit of the advances which the Minister may make to the Board from f150,000,000 to £300,000,000, so there should be no shortage of capital. In fact, all is ready for the attempt to lift coal once and for all out of the category of critically short raw materials. If it succeeds, the raw materials problem as a whole will become less difficult, for there is no major raw material in the world that good British coal will not buy.
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