Letters to the Editor
AN ALTERNATIVE OCCUPATION FOR UNEMPLOYED MINERS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sig,—The coal strike will leave such a legacy of debt and unemployment that it is perhaps not amiss to point out a method which, if adopted in time, would save millions of 'money and probably also ease the labour difficulties. In round numbers there were 1,100,000 men officially recognized as miners before the strike. Of these 280,010 have already returned to work. There remain 820,000 still on strike, but there will be work only for about 520,000 of them, some 300.000 being " permanently unemployed " and left inde- finitely " on the rates." Other unemployed miners are those who were in mines or headings closed down prior to the strike, and who were on no colliery books in April last, and these will swell the numbers of applicants for work when the 'pits reopen.
When the strike is called off, applicants for work should be -accepted only in order of the following categories :—(1) House owners, who will help to pay the rates. (2) Men with families, who represent the greatest burden on the rates. (3) Single men in order of seniority, for old or middle-aged miners are 'less able to adapt Themselves to other employment or to emigrate than young men.
The permanently. unemployed young single men who would remain would represent the lowest cost to the rates and the 'best prospect of being ultimately absorbed in other industries at home or oversea.
Such a scheme would make all the difference in the world t) colliery districts already on the verge of, or beyond bankruptcy and liable themselves to become a burden on the State and on the 'taxpayer. Nor, if ventilated at once, and before a general resumption of work, need there be any difficulty in I it. If the local authorities, backed by the Government, • urged the plan on their local coalowners, the -latter would undoubtedly agree to it, being themselves large ratepayers in the impoverished districts.—I am, Sir, &c., TRETUDALWR.
[Our correspondent's suggestion deserves careful considera- tion. Valuable spade work in the matter of finding employ- ment for unemployed miners overseas has been done by the Morning Post Emigration Committee, which has sent out 200 young miners to Australia. If they are successful, as we think they will be, they should be but a vanguard of a large number of young miners for whom work is waiting across the seas.— ED. Spectator.]
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