The First Five Days
Words seem to have peculiar meanings when they are employed in connectioh with coal. Mr. Shinwell said that the output of deep- mined coal in the first fiye-day week-3,552,6o0 tons—was above the minimum estimate of the production of coal on the new basis " and therefore can be regarded as satisfactory." Satisfactory to whom? Total production, including open-cast, last week was 3,752,000 tons, which, multiplied by 52, gives a rough annual rate of 195,000,000 tons. That is only satisfactory in the sense that it might have been worse. Weekly production will have to average about 3,860,000 tons for the rest of the year if the existing leeway is to be made up and the admittedly inadequate target of 200,000,000 tons reached. Again Mr. Shinwell said that absenteeism was " almost down to a minimum in all areas." Information on this subject is incomplete but absen- teeism in the West Midlands last week is said to have been 13.6 per cent. What sort of minimum is that? The pre-war absenteeism percentage for the whole country was between 6 and 7. Does Mr. Shinwell think that, even with the five-day week, we shall never attain those figures again? He said, as he has said before, that a weekly output of 4,000,000 tons should be reached by the autumn. He also pointed out that some 260,000 tons were lost last week by strikes and holidays. But there are usually holidays. And, if last week's performance by the 15o Durham winders was any indication, there will always be strikes. It is difficult to see what importance can be attached to words when they are used in the way that Mr. Shinwell uses them. The worse example of all concerns the jugglery which is now going on with the word " target." It is a misleading word anyway, but it used to mean 200,000,000 tons of coal in 1947, the one virtue of that figure being that it give the rest of industry something to go on. But on Tuesday Mr. Shinwell said that " taking the coal year instead of the calendar year " there was a prospect of reaching the target, if disputes could be avoided. If that means any- thing it means that 200,000,000 tons may not be reached this year, which is what simple arithmetic indicates anyvy. A terrific heave might just do it. But this is no time to talk of the situation as being satisfactory.
Previous page
