MINERS' WAGES
[To the Editor of Tun SPECTAToR.] SIR,--I€ miners' wages are not high enough, why is it ? If miners' wages are increased, what will happen ? Please let facts be faced.
The Miners' Federation, by its policy following the Great War, made British coal costly in price and short in supply ; caused foreign customers and would-be customers for our coal to look elsewhere than to Britain for fuel ; caused ship- owners to adopt foreign oil ; caused war-damaged collieries on the Continent to be quickly repaired and modernised ; caused many new mines to be opened out ; stopped the Production of British coal for weeks and months on end ; °PO today our coal trade suffers the consequent competition of foreign coal and oil.
If, in existing competitive conditions, miners' wages are 80•,increased as to put up the price of our coal by 2s. or as. Der, ton, our shipment coal trade, already reduced, will be wrecked ; shipowners thinking of reverting from foreign oil to British coal, will decide. to stick to the foreign oil ; the cost of steel production will be increased seriously ; all our lOanufactured lines of exports, will diminish ; the home as Well: as the foreign demand for our coal will slump ; the Priee of fuel for gas works, . electricity plants, and domestic use will advance ; the purchasing power of all our people will decline ; British trade in general will fall ; and the employment,. and wages of the Inineni themselves will be reduced. Are the miners, or their leaders, mad ?—Respect-
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