21 MAY 1921, Page 15

THE PRICE OF COAL AND INDUSTRY. [To THE EDITOR OF

THE " SPEOEITOR.") SIR,—I was talking the other day to an ex-Mayor of one of the leading iron and steel towns in England who has been actively connected with coal-mining for over fifty years, and in discuss- ing the present coal strike he made this ominous and rather terrifying remark : " What the Press and the publics do not realize is that even supposing the latest offer made to the miners is accepted by them, coal cannot be produced at an economic price to industry, that is at a price at which England can compete with foreign countries."—I am, Sir, dtc.,

CONSTANT READER.