SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent rertew.i
Coal Mining and the Coal Miner. By H. F. Bulman. (Methuen. 15s. net.)—Mr. Bulman, who has been a colliery manager and a director of colliery companies, has taken pains to collect a great deal of information about the industry. We cannot say that his book is attractive in form or style, but it is at any rate an honest book and not misleading propaganda. He gives many figures to illustrate the highly speculative nature of the industry. Vast sums are required to sink a shaft and equip a colliery with machinery and plant, but the output is uncertain. Some pits have a rich yield ; others are worked at a loss. But the miner, who receives at least two-thirds of the gross produce, does not realize his dependence on the capitalist who is willing to take risks. Coal mining is a healthy occupation ; the death-rate for agds from txenty-five to fifty-five is lower for miners than for shopkeepers and doctors, and far lower than for merchant seamen. Mr. Bulman devotes a long chapter to housing, in which he describes some of the many model villages built by colliery companies and Utility Societies. This chapter should interest Mr. Smillie, who apparently knows little of the housing conditions in English mining districts. The Scottish miner's inherent dislike of houses with more than two rooms, or costing more than a shilling or eighteenpenco a week, make e it difficult to improve his mode of life.
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