LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.j -- TILE MINERS' STRIKE.
[To TEE EDITOR Or Tee " SnEcUtOt."l
read your leader on the Miners' Vote in the Spectator of October 16th with much surprise. Except for a short spell in the Army, where I first made the acquaintance of your valuable paper, I have been a coal-miner for twenty years. At the risk of boring you to tears, I am going to state a few opinions from a miner's point of view. The datum line idea is fundamentally wrong, and could only have been regarded as a temporary expedient. Miners are paid so much per ton of coal produced—a sum varying with condi- tions as to thickness of seam, Lc.—and so much per day under the bonus awards. The bonus is thus a payment made for attendance at the mine. In addition, a miner is made up to a Specified minimum daily wage if his earnings by tonnage and bonus fall short of it.
Now, in mining, as in other trades, there is always a number of men who dislike hard work. They form a minority, of course, but they profit by the present system, while the hard worker loses. The lazy man finds that the minimum wage mane for his needs, and in many eases a willing worker is heed with the fact that by hard labour he can only make a shilling or two more than the man who takes it easy. It is only in accordance with human nature if the hard worker also Slacks. as the small gain in wages is no inducement to perform such an extra amount of work. The datum-line award, being DR attendance, simply means that if the workers, by their efforts, produce a sufficient tonnage the drones benefit by it to almost as great an extent as themselves. If these bonuses were made part of the ton-rate so that the miner was on piecework, then there would bo a far greater inducement for a man to work hard. And if the minimum wage was reduced, then the drones would also have to ginger up a bit.
Mr. Smillie and the miners' executive know well what the result of the ballot would be. But Mr. Swinie can now tell the electors that he advised acceptance when ho makes another attempt to enter Parliament. He can also remind the miners of his counsel when they lose the strike.
Absenteeism, when wages are high, is chiefly indulged in by the lazy section and by old men whose endurance, after many years of extremely hard work, is no longer sufficient for the daily grind although the spirit is willing. Amongst the others. the more chance they have of earning good wages the harder they will work.
In some countries, Canada for instance, every mine has • written agreement in which all piece-work rates are stated. If a miner there produces coal to the value of, say, £20 a week he gets it, and is counted an asset by the management. In pre-war days in some British mines, if a minor earned a few shillings more than the so-called minimum wage he also got it, and with it a reduction in his ton-rate as a reward for his industry. Such reductions are known to the minor as " partial reductions," and it is not surprising that they are the source of much bitterness and suspicion. In my opinion a substaintia) increase in output could be obtained by fixing the ton-rate is include the various bonus awards and giving the miner at the same time a guarantee of immunity from partial reductions.
The Spectator has commented on the common sense of tire British workman as a whole. but the miner lies shown, veil decidedly, his opinion of the datum line. ls the miner, then, blind to opportunities for his own advancement? The majority do not vote for or against any proposal simply because Smillie and Co. say so. They were asked to vote, in the last ballot. on the datum line only, which simply means that their leaden wanted a strike, as the result of the ballot was never in doubt with them. If you follow Mr. Smillie's record you will come to the conclusion that a low output is what he has been after all along. His idea is, perhaps, still further to reduce output and increase costs until the mines are in such a state financially that they will be nationalized to slave them from utter ruin.
Great prominence is given in the Press to the high wages enjoyed by the miner. I gave up working us such in July of this year. At that time I was employed in South Stirlingshire. I have worked at the coal face in many places, but never yet have I seen miners who worked harder or with more skill than those of the above-mentioned district. The average wage there is very little, if any, over £1 per working day. When you consider that a man at exceedingly hard manual labour requires considerably more food than a man at other work. you will admit that, in this case at any rate, a miner with a family is not in very affluent circumstances. Doubtless, young men with no ties are financially better off. But what about other manual workers? Take the iron and steel trade, for example, which flourishes in mining centres. One great trouble is that we have become materialists to a great extent—masters as well as men, and not only in the mining fraternity.
The present strike may not be so entirely evil in its results as we are led to believe. The miners know quite well that they will lose; indeed, it would be a bad day for the country if the Government gave in, as they have done in the past few years. The miners are as loyal as anyone else, but the majority are very apathetic as far as the union is concerned, and the extreme element thus have their opportunity. If the result of the strike causes an awakening, then it will have done some good and a period of industrial settled peace assured with its attendant prosperity.
You may have observed that statements by Smillie and Co. as to the owners being to blame go unchallenged. These state- ments are very often gross exaggerations, which is not surpris- ing when you consider their source. Nevertheless, an inquirl into the doings of the masters during the period of control— while nut acquitting the miners—would not show them in a
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