BOYS AND THE PITS
Sta,—A chairman of the Miners' Lodge connected with a large colliery in South Wales' wroteto me the other day and said that not a single boy under 15 had entered the employment of the mine during the past thee years. The three boys of one miner working at the colliery have all had a university education, and are now holding high professional and scientific posts in England. The miner and his wife are proud of their boys. A drift from the mines into the various professions is in evidence.
Major Radcliffe mentions this trend in his very interesting article last week. I agree with all he says, but twe things he seems to have over looked. Since 1929—to go no further back—about 1,400 boys, under t6. employed below ground in our mines, have been injured and disabled for more than three days, on an average, every year in the Northern Division. This represents an annual average of 342 per i,000, or one in every three boys. The rate of injury to those between 16 and 18 is only slightly better. Such an alarming rate of injury is not conducive to the bringing of boys into mine employment. The other factor is the great extension of the use of mechanical coal cutters and conveyors, which now deal with 64 and 61 per cent., respectively, of the total coal output. In pre-machine days miners were proud of their calling and of their skill at the coal face. The miner is now a semi-skilled person and one of a crowd simply shovelling coal on to a conveyor. Even his sense of individual responsibility is to a large extent gone. Mechanical skill is required in the use of the machines, is is true, but a routine handling and shifting forward of a machine eternally cutting coal under low roofs and in constant danger, noise and dust, is not an attractive prospect for any lad who can pick up alternative jobs at his own pleasure.—Yours faith-
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