[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Would it not be
better if in the Spectator some sympathy was shown for those unfortunate persons, some of them of very small means, who have put money into the coal, steel, and iron companies working in South Wales, rather than for those, the employees of such companies, many of whom have leliberately tried to ruin them ? The article in yOur last issue reminds me of those ludicrous "Specimen days "—I think they were called—in which a gas-fitter, a collier (or his wife), the wife of a clergyman, the fortunate incumbent of a rich liVing, and such like, described their" hardships." I cannot remember the exact year in which they appeared, but I do reMember the indignation with which those of us who knew the truth read these extra-
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grdingkry. Piodqctinn-5._
I am always struck with the fact that sympathy is asked for the collier, whose work is healthy, whereas for the minerals miner, liable as he is to that distressing and fatal disease, Miner's ,Phthisis, and working as he often does in very Poor air, no sympathy is asked.
Your correspondent's kindness of heart I admire ; with his sentiments I utterly disagree, and I would remind, you and him of that well-known Latin proverb, ne sector ultra crepidatn. . - I do not buy the Spectator ; it is passed onto me by a friend. —I am, Sir, &c.,
._G. D. McGaicaia.
[Will the writer of this letter kindly inform us when we have withheld sympathy from , the unfortunate inVettqs fn ' the many indliStrieS ? We afe fUlly alive to the depredations of Miner's Phthisis, a disease which we have-studied on the 'Rand in Smith Africa. Meeting those who 'are 'suffering from it is one Of the most depressing experiences a visitor to 'South Africa can have. Because there are many groups of people' in other Walks 'of lie with whom we have synipithy, is that a reason..why we should: withhold it from the miners of South Wales and elsewhere, whose plight is so desperate ?--L-En. Spectator:I.
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