The Anthracite Coal Industry. By Peter Roberts, Ph.D. (Macmillan and
Co. 5s. net.)—We must be content with a very brief notice of this book. It would be unreasonable for an out- sider to pronounce on the social and economical questions involved. It must suffice to say that a reader interested in matters of vital interest to ourselves may find here some very instructive reading. It may be allowed, in any case, to give some quotations :—" Five driver-boys, from the age of fifteen to eighteen years, had wage grievances not involving, all told, more than 50c. a day. Without a word of warning to their parents, or a single attempt at adjusting their grievance by seeing the fore- man, they declared a strike. The employes lost by it over $30,000 in wages." "A miner sat in a barber's chair being lathered for a shave. Six union men entered and took their seats. They identified the man in the chair as one of the non- union men. As the barber was about to apply the razor, one of the men said, 'If you shave that man, you don't shave us.' The man had to vacate the chair unshaved." But whatever the Anglo-Saxons may be or may do, the Slays and Italians are far worse. "A non-union Polander had a cow. One night some wretch tied a stick of dynamite to its horns and blew its head to stoma." "A most atrocious deed," says Dr. Roberts, apparently unfamiliar with such things. He should read the reports of the Irish Constabulary. The Celt has it in him to make a good third with the Slav and the Italian.
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