Welsh Journals

as much as 8d. to gd. per ton, and even more in certain cases. It is to be hoped that as a result of the De- Rating proposals, the Coal Trade will be relieved to a considerable extent of these burdens. The Railway Companies have agreed to apply the benefits which otherwise they would have re- ceived from De-Rating to a reduction of railway rates on coal, whilst the Bill now before Parlia- ment will effect a reduction of 75 per cent. in the local rates paid by Colliery Companies. These measures of relief are bound to be felt in course of time, though their operation may not be as rapid or as potent as we could wish it to be. The total output of coal in the world for 1927 is the highest on record. The world's production has increased steadily, even since the war, which proves conclusively that world industry needs more and not less coal and that the world market is an expanding and not a retracting one. Had pre-war conditions prevailed, South Wales would have shared in this increased production. The quality of our coal is unsurpassed, our collieries are as well, if not better, equipped with machin- ery and plant than those of our competitors, our miners are more skilled and efficient than those of other countries, our managers and technical "There is, we find, in the minds of many, an impression that unemployed workers in the heavy industries, and particularly in the coal industry, are of indifferent employment value, that they are not easily adaptable to the requirements of other occupations and that they are themselves unwilling to make the efforts needed for success. There is, too, some apprehension that these workers im- port into areas into which they may be transferred contagious elements of unrest and disturbance. Arising out of such beliefs and fears we have en- countered a real reluctance in many quarters even to consider the heavy industries, and in particular the coal industry, as a source of labour when re- cruiting workers." Industrial Transference Board Report. IT will be difficult to provide work for the large number of unemployed miners if employers consider that the miner is the most extreme, militant, and revolutionary of all the labouring classes. It would be well for these people who are reluctant to employ miners to consider to what extent environment really accounts for the ideas and beliefs which miners in general hold. staffs are equal to any in the world, whilst the natural advantages of a short run to the sea- board have already been emphasised. With all these advantages our output instead of shrinking should be steadily expanding as in pre-war days, if those handicaps imposed upon us, partly by the politicians and partly by our own folly, could be eliminated. We are now in the trough of the wave, but as soon as the conditions already described have been modified or entirely swept away, South Wales will once more take a leading place amongst the exporting coalfields of the world. We are all pupils in the school of adversity. In varying degrees we all suffer. Shall we learn the lesson shall we all pull together, shoulder to shoulder, sharing the burdens of to-day as we hope to share the prosperity of to-morrow? If, in addition, a new spirit of co-operation and en- terprise between all those sections engaged in the production of coal becomes manifest, if for sus- picion and prejudice are substituted confidence and goodwill, the time may not be far distant when the prophecies of the pessimists will have been disproved, and prosperity will once more return to the towns and villages of Sir Forgannwg. THE SOUTH WALES MINER by W. Haydn Davies To trace how far the environment moulds the opinion of coalminers let us examine South Wales. The Welsh miner has a world-wide repu- tation for his extreme revolutionary views. There are many reasons why the South Wales miner should be considered notorious. His organisa- tion is the only Miners' Union which professes to aim at the abolition of capitalism. The South Wales Miners' Federation has always been the most militant section of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. It is recorded that one well- known miners' leader said, South Wales al- ways leads the way and other coalfields follow like lambs to the slaughter." The very fact that the South Wales Miners' Federation assists in the management and upkeep of a college at which Marxian ideas are disseminated and helps in the conduct of classes which propagate inde- pendent working-class education adds to its revo- lutionary reputation. These classes have pro- duced men who will go down to posterity branded with the name of revolutionaries. Mr. A. J. Cook, the present secretary of the Miners' Fed- eration of Great Britain, is a good instance.