Evening star., 1947-11-09

been working the full five days because ID the work
was so hard they had rarely worked five days BEFORE
(2) the weather has been fine for holidays 90 money
can be made on the outside without paying in
come tax and "a there is little to buy with the extra
money. .5
In the old days when miners wages were so shinings
($10) week and there was mass unemployment IN the
mining regions fear of unemployment and OF starva-
ton was the spur work. With that spur gone ths
carrot of higher wages is not bringing new men into
the industry or causing to produce more So far
the theological appeals such Work or Want have
not Influenced the miner He has not yet realized that
unless he produces more he eventually will personally
suffer The abstract Idea is too for him to grasp.
Nylons Would Do Job
Traditionally the average miner Is an improV1dent
fellow although there notable exceptions Ihere
story in the mining regions, perhaps apocrypha but
illustrative:
An old miner was asked WHY he invariably worked
four days a week and then stopped His answer was.
You see, I've found that can't quite make enough TO
live in three days
Under the rationng system for fooc and clothes MS
average weekly is enough for bare essentials sucn
as rent-about So week in substantial nome ana
food and semnecessties like beer tobacco and bet on
the horses dogs or the football pool The prices OF
unrationed goods, plus the purchase taxes, are OUT
rageously high wnen they can Ie had
One mine manager said however, that II he could
get hundred fur coats and thousand pairs OF nylon
Stockings to put up as lure to the miners wives ne
would not worry about absenteeism. The wives would
see that the husbands worked.
Why doesn't the government and the Coal Board
flood the mining towns with medium-pr1ced consumer
goods? Because there aren't many and Will be less
under the production -for-export program. In the
States many of the mining communities Isolated;
here Commute bus ride will take a miner and his
family fairly large town and It's attractions some
consumer goods have been put into the mining towns
but have not produced results.
;anL Irtuo pau3
miners and agricultural workers have been given the
highest priority 1t will take years before these houses
can be an attraction The present houses are IN many
instances far superior to the general run-of-mlns
homes in The United States and the rent Is mucn
cheaper.
Liked American Method
The actual working conditions in the poor mine
we're not greatly different from those in the good
mine The equipment was much older and the surface
layout was much more inefficient. At the pthead
saw four workers. who get $18 a week. watching TO
see that the little coal cars were properly snunted
around two curves an uneven track. asked why
the rails had not been properly graded so one man
could do the job.
The manager replied that no rails were avail
able In the old days thought just as profitable
to pay the four men about SO week as to make the
improvement
This manager a bright man of about 40 had just
returned from month inspection of American
with daily production of 5000 tons, there were only
three workmen at the pithead
Here" he said, the production is only TOO tons
q day. vet we have 80 at the pithead. What I
want to see is pthead where everything Is con-
troed by a couple of men working pushbuttons. But
that time is far off,
In the long pull. the success of naturalization
will depend great deal the intelligence and EN-
cheney of the mine managers and engineers Brtisners
are reluctant to tell their personal politics to
foreigner I gather however, that the higher techn-
clans talked with were not members of the Labor
party Yet as technicians, they welcomed the oppor'
tunities that broad planning is giving them. Ths
young manager of the poor mine and the divisional
production engineer, a much older man, were both
enthusiastic over shallow drift or semistrp mine
they we're starting few miles away American ma
chinery was being used this project, but since
it had gone down only hundred feet 1t was impossible
| to see how this venture would come out. When IN
operation it will produce 500 tons day with ABOUT
| 100 men on the Job. The work will be much more
mechanized and much easier. The engineers did not
/ (see BRANDT, Page c-5)