NOT ATTRACTIVE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 August 1942, Page 2

NOT ATTRACTIVE

COALMINING OCCUPATION OBSERVATIONS IN BRITAIN The “Lancet” (the British Medical Jourmil) from the medical point of view bluntly deals with the miners’ problem. More coal is required, but the miners also require consideration, and something must be done to face the facts and the situation. The “Lancet” says:— Coal is one of the greatest of our national assets, and coal-mining a necessity. But from the point of view of health and amenity coal-mining is not a particularly attractive job for the average worker. Its physical demands are heavy; reasonable feeding during the working shift is difficult; its whole environment is dull and noisy, the atmosphere often an unhappy mixture of dust and damp charged with the noise of increasing mechanisation; the risk of accident is much greater than at other trades, and the housing of its workers still too often bad. Mining has in the past made many men old before their time, and its wages have not always been commensurate with its hazards. A good deal lias been done to improve working conditions in the last few years. The administration of the Coal Mine Acts has been tightened up, and the work of the Miners’ Welfare Committee, an organisation unique in British industry, has done much to improve conditions at the pit-head and in the communal life of mining villages. It has also made possible the provision of educational and recreational facilities and of some convalescent homes, and has initiated research on the many problems of the industry. Yet when all that has been said the fact remains that coal-mining is finding it increasingly difficult to get and keep the power it requires. It has been found necessary to prevent men from leaving the pits to take up other work. The recent debate in the House of Commons on mining provided much food for thought for those interested in social welfare. One member spoke of a youth charter for the pits. Young people no longer flock to work in the industry. In the old days children in mining villages, as they left school, passed more or less automatically to work in the mines. Higher education was not yet, transport facilities were not developed, there was no other work available, and anyhow wages for youngsters entering the industry were relatively goodf-but the job was too often a dead end from which escape be £ ame P ro £ressively less possible. Times have changed, and who can blame the miners and their children for looking for careers further afield? Neither the industry nor the State can ever hope to conscript recruits for any kind of work unless it is clearly established that the work is essential to the true interests of the nation as a whole. It is doubtful even yet whether the approach to questions of production is always along these lines, and with the return of peace the mining industry will certainly not be able to get the flow of recruits it desires unless conditions of work and living are made much more attractive. The medical supervision of young entrants to the mining industry should clearly be no less searching than that of young entrants to factory work, but the time is ripe for the industry as a whole—admittedly conservative—the Miners’ Welfare Committee, and, it may be. the State to review the entire position from the point of view of health and efficiency.