OUT OF WORK.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2132, 3 November 1875, Page 2

OUT OF WORK.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sic, —"You have had a great deal of space taken up lately in your widelycirculated journal on the above subject, but I trust that you will oblige by inserting the following, as I a# sure yqu to some extent sympathise with the unemployed. "Your correspondent signing himself "A Miner," from the style in which he writes, is evidently one of those lucky ones who can always command work in many of the mines on this field, and therefore cannot sympathise with the poor unemployed here at the present time. He in one sense resembles a person who has always enjoyed good health, and as such could in only a slight degree comprehend the sufferings of the afflicted. However, with regard to "Nil I Desperandum" wanting the managers to ' employ more men at a reduced rate of wages, I cannot at all see his reason in that, as I do not believe, supposing the wages were lowered, there would be much difference made in tlio number employed, and perhaps none at all. Instead of I bringing down the wages of the hard working miner, I rather think that they need a rise. Take, for instance, the highest rate of wages given, namely, £2 8s per week (that is for ordinary miners), and being out of work nearly half their time, with a family to support, I ask—how can a man bring up his children any ways decent ? There are two more points in •' A Miner's" letter to which I must refer, and the first is this:—"lt's only live horse and you'll get grass." L cannot see the force of this sentence. Just imagine a large number of horses (and the majority of them hobbled) dependiDgupon the grass to be had from a limited area of ground, and a severe drought ensues, what must be the consequence ?—semi-starvation. On that I need say no more. The second point, which-is contained in the last part of this letter, seems more stupid still, and amounts simply to this : the best course the unemployed can pursue is to provide work for the unemployed. What logic ! Why it is undoubtedly the unemployed who are sympathising with each other, and in conclusion I would ask how (in common sense) can one find another what he himself, wants, and is unable to obtain ?—I am, &c, Sympathy.