i873«] The Coal Famine. 149 



sooner than expose themselves to the disastrous consequences 

 of a general strike over a large mining district. For let us 

 enquire for a moment what are the consequences to both 

 parties in such a district, for instance, as that of South 

 Wales. To the employer it means loss of customers, 

 cessation of interest on capital invested in the mines, often 

 very large, deterioration of plant and machinery, the mines 

 becoming choked, or becoming filled with water in some 

 instances ; and, lastly, the spectacle — which to a man of 

 even ordinary humanity must be hard to endure — of destitu- 

 tion and misery around his own doors, or at least on his 

 own property. To the employed a strike means either a 

 miserable pittance doled out from some Union Fund, — 

 instead of abundant wages, — the exhaustion of the store 

 laid by for " a rainy day," or starvation itself. It means 

 idleness in place of industry, poverty instead of wealth, 

 degradation and demoralisation instead of self-respect. And 

 when all is over, when the war has been waged " to the 

 bitter end," the workman returns to his employment morally 

 and physically impaired ; and often, after the loss of a con- 

 siderable sum in hard cash, commences again with wages no 

 higher than those against which he struck. 



Mayhap the result of a strike is to annihilate some branch 

 of manufacture, or to drive it from the district ; and the 

 workman finds, when too late, that he has been taking 'the 

 bread out of the mouth of himself and his family. The 

 ship-building trade of London is a case in point; and in 

 South Wales, where iron-smelting was in some cases a 

 source of little or no profit to the employer, the result of the 

 recent strike has been to close, perhaps permanently, a 

 considerable number of iron-furnaces, whereby a large 

 number of men will lose their daily bread. 



If these views were more generally understood amongst 

 the mining population, and if they would exercise that inde- 

 pendence of thought and action which is the heritage of 

 every free man, strikes would become a thing of the past ; 

 men would work, and the price of each commodity would 

 find its own level according to the laws of political economy. 

 It is to be feared, however, that the mining population is in 

 a state as regards education which is not creditable to a 

 British subject. In some districts, both in Scotland and 

 England, the miners and their families are in a state of 

 gross ignorance, and so wretchedly housed that even decency 

 is out of the question. This may be due, in some measure, 

 to their improvident habits, for the wages they earn are suf- 

 ficient to provide them with much better accommodation. 



