"This Barren Land"

With the blackened stone houses lost in the darkness below, a single file of men tramped upward along a stony path. In sweet, mournful harmony they sang: "Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer, Pilgrim through this barren land. ..." For generations Welsh miners had gone to the pits singing the same hymn.

Last week, in the noisy, crowded House of Commons, miner M.P.s, collars open, hair ruffled, eyes red after two days of debate, raised their voices in the song they remembered at that hour: "Guide me ... Redeemer. . . ." Then they pushed into the "aye" lobby to vote for the nationalization of Britain's mines. They won, 359-to-182.

Burly Will Lawther, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, had set the tone for last week's debate: "How can you run an industry efficiently, if every miner loathes his work because of its owners; if every miner's wife swears 'her boy will not go down the pit'; if in every miner's home the pit is looked upon as an accursed thing?"

In the House of Commons, miner M.P. after miner M.P. rose to develop the Lawther theme. Tories who had fought the rising tide for years tried again to stem it. Laborite Hugh Dalton taunted them: "You haven't got your heart in it; there was no punch."

Labor's bill would not transform the barren land of British mining into a Utopia. Shafts would still be too narrow for modern machinery. Antiquated methods, deep tunnels, high accident rates would still plague the sick British industry. Bitter miners would continue slowdowns and flash strikes.

Already Labor's Minister of Fuel and Power, Emanuel Shinwell, onetime tailor, speaking for the new mine boss, the Government, had warned of "drastic action" against wildcat strikes. Said he to Scotland's pitmen: "Nationalization is not intended primarily to benefit the miner. There is the coal consumer to be considered, the interests of the nation, our export trade and all that. . . ."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.