Make Yourselves at Home

Half of Britain's economic troubles would be solved if only its miners would dig 10% more coal.

The coal pits are undermanned, but 20,000 of Italy's unemployed are ready & willing to make up the difference. As a start, the late Labor government imported 2,200 Italians, paid their fares, spent additional thousands teaching them coal mining and English, housed them, gave them contracts for two years of work.

In some places, British miners grudgingly accepted the first few hundred Italians, but 111 of 159 miners' labor lodges voted against accepting them at all. Mostly the miners, whose depression memories are still green, were afraid that if hard times came, the Italians would be competing for their jobs. Besides, in times of danger when teamwork is essential, the Italians might not understand orders. The British miners had other objections. "The reasons are stupid," said one mine union official. "Some of our men say the Italians smell--they eat garlic. Others say that they are just ice-cream merchants. Some don't like the Italians because they don't speak our language."

The miners' grumbles grew into talk of work stoppages and even the threat of a nationwide strike. Last week, the government gave up. The National Coal Board told a thousand unplaced Italians that they would have to find other jobs or go home. Having already spent about $420,000 on them, the government reckoned ruefully that it may cost another $1,400,000 to settle their contracts and ship them back to Italy.

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