From the November 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard
The News Chronicle of September 30th contains an informative little paragraph regarding the explosion which took place last May in the Markham Colliery, near Chesterfield.
At this explosion seventy-nine miners lost their lives, and many of their bodies were unrecognizable when recovered.
The colliery is now about to be opened again, and the News Chronicle states that the Staveley Coal & Iron Company, who own it, made a gross profit of nearly three-quarters of a million pounds (£723,725 to be precise) for the year 1937-8, and that from this amount a sum of £225,156 has been deducted for depreciation and directors’ fees. A tax-free dividend of 11 per cent. for the year has been declared.
In the light of these figures, it seems curious that it should have been necessary to have opened a “public fund” for the relief of the dependents of the victims—with all the sanctimonious hypocrisy that usually accompanies such funds—the capitalist his cheque, and the poor widow “her last ten shillings.” It is, however, merely symptomatic of the callous selfishness with which the capitalist class generally treat those who make their profits for them.
R. M.
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