Durham Mining Museum - Newspaper Articles (original) (raw)

7th September 1922

The Whitehaven Disaster

Every one who has a spark of humanity in his composition will desire to contribute the silent association of his own feelings to the vote of condolence and sympathy which was passed yesterday at the Trades Union Congress with the relatives and friends of the men who have lost their lives in the Whitehaven pit disaster. So lamentable an accident once more brings home to all the dangerous nature of the coal miners' service ; and it was natural that Mr. Herbert Smith, president of the Miners' Federation, should have been moved, in acknowledging the vote, to quote figures relating to the loss of life and injury to limb which are occasioned among the working members of his trade. They are indeed heavy, and although a proportion of them, perhaps even a high proportion, when the risks inherent in coalmining are compared with those of other occupations, is inevitable, it behoves no one to assume that they are not susceptible of reduction. The same, however, can also be urged of accidents at sea and elsewhere ; though nothing as yet can be said of the cause of the present accident, there are always some which are not due to causes beyond human control, but to the fundamental fact that human beings are not machines, but are subject to weaknesses and defects to which well-maintained machines are not liable. Individually or in a corporate capacity, men may become, unless the discipline among them is of the highest order, too confident that nothing will go wrong ; and nothing does go wrong until the time of testing has arrived. In a coalmine the time of testing cannot but be of more frequent occurrence than on board ship, where the mistake of one may be retrieved by the action of others, and the worst result thereby avoided ; while underground the members in a shift depend much more for the safety of all on the vigilance of each. Coalmining bids fair always to be dangerous, but that is no reason why either those who are concerned in it, whether owners, managers, or men, or the public at large, whose state of conscience in these matters is not unimportant, should not insist on seeing that as many as possible of the causes of disaster are eliminated.