The point is that, whilst this excitement over games grows greater and greater, the country is suffering, say the economists, from under-production and the inflation of the wage-bill.  This means that everyone is trying to do less work and get more money for it, a very natural ambition which nobody can blame the miners from sharing.  I suppose that if they all stopped mining and we had to depend for warmth on wrapping ourselves up in moleskins, the molliers, or whatever they are called, would strike for a two-shillings rise as well.

The worst of it is that under-production, say the economists again (there is no keeping anything from these smart lads), sends prices up.  Obviously then there is only one thing to do:  we must take advantage of the prevailing passion and make mining (and other industries too for that matter) a form of sport.  The daily papers should find very little difficulty in doing this.

  WHO HEWS HARDEST? 
  CLAIM BY A LANARKSHIRE COLLIER

would do very well for the headings of a preliminary article; and the claim of the Lanarkshire collier would, I am sure, be instantly challenged.  After a few letters we might have a suggestion, say from Wales, that no team of eleven miners could hew so hard and so much as a Welsh one.  And from that it would be only a short step to the formation of district league competitions and an international championship.  Or the old-time system under which cricketers were matched for a stake by sporting patrons might be revived, and we should have headlines in the evening Press after this fashion:—­

  HUGE HEWING CONTEST.
  NOTTS FOREST v.  NEWCASTLE UNITED.
  TREMENDOUS WAGER BETWEEN
  THE DUKES OF PORTLAND AND
  NORTHUMBERLAND

and all the glades of Sherwood and the banks where the wild Tyne flows would be glad.

It will be objected, of course, that the hewing of coal is not a spectacular affair.  You cannot pack sixty thousand spectators into a mine to watch a hewing match, and even if you could the lighting is bad; but that is just where the skill of the reporters would come in.  After all, we do not most of us see the races on which we bet, nor the Golf Championship, nor even BECKETT and WELLS.  But there would be articles on the correct swing whilst hewing, and the proper stance, and how far the toes should be turned in; the chances of every team would be discussed; the current odds would be quoted, and, whoever won, the consumer would score, whilst the strongest hewers would become popular heroes and be photographed on the back-page standing beside their hews.

I admit that the South of England and London in particular would have very little share in these competitions, and we should depend for local interest mainly upon the promising young colts from the Kentish nurseries.  But we could find out from our dealers where our coals came from and follow from afar the fortunes of our adopted teams; and Cabinet Ministers, at any rate, could distribute their patronage and their presence with tact over the various areas involved.