South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 05 September 1942

Mr. Hall Speaks Out

None of the many speeches made by Mr. Joe Hall, the Yorkshire miners’ leader, in a career full of occasions for thus expressing himself can have been more apt and to the point than the address which he gave on Saturday at the opening of the Wath Main pithead canteen. As it happened Mr. Hall’s audience was composed largely of colliery pensioners but his reference to the coal production crisis now upon us will certainly be broiled abroad In South Yorkshire and much farther afield.

The speech had a good press in the national newspapers and the home truths to which he gave utterance will be discussed in every pit in Yorkshire.

Mr. Hall is a man who does not mince his words and he expressed himself as bluntly to his own men as he has often done on their behalf to the owner. His comparison of those who deny their duty in the mince to the detested Quislings now pandering to the Nazi will was plain speaking indeed.

Never since coal output became a national issue has absenteeism been so scathingly decried. When a man In Mr. Hall’s position, and with his specialised knowledge of his subject issues a call to the miners such us the urgent appeal he made on Saturday, it is time for the men to take note of the gravity of the situation which a serious shortage of coal might create. In the last few months they have made more real progress towards their avowed ideals of industrial status than they have previously achieved in years.

How much of this advancement can be retained depends almost entirely on the extent to which the nation’s cry for coal is answered. The miner are masters of their own destiny. They have a unique opportunity to make or mar it.