§ 83. Mr. WARDLAW-MILNEasked the Secretary for Mines what are the comparative figures in 1913 and 1924 respectively, of the output of coal per man employed in the United Kingdom and the United States; and to what extent the difference can be attributed to the working of thick or surface seams in the United States?
§ Colonel LANE-FOXThe output of coal in this country was 264 tons per worker in 1913, and about 224 tons in 1924. In the bituminous coal mines of the United States of America the corresponding figures were 747 tons in 1913, and 717 tons in 1923, the latest year for which particulars are available. The greater 252 average thickness of the American seams and their lesser average depth undoubtedly play a very large part in the explanation of this difference, but I have no means of estimating its importance in figures.