Talking Success

Backed to the wall, with their belts pulled up to the last notch, Britons had really buckled down to work. Last week the results were beginning to show. "Start Talking Success!" the News Chronicle sloganed a column of good news, and there was plenty to talk about.

In Wales, Coal Miner Edward Green-slade had set a record by cutting 145 tons of coal at the rate of 25 tons a shift, only to be beaten by Miner Edward Maybank, who cut an average of 25 3/4 tons a shift. The individual efforts of many another miner had swelled Britain's weekly coal production to 4,298,700 tons, the highest since August 1940. (Low point: 1,587,700 tons in August 1943). The mine modernization program was still too young to show big results, but it promised even higher production figures for the future. In Lancashire, miners chalked the promise on a coal tub: "If we'd better drillers and better cable, we'd have better figures than Betty Grable!"

Total British exports were up 20% over the 1938 average. Steel production, at an annual rate of 14,174,000 tons, was higher than in any previous November on record. A Nottinghamshire shawl-making firm using century-old handlooms had increased its export production by 150%. "We just decided to work longer hours to make more shawls," explained 76-year-old ex-Miner Johnny Lester. And thanks to the efforts of others like Johnny, national production of cotton and rayon yarns has risen higher (17,940,000 pounds in one week) than at any time since the war.

Britain's economy was still shaky, with perils ahead as great as any it had overcome. The will to work, however, was there; if production held through the winter, Britain might see its most hopeful spring in many a year.

"Some critics" said Ernie Bevin, ". . . say we are an old country and going downhill. [But] we think of ourselves as a young, vigorous and forward-looking country, with our best days still ahead. . . . The whole nation has accepted the fact that while they fought to maintain their liberties, they must now maintain their independence by hard work."

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