The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-03-09

might be engaged IN the survey OF cO@l
mines. They are each OF them empowered
to call in the services Of an experienced
miner to aid him in his inspection. Here
we may count on 50 per diem more, making
80 per day. Now, is it not fair to presume
that these men will be employed, in the
aggregate, a greater number Of days in the
year than would be one man, and conse-
quently the expense of sustaining them
will be greater. This is clear to me, and
moreover, what kind of inspector shall we
have feel safe, | think, when state
there is not one county surveyor in every
fifty, take the whole State over, who has
got the first qualification TO fit him for an
inspector of coal mines. 1t is no part of
his business to know anything about coal
mining, either in theory or in practice, and
hence is to-day incapable Of doing any
thing by way of inspecting q coal mine.
The Legislature of Illinois would have dis
charged their duty more faithfully to the
people had they returned 70 them and
frankly confessed their inability TO grasp
the subject and make law which would
cover the case Of the coal miner, in conso-
nance with the constitutional requirement
enioining them tomake such Law, because
they have failed, miserably failed to fill the
bill
Inspection means something more than
the mere going to a mine looking around;
going down and making plan of the mine
1t means the possession of thorough
knowledge Of the science by the Inspector
in the first place. That knowledge which
experience alone can impart, Of being able
to tell at glance, in every department Of
the business, whether it be in looking at the
top gear and ixings the wood work sur
rounding the mine; the condition Of the
shaft itself the state Of the ventilation
the amount there is passing and the
amount there should he going through the
working rooms according to the area
through which it has to pass in mine ex
aiming the main roads, the air courses, the
upcast or downcast, and be able, when he
asserts that any part of these is unsafe, to
explain why 50, and the remedy to apply.
The different methods Of ventilation and II
I operating mines he should be perfectly ia
miliar with, and the most approved he
should recommend and endeavor to- have
established at every colliery. These all
come within the scope Of what an Inspec-
tor should know to enable him faithfully 70
discharge his duties as such. He does not
need 10 be aman void alike Of common sense
and knowledge; he don't require 10 he a
pirate bouncing upon the rights If individ
ual operators. nor yet does he need To he de
relict in his duty in having the provisions
of the bill fairly executed that the object
might be accomplished for which II was
passed, PROTECTION To THE MINER OIr
y operators have in the House of Represen-
tatives at Springfield, set him up as a soul
less being, whose only course would lie the
declaring of their business. and entirely in
the interest of the miners. This If course
is a mistake by thouse who seriously believe
it. and part Of the tactics Of those whose
interest 1t is to stave of any action Of the
Legislature on the subject, or destroy its
efficiency when acted on. Now these quail
tiles, which it will be admitted only ex-
ceptional members Of our County Survey
ors possess, and are therefore utterly inca
pacitated from acting as Inspectors #
Mines
will now turn to the Escapement Shaft
question. The amendment gives zone year
Z for every hundred feet required t. be sunk
\ in finding coal, to construct second shaft. "
This not only applies 10 all shafts now in
I operation, but all that hereafter may he
constructed. Is it not monstrous t. think
Here is a bill the most unjust in its whole
| operation, | have ever known, about to re
ceive the assent Of a body ii intelligent
men and become law All men know. who
know anything about coal mining. that the
z deeper a shaft be, the greater and more nu-
merous are the dangers connected with it,
I Intuition, itself would lead man to know
this, and yet our Illinois Legislature pro
! poses to make an owner If mine one hun
bred feet deep provide a second shaft with
in one year, and gives the owner II one
/ FIVE hundred feet deep, with multiplied
Z dangers, five years to construct one mon
strous and yet not one word raised against
1t by the small mine owners Have not all
the arguments If the mine owners and
their friends in opposing this bill been to
the effect that Our miner were not vet
deep enough it is too soon yet to place
such restrictions upon the operations of
capital wait till we require to go down as
/ deep in search Of coal as they do in Eng
land and elsewhere wait till we have the
horrifying disasters which have occurred
there and shocked the civilized world, be-
| fore we make such stringent laws; let us
have our AvOndales and Pittstons III Hi
nois ere we act, then will be time enough.
eve have no fire damps in Illinois, said
member of the House in my hearing not
outstanding two men were blown to atoms
by an explosion at Scranton the same or
preceding such has been the tenor Of the
arguments against this bill, and they give
the deep shafts these special privileges over
the shallow ones. On the same principle.
had we shaft in this State one thousand
feet deep. which, it must be evident to all.
would be more dangerous, than one one
hundred feet-the owners Of this shaft
| could work away untrammelled by the Law
for ten years, while the other is required to
conform to all its provisions in one year
Talk about special legislation. II this
be not special legislation Of the most IA
grant description, then don't understand
anything about its meaning These same
men, too, who are having these privileges
conferred on them, have been the loudest
in their denunciation of the miners for
having the hardihood to come before that
House and ask for special protection over
other men engaged in hazardous occupa-
tions. These men do not amount to more
than half a dozen, and we were very will
ing to let the matter be, AZ the bill had it
giving them the special right, because Of
the poor mouths they made, but we can
not give our assent to such an unwarrant-
able section as the extension to those
which may hereafter be constructed" 1t
might have been an injury to those who are
now operating coal mines to have been COM
PEELED, at once, to sink an ''escapement
shaft" But it could not be construed into
an injustice to those who have not yet com