The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-08-25
The Pennsylvania Mining Troubles.

truth lay NJ the bottom OF we'll, anC
Judging by theequivocal success that
results from many modern efforts to dis
cover it, it is lying there still. The recent
experience of New York Times CORES.
pondent sent to the Pennsylvania mining
regions to investigate the causes of the
strikes affords an excellent illustration
of the difficulty with which facts are
gathered. He found the miners he
visited living in wretched houses. One
of them told him:
THAT he had seldom made more than
eighteen dollars a month, and thought
that fifteen dollars would be nearer his
average His rent was four dollars, but
he paid it rregularly. All his supplies
were drawn from the truck store of the
company, which is n private corpora
ton, selling its coal at the breaker to the
Delaware, Lackawanna Il Western. He
was obliged to get his supplies at this
shop because he never could get cash for
his work. Since the strike no flour had
been served out, SO he could have no
bread. As with many other families
meat was luxury seldom enjoyed.
Clothes were bought scarcely oftencr
than to keep the family decently
covered. A child died last winter, and
charitable people in one of the city
churches had to furnish decent burial
for it, the mother being unable to get
money or credit for the expense. There
are men among the Welsh miners who
have lived in Hyde Park for many
years, whose circumstances have been
good but who are now sharing with the
meanest laborer in the hardships common
to all the population. One man, SOBER
frugal industrious, in twenty one years
had been able to accumulate little
property, which was now slipping from
his hands, and he was three hundred
dollars in debt. Yet he had practiced
economy so severe that no felon in II
prison but would have felt wronged If
he were compelled to live on his fare"
Such statements are pitiful, and calcu-
lated to move the sympathies of the
most Indifferent. Yet the employers tell
a different story. The writer says:
"In looking over the list of payments
to several miners who were picked out
at random, found that they had made
all sorts of wages, depending upon the
skill of the man, varying from thirty
seven up to seventy-six dollars per
month. Exceptional cases were found
where n man had earned as much as n
hundred dollars in month, besides his
help hire, and in the dull month of June
this man made fifty-three dollars. Men
who were employed to do day work in
the mines earned from eighteen to
twenty-eight and thirty-two dollars, the
average being about twenty-five dollars.
On the blast furnace helpers earned
about twenty-eight dollars, firemcn
about thirty-four dollars, and common
laborers from thirty-six to forty dollars.
The men in the iron mill who were
making about fifty dollars month were
the first to ask for the advance of
twenty-five per cent. The puddlers,
paid about one dollar and seventy-five
cents day, were getting abont thirty
six dollars month on an average. The
heaters of steel rails, men who are
skilled laborers, did very well. One
man, whom / selected at random from a
page of the ledger, was credited with
ninety dollars in March, one hum
bred and one dollars in April, seventy
seven dollars in May, and sixty-three
dollars in June. Helpers to the last
named class were averaging about fifty
dollars month. Boys we're employed
in various capacities as slate pickcrs and
in the foundries. These figures show
what the men have been earning as
represented by the company's books,
during several dull months when the
business was not good enough to warrant
pushing the foundries and blast furnaces
to their fullest capacity, but while there
was too much doing to permit the blasts
to chill or the rolling mills to stop"
1t was admitted that the men had had
their troubles, but these largely arose
from there being an excess of miners for
the work to be done. When the panic
of 1873 came, retrenchment was neces-
sary, and complaints of lack of en-
ploymentarosc, especially after the COM
pany adopted plan of working part of
its mines and regulating the supply of
coal somewhat by the demand. Yet we
are told:
"The company's prices of 1871 were
not changed at the time OF the 1873
panic. They remained high until
January, 1875, when there was general
reduction of ten per cent. In September,
| 1876, there was another reduction of ten
per cent, which the officers say was only
made because it was absolutely neces-
| sary. In March last third reduction
this time of fifteen per cent.-was
ordered, and the whole range of men
were then paid thirty-fve per cent. less
than they had received four years
previous. The books or payrolls of the
company show that the average OF
wages paid to the miners during last
month was about eighteen or nineteen
dollars. The effect of the reduction on
the various grades of workmen can be
ascertained by reference to a table Of
rates published two days ago in tho
Times. That rate was fixed because the
company felt that it could not continue
to pay the prices that had been paid be
fore. The company is not better pre-
pared to-make an advance than it was ,
year ago, and it is out of the question t.
/ suppose for moment that the order fo
reduction can be rescinded. If it haa
been possible to abandon several of thu
mines at once, they would have beer
closed long ago."
The above are very plain statement
on both sides, and are far from consisten
with each other. If an average can b.
struck between them the real condition
Of things may perhaps be fairly ascer
tanned.
| MAX ADELER: "Have the railroad
| IL 1x<.1 al l.x~. 81