The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-26
HOW LABOR Is PROTECTED.
THE pAuPeRs OF PENNSYLVANIA.
A PitiabIe Condition of Anairs-Natives
Driven Out by Foreign Pauper Work.
men-Slavery I'm the Mining Regions
"A notwithstanding Picture.

lGsnitzin PA Correspondence Philadelphia Record
The master workman of the local as
sembly OF the K. of L. at Gallitizin de-
clared to-day that it is a difficult matter
for miner in this region who has fam
lily to keep out of the poor-house, and said
that the figures collected for the past few
months of the net earnings OF the wage
workers in and about the mines here show
that they do not average 81 day. When
some one asked how the miners would be
affected by the November election the
master workman remarked: "They have
got us too low now to hurt us whichever
way it goes. The protected workmen here
could not earn less and keep body and
soul together" Each of the miners here
at Gallitzin is paid but forty cents gross
for ton of 1000 pounds. which, deduct
ing the miners expenses, will net but
about thirty-seven cents per ton The
rate paid in the other sections of the dis
trict is about forty-fve cents gross, or
forty-two cents net, for ton of 1000
pounds. Last year this was the average
rate for mining coal in this district.
In 1887, according to the official re-
ports furnished to the inspectors of the
mines, there were 3,34l, 3S1 tons of coal
mined by 4, 4S0 miners. These miners re-
ceived the gross sum of s., 502, 62l, from
which at least cents ton for expenses
must be deducted to exhibit their net
earnings, which amounted to 81, 403,3 $50,
or an average OF 1913 year. This is just
81 day. 1t is striking fact that in the
bituminous coal regions the laborers and
coke-drawers are better paid than the
miners who are in more danger in
the mines, and who do the skilled work.
In the Sixth district figures are at hand to
show that the average wages of the drfv-
ers and employees about the mines have
been S37 per month, when at the same
mines and in the same period a miners
wages were less than $40 a month. The
coke-drawers of the Sixth district earned
about Sll2, 900 in 1887, on a production of
774,529 tons OF coke.
Carefully gathered statistics from the
two largest collieries in this region for the
months of January, February and March
OF the present year, when the rate was 40
cents ton to the miners, show an average
of S29.0S earned, less an average expense
for powder, tool sharpening and oil of 81
per month, oranet average OF $27.0S. The
figures for May-since the reduction
from the same mines show an average of
1912, less net expense OF about one dol
lar and eighty cents a month. At the
mines in Huntington and Bedford coun-
ties, about the Broad Top coal fields, the
average earned by the miners in 1887 was
tritie above one dollar a day upon a
yearly reckoning. The miners in the sec
tons OF Cambria county, west OF this
place, averaged over three hundred and
twenty dollars year, but, taking the en-
tire district through, it will be found that
the detailed reports furnished from
the mines TO the statisticians of the X. of
L., based upon the actual cash receipts
and days worked, will not show an aver
age OF more than from 1910 to 1915 year
for the miners. Here, as in the Clearfield
and Beech Creek regions, the miner pays
an average house rent to the operator of 81
month. Such houses as rent for s. are
not worth over $500 in any instance. Hav-
ing taken s. for rent of his $50 OF earnings
for the month, the miner is left with s.
week upon which to maintain his family
When it is remembered thatnearly all the
operators IN this district run company
stores, in which the miner finds it to his
interest to deal II he wants to stand well
at the mines, and that the store account is
deducted from the pay at the mine, the
almost utter restitution OF the wage
worker is apparent.
The cheap pauper labor of Europe,
which has degraded the condition of the
workmen in the anthracite coal regions
and in the iron mills of Pennsylvania, has
Hooded the bltumlnOus coal country also,
and Is one OF the elements which enable
the operators of the coal fields in the
western counties to keep their employees
In subsection. There were enough and
more than enough, miners in the bitumin-
Gus coal fields in 1850 and 1881, when the
coal operators united and assisted the
Hungarians and Poles and other pauper
labor immigrants into the mines. OF the
total labor supply in the bituminous coal
country of this state at the present time,
about one-third is Hungarian, Polish and
cheap German. Some of the statisticians
Of the region place the population at one
half, but this is too large an estimate, as
shown by the figures gathered by the Rec
ord IN the two districts so far covered. In
eleven collieries about Phiilipsburg, Of the
800 men employed, 495 are Hungarians
The Hungarian laborer and miner lives on
from So to 8 month, house, board and
all, herding together in boarding houses,
where he pays for cooking and cot about
k1.50 month.
Mr.. EDWARD b. Mccormick, of Green's
burg, who contributes an article on Labor
in the Connellsville Coke Region" to the
report of the department of internal
affairs, thus truthfully describes this ele-
ment there, which is lair sample of the
entire soft-eoal country SIN their habits
OF life they are filthy. This is partly due
10 circumstances, but they seem to be
accustomed to it. The writer has seen a
dozen of them seated around table with
a soup-dish in the centre, each one forcing
his way in, something after the manner of
pigs at trough. They suspend the meat
from an upper window until it partly de-
compOses, and then partake OF it with a
relish. Many OF them are worthless, and
drink 10 excess compound of alcohol,
rain-water, brown sugar and fne-cut to-
bacco, which is said to be to them a
delicious draught, and is known in Hun
garian parlauce as 'polinki.'
Editor Kinsloe very forcibly described
the manner in which this element drives
the English-speaking miners to the wall
and affects the condition of labor in the
soft-coal country. 'There are Just enough
of Them" said he, 'to give the operators
the upper hand in their contests with the
miners. These men can live and save
money where the old miners would starve.
They can exist on S125 year, including
what they pay for clothing. If an oper-
ator has particularly hard place in his
mine, at which the English-speaking
miner will not work because he cannot
make wages enough at it to support him.
~ - = a -. Al.