The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-02
INSPECTORS REPORT
ON THE TWIN SHAFT.
General Outline Of It's Contents Has
Been Made Public.
INSPECTOR MCDONALD BLAMELESS.
He Could Not BE Expected to Know
OF the Squeeze, Says the Rcport..
Superintendent Lnngan is Cen.
sured for Risking His Own and the
Mems Lives..OperatOrs Cannot be
Held Responsible.

The substance of the report of the
three mine inspectors, Roderick, Stein
and Brennan, on the Twin shaft catas-
trophe has been published by the
Wilkes Barre Record. Officially the
report will not be made public until the
middle of the present month. The he
cord article is. in part as follows:
In the absence of proof that the opcr-
ators knew of the exact condition or
the mine during the squeeze the re-
sponsib!ity could no. be placed upon
them. however culpable they may have
been in allowing pillars or gansways to
be too small and irregular. Operators
entrust the mine to their employees, and
they are responsible for its safety dur
ing such sudden emergencies.
The report will come TO the conclusion
that Superintendent l.anSan unfortun-
ately one of the men entombed. erred
in Judgment in allowing the men to
work in the midst of the squeeze on
that fatal Sunday morning. He prob
ably thought il was only a local squeeze
and underesti timated the danger. but in
stead 1T involved acres upon acres.
Again the report will say that even
though there We're no squeeze 1t was
not safe to work in the mine on ar
count Of the dangerous bodies of gas
that suddenly appeared. The mine law
says a superintendent has full charge
of the mine and he is the only one sup
posed to be familiar with the details
of the workings.
COMPANY'S RESPONSIBILITY.
Whatever contributory negligence
there was on the part of the company
will be summed up in general way
and will have reference to the small
ness of the pillars and width of cham
Uers and gangwayS in certain parts
Of the mine. but these will not be ad-
Vanced as direct causes of this i'm
mense squeeze. The condition of the
strata and the wet weather will In all
probability he held mainly responsible
Tor that. Defects in the strata can
not always be ascertained and even
where pillars are left to the legal meas
urements such defects may cause dis
aSter.
The report will not censure Mine In
spector Mcdonald. The report will argue
that as Mr.. Mcdonald had over half
a hundred colleiies and OPENINGS to
look after ne could not be supposed to
NlSt tne mine every week or two The
inspector was ignorant of the squeeze
This part of the report is of vast inter
est to thousands of miners as many
supposed right along that INSPECTOR
MrDonal would be strongly censured
II not removed from the Office notwith-
Standing the fact that he knew moth
ing about the squeeze Th.v based
their opinions upon the conclusion that
an inspector is supposed to know all
ahout the mines AT all times however
many ne has IL look after in his dis
trict.
The points Of The report 50 far man.
Ilk-H n
tiotl OF the mine and it's pillars. cham
bers and gangways: theory of tha d.
rect IN the strata by dislocation. .
me superintendent erred in Judgment
III allowing the men to go down with
such a dangerous squec2e i'm progress
ana with such sudden appearance Of
gas. 5. The operators cannot be- held
responsible for the presence Of the men
there at that time. l. Mine Inspector
Mcdonald cannot be held responsible
because he was not informed of the
seriousness of the squeeze.
MORE INSPECTORS NEEDED.
one recommendation the report will
make will be that either the number of
inspectors be increased or that there be
assistants. There are now only eight
inspectors in the entire anthracite dis
trict with its hundreds of mines and
breakers. some OF them DelnS in charge
of as high as sixty mines. With such
a list the inspector cannot properly do
his duty. In order to examine a mine
with reasonable thoroughncss an in
spectOr should spend day in 1t. Now
IL he has sixty mines in his district he
would have to spend every day i'm the
year i'm the mines. counting Sundays
and holidays, in order to examine
them once a month, not counting an
examination of the breakers. This
would leave him no time for attending
inQuests. making out his reports or de-
voting more attention 10 Il particular
mine where conditions require ii. And
vet mines are SO intricate and ever
changing that monthly visits should
he made. Then as the years go on and
the mines becomes deeper and more eX-
tensive the work of the inspector and
the responsibility devolvine upon him
increases and nearly all Of the inspec-
tors find themselves unable to cope
with their duties.
The second recommendation or rather
suggest tion to be made will be that op-
orators confer with the mine inspectors
with reference to the manner of work
ing the mines. VI an operator has
new idea about driving tunnels. gang
ayS. slopes or removing pillars, etc.