The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-08
SLAVES IN COAL MINES
STARVATION DRIVES DIGGERS TO
ACCEPT CUT WITHOUT STRIKE.
In Fifteen Years American Miners
Imported Labor the Cause.


Special to the indianapolis Journal.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind, May THE ac-
ceptance of a reduction in the price of min
ing from 20 to 81 cents by the block coal
miners this week closes a new chapter in
the story of the steadily lowering of prices
in the coal industry of the country. Re-
Gently the bituminous miners of the State,
in convention in this city, also accepted
reduction. For the first time in some
years the men feel that the reduction in
wages is not altogether part of a plan
of the operators to enrich themselves.
While they think that the operators could
do q little better by them if they, the OPP
orators, really wanted to- still they realize
that the mining industry is down to a basis
of bare existence. Never before at a min
ers convention was this fact understood
as plainly as at the recent convention of
the United Mine Workers of this State,
National Vice President Kane, who was
present, told the delegates that the stua-
ton of the industry was worse than ever
before. He said that not less than 100000
men, whose trade is that of mining coal,
cannot possibly make d living at that
trade. In fifteen years the price for min
ing coal in Indiana has fallen 40 per cent.
The price for block coal, which has just
been fixed at 81 cents, was ST. and for BIZ
luminous coal, which is now AZ and %
cents, was So cents, the old differential be-
tween the two qualities of coal having
been 10 cents President W. G.. Knight, OF
the Indiana district of the United Mine
Workers, who is one of the most intelligent
of labor leaders, says:
WITHOUT A STRIKE.
1.-The reduction in the price of mining
made at the recent joint convention was
notable for the fact that it was the trst
instance in many years that the miners &C
cepted a reduction without a strike and yet
the reduction was by no means small
one, being 10 per cent. of their gross earn
ings. Their quiet acceptance of this heavy
cut in their scanty wages shows that they
thoroughly understand the present deplOr-
able condition of the coal industry. Inere
is perhaps no calling whose conditions nave
changed so greatly within the past thlrty
years as that OF coal mining. The time
was when the American miner was the
best paid workman in the country In
speech made by Mr.. Blaine in congress
during the war he said that some miners IN
Pennsylvania were earning $400 a month
Statistics show that the average earnings
of Indiana miners in 1895 for the Whole
year was 1901 and since that Illhe tneir
wages have been reduced about Is per cent
The causes for so great cnange are many.
In the first place, during ana Tor num-
Der of wears before the war there was d
great demand for coal and at that time the
mining industry was in its INFANCY. Prev
iouS to this period there had been compare
lively little coal produced and we had put
few miners. When the great demand came
for coal the country was unable 10 supply
enough practical miners to produce IT, 90
wages went up and of course with the
higher wages men flocked into the mines
and learned to dig coal. These times could
not last After while the rallroaqS n laa
h,ti1t nd 10 wasted
war were restored and the demand FOR coal
while great did not keep pace with the
wages began to do down. They have been
steadily falling ever since; there has been
no interruption of this tendency, even Tor
a year or two. Higher wages than pald the
previous year have not be secured, or IL so,
Still, strange as it may seem, notwith-
standing the fact that wages are actually
below the living basis, the NUMBER OF
miners is greater than ever FOR every
one that is starved out two more are Fe sod
to take his place. There are several rea-
sons for this. In the first place, modern
machinery has worked a great change. In
the old days of hand mining none put
skilled workmen could make living under
the ground, but the invention OF mining
machinery gives work to great NUMBER OF
men whose only requirement is strong
back and weak brains. The man VINO
works on the farm in the summer and digs
bitches, in the same season, DRIFTS into the
mine in the winter, content II he make o0
cents a day until summer comes again.
Then. too. the hard times of the past four
years have been against the miner, both in
decreasing the demand for coal and in in
creasing the number of idle men or other
callings that have gone into the mines to
keep from actual starvation.
THE IMPORTED EVIL.
But perhaps the greatest evil with which
the miner is confronted is the tide of immi-
grafton from southern Europe that has SO
strongly set toward America of late years.
Twenty years ago our mining population
was practically all either American or
British, but to-day there are mining camps
in Pennsylvania where not one in ten can
speak the English language. OF the Ital-
ians who land in this country it is esti-
mated that one-half eventually find their
way into the mines, and these men in some
places earning only from So to 81 every
two weeks, manage to live on it, and be-
sides send a part back to Italy. These are
some of the causes that have brought the
ton, and he is now asking himself if there
is anything that can change matters for
the better The answer is not an easy one
Probably the American miner will never
again earn good wages. Prosperous times
would help him some, but there are far 100
many miners for all to find work, even in
mines for other callings it would
help those who remained, but the
trouble is that every other trade is
also overcrowded. A good immigration bill
would be partial relief. Of the Italians
who come into the mines so per cent. cannot
read or write. and the feelings of the miner
when he read Cleyeland's disgraceful veto
of the bill passed by the last Congress can
better be imagined than described. If the
miners would organize strongly enough so
that they could reduce their hours of labor
it also would give some relief.
Senator Elkins is reported to have said
in a recent interview that the American
miners wages are comparatively too high
The senator is not generally credited with
being an enemy of labor, but in the present
instance he evidently does not know what
he is talking about. The Coal Trade for
1896, prepared by Frederick e. Seward. an
accepted authority, gives the following fig
ures: The average value of coal at the
mines for 1894 was as follows: In France
81 As; in Belgium $1.75 in Great Britain
s1.60; in Germany, $.60; in the United
States, 80 cents In view of these facts,
how much lower does Senator Elkins desire
the American miner to come down 1t is
an undisputed fact that the English miner
to-day is far better paid and earns more
during the year and works fewer hours
than his American cousin. These are some
of the facts relating TO the coal industry in
the United States, and whoever can propose
d practical plan to improve it will confer
a great blessing upon both miner and OPP
orator"