The Topeka state journal., 1897-07-16
MEN OR BEASTS.
The Line is Indistinctly Drawn
at DillOnVale,
I'm the Coal Mining Region OF
West Virginia.
HOW THE MINERS LIVE
They Eat and Sleep in DrOVes
Like Swine.
Fen Men in a Room Fourteen
Feet Square.
Horrors of the Situation Sell
dom EQualed.
THE MINERS LIVE

New York, July 16.-sylvester scovel
writes from DillonvaIe in the coal mining
region of West Virginia to The World as
follows:
There is a distressing state of poverty
here. If the strike continues it will be
worse For the past year the miners of
this district have had neither work nor
wages sufficient to support life in decen-
cy. All connected with the industry know
it. Many are honest and admit it. This
place is not poverty-stricken, as most of
the griny mining towns in Ohio are. In
fact, from the 1897 miners point of view,
it is fairly prosperous. Yet honest inves-
tigation plainly proves that English
speaking men, to keep out of debt, or
even to keep alive, must eat scanty, poor
food and occupy scantier, poorer quar-
tets.
No wonder. then, the men of 'DiIlon No.
2' read unmoved the companys invita-
tion to return to work, even under the
protecting wing of a large number of
necessary United States marshalS.
One steady-eyed, earnest miner said:
why should we return to work and
dercut the strike?-Pittsburg men would
then starve on De Armitt's 54-cent rate,
while we starved on 9 cents less. 1t is
only a little hog meat and flour we get
now at 81 cents a ton. God only knows
what it will be at 40 cents, with a 5-foot
vein of coal and three days work week.
Operators themselves frankly admit that
at the tonnage mined even the present
rate-51 cents-is too low"
weIl-informed company official
knowledged: No, I cannot understand
how miners manage to live
He had just found that the books show
ed a total of lis days actual operation of
the mine during the twelve months up to
July l, 1897. This means that the average
miner received for the years work $176.
Not man able to work missed a single
days run and yet for food, shelter, fuel,
clothing. not mentioning medicines
comforts, he has received just 4Sh cents
a day.
The last twelve months has sunk most
of the English-speaking men heavily in
debt. A few have vegetable gardens to
lessen the food bills other means of
making money.
The men who are depending upon min
ing alone for livelihood have stretched
4S1k cents to cover wants and have had
to feed coarsely in droves and herd to-
gether at night. The foreign-born men
alone can and will do this.
OF 600 men employed hereabout, 200 are
English-speaking. About half come from
Great Britain The others are native
born. These are the best workmen and
make the highest wages. but they are
Just the ones who are in debt.
Credit is not often extended except to
English-speaking men The books of
grocery stores, butcher shops and pro-
fessional men here show that the miners
have run into debt over $1,000 during the
year ending July 1.
This means that almost every miner to
whom credit is extended is today $50 in
debt. This is more than one-third more
than the average monthly wage during
T~~rA 1n
his total earnings for the whole twelve
months, even allowing the fact that
credit men, being the better miners,
earned SO cents daily for a year, or 612
cents more than the average.
The English-speaking miners here are
almost universally sober and frugal men.
Their condition is not the result of fancy
groceries expensive canned goods. Par
lor organs are very scarce in DilIonvale.
There are indications of ill-advised
spending of money. Nor has any pay gone
back into the employers pocket through
the big profits of the company store"
There Is none here and the independent
stores sell cheaply. The best flour is "a
cents a pound; pork, cents; bacon.
centS; coffee, 121z cents. Other supplies
cost in proportion.
Merchants say they will be forced to
suspend all credit within three or four
weeks if the strike lasts. There is some
destitution here now, barely ten days
since the shutdown. Few have any
means of earning money at other labor.
Fewer have a cent saved in money. If
the strike outlasts the store credit there
will be great distress and sure trouble
The better class of miners are the ones
to suffer first. The 400 foreigners have
not severely felt the years inactivity, and
most have money ahead. Some few of
the more intelligent married men attempt
ed to live decently in separate houses, but
they are in exactly the condition now as
all who have attempted the same thing
badly indebted.
But 80 per cent of the foreigners live so
cheaply to save money even on star
walton wages. They do not dig on an
average more than two and a half tons
daily. They are not skilled. Many have
to "go under the hil1'' at 4 O. clock in the
morning and work until o'clock at night
to mine even that, and the pay doesn't
average more than $1.15 each long work
ing day.
The past year averaged just ss cents
daily, yet the pittance gives them a
coarse abundance that would have been
luxury in their fatherlands.
The squire of DilIonvale says: Them
foreigners eat what we won't touch.''
Personal sampling of a Bohemian
boarding houses kitchen kettles proved
he about right. Meat and bread arr
almost the sole, articles of diet. The meat
good when delivered, is spoiled in hand
ling. The soup kettle is always boiling.
1t is seldom cleaned. the leavings each
day serving as the foundation for the
next days rassout.
Meats of all dates and conditions, with