Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-05-12
AROUND THE COLLIERIES.
NOTES AND COMMENTS ON CONDl-
TlONS AT THE MINES.
Outside Help Is Getting Scarce at Some
Breakers-Young Men Are Rapidly De-
serting the Coal Restrictions
Are Affecting This Town.

Breakers-Young Men Are Rapidly De-
serting the Coal lds-Restrictions
Are Affecting This Town.
So great has the number of people
grown who have left these parts within
the past month that some coal com
panes have suddenly found themselves
confronted with scarcity of help in
several departments. This is especially
true in regard TO outside handS-men
who work about the breakers and help
to rush the coal through these great
cleaning structures. "Platform men. ="
the term applied to those who work
around the tops, are already so scarce
that Markle & Co. are unable to work
their three breakers on the same day
The outside help has decreased to such
an extent that the men at Oakdale and
Highland must be concentrated at Jeddo
breaker when it works, and when Oak
dale and Highland collieries are in
operation Jeddo must contribute to the
breaker forces Of these places.
Platform work has for years been
performed almost exclusively by Hun
garians. 1t does not require any special
skill, but it is unceasing from the time
coal begins to be hoiSted until the ma
chinery stops, its hard and laborious and
the pay is mcagre. These conditions.
wi h one or two days of work each
week, cannot hold men here who can
get away, and the consequence is that
such work is stunned
The miners employed by this company
also complain bitterly of the way
they are rushed when the colicrics
work. After week or more of idleness
the mines are run for day at a rate
which causes some of the strongest men
to drop from sheer exhaustion. Those
who fail to load the required number of
the monster cars are rcprimandcd by the
understrappers, who have their orders to
send out designated amount of coal
each working day.
The idea seems to be to save as much
as possible on the time of the drivers.
company men, breaker hands and Others
who are paid by the hour. BY sending
out two days coal in ten hours the cost
of production to the operators is reduced
nearly 80 per cent, but the employees pay
the penalty of this saving by earning
less and sacrificing their health.
This slavish and inhuman policy is
causing the young men of the vicinity
to desert the mines at rate which will
soon leave but few to become victims to
the god of avarice. The young men
realize the fact that brief time at such
work will break them down physically
as well as financially, and their resolve
to seek other fields of labor while a
misfortune to the community, will un-
doubtedly be benefit to then selves.
At present the demand for aboring men
Is not great anywhere, but the Freeland
boys who are fleeing from the coal fields
will surely find employers somewhe e
who will nC1 demand. besides an honest
days toll, a pound of flesh in exchange
for every dollar paid their workers.
The suspension of a large number of
Freeland men by the Upper Lehigh
Company has had a depressing effect
upon this town. The justice of giving
preference in the work to those who
reside in the company's dwellings and
trade in the company's store cannot be
disputed, nevertheless the orders have
thrown out of employment several who
were faithful workers in Upper Lehigh
for many years. Since the partial re-
sumption at Sandy Run the same condi-
tions have prevailed, none of the Free
land men who worked there when the
mines closed having been re-employed.