The Topeka state journal., 1902-11-20
One Witness Before the Anthra-
cite Arbitration Commission
Presents Some Figures on the
Hazard of Mining.
MORE LIVES ARE LOST
Among Miners Than Among
Employees of Railroads
When Reckoning Is Made on a
Percentage Basis.

Scranton, Pa, Nov. 20-When today's
session of the strike commission began
Rev. DR.. Peter Roberts was put on the
stand again. When the commission ad-
journed yesterday ex-Congressman
Simon P. Wolverton. counsel for the
Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron
company. was cross-examining DR.. Rob-
erts- Answering a question propounded
by Judge Gray yesterday, DIR. Roberts
said today that a comparison of fatah-
ties all railroads in the United
States with those in the anthracite fields
show that 2.5 per 1000 railroad employees
are killed annually, while 35 per 1000
employees were killed in the anthracite
industry. The fatalities. switchmen
flagmen and watchmen. in 19O0 he stat
ed to be 5.3 per 1000, as against 5.5 per
1000 among miners and their laborerS
working inside the mines.
The question of arriving at a fair price
on rock in connection with coal mining,
DR.. Roberts said, was one that could be
adjusted only by the mine employees
and the companies. He said it was far
from the truth to characterize the oper
ators as hard-hearted and unjust and
as seeking constantly to grind men
down to the last penny of wages, as had
been charged.
DR.. Roberts declared that the men in
the southern anthracite district voted to
stand by their brothers in the northern
district on the question of insisting on
the recognition of the union and also on
all other points raised in the Shamokin
convention. Answering further ques-
tions by Mr.. Wolverton. DR.. Roberts
said be understood that dissensions had
occurred between miners and their help
ers, the latter claiming that the miner
left BIN at an unreasonable hour and
imposed on him the whole of the labor.
After reading from a lengthy article
by Dr. Roberts in the Yale Review on
he I71v- fold
prior to the strike, witness said in elab-
oration of what he had written that by
investigation regarding the 1aborerS
forming an independent organization he
found that the movement chiefly was
opposed by the non-union men.
Il do not know what was the motive
of their action" said he. but it seems
that they were instigated to movements
of this kind by parties opposed to the
organization of labor"
IF the conditions in the bituminous
regions" inquired Mr.. WolVertOn, ARE
better than in the anthracite fields, why
did the men who left the hard coal re-
gions during the strike return to the
anthracite fields after the striker
The response was that they did so
because of social and family ties
DR.. Roberts, in his examination, said
the newspaper reports of violence had
been greatly exaggerated. Mr.. WoIver-
ton today read copiOus extracts from d
magazine which DIR. Roberts would not
deny he had written in which he de-
scribed many acts of intimidation, vio-
lence and boycott. In explanation Mr.
Roberts said that these acts cannot all
be attributed to the union, and made a
brief speech in which he said the opera
tors refused to arbitrate and the men
were forced to strike to gain their de-
mands
They grew hungry in the struggle
he said, and hungry man is danger
ous.'
The fact was brought out in the
course of the cross-examination that the
Pennsylvania legislature in 1891 passed
compulsory education law applying to
every child under 16 years and that un-
der its provisions parents of delin-
quents can be punished. The question
of the extra hazardous character of the
mine workers occupation was then re-
ferred to by Everett Warren, counsel
for the Erie company who asked the
witness if it were not true that over 20
per cent of the accidents are attributa-
BILE to the anxiety of the miner to get
out of the mine at a much earlier hour
than noon.
The witness was not prepared to say
that that was the percentage.
David Wilcox. counsel for the Della
ware & Hudson company, next took Dr.
| Roberts in hand and was cross-examin-
ing him on the inequality of wages and
the life insurance risks when the COM
mission took the usual recess.