Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1902-10-07
WAGES OF THE MINERS.

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A Boston business man last week
wrote to the editor o. the Scranton
Tribune, The leading paper Of northeast
ern Pennsylvania, asking him for some
light on The conditions of The work OF
the coal miners. The following is the
reply:
Replying TO your inquiry of the lsS
inst, | will t.y 10 explain mining con-
di,ions 10 you as briefly as possible.
The miner drills tie hole in the coal
sean, inserio the powder, fiies the blast
which knocks the coal down, and then
takes rest while his helper pulls the
coal out aud loads it into the mine car.
A miner in four TO six hours, with easy
work, can ordinarily knock down
enough coal 20 keep his helper busy for
from eight 20 ten hodrs, or longer.
The minef is paid by the car in this re-
gion, averaging about a 81 car, and
the usual days work is six cars, bold
ing about three thousand pounds OF
lump coal, rock ebony" and slate. OF
this Sc gross earnings the miner pays "
to the laborer and keeps 81 for himself,
out of which he must pay for the powder
he uses, oil, wicks, fuses and The sharp
enings of his picks. In some places the
unit of pay is tie square yard OF coal IN
the scam, and in others weight unit
Of 2,75O pounds, it being claimed by
the operators that on an average it will
take icom $3.50 to 5000 pounds of gross
coal THAT is, coal as it comes from the
seaml 10 net one ION of 2, 240 pounds o.
coal as prepared at the breaker for mar
ket The miners claim that where the
unit of payment is the mine car the car
of today is bigger than in years gone by,
and continually growing. One of Their
Jokes is that the mine car is made OF live
oak. However this may be (and my
personal belief is that there is just about
as much honesty on one side as on the
other, it is fact that The industrious
miner averages, net, per month, 1or
about twenty days work of IRON four to
six hours day, all the way from $50 to
500, and could make twice as much if
ne would blow enough coal to keep Two
laborers employed instead OF one. To-
day minees who ere ''scabbing' work as
high as ten chambers apiece earn in some
cases, $40 day. But tits peculiar fact
that uader normal conditions The miler
does notseem 20 be ambitious TO do moe
than one chamber at lime, or 10 wo k
beyond five or six hours day. The real
cause OF this strike was that the miners,
helpers, who are mostly foreigners, had
rot it into their heads that the miners
we're not making a fair divide. They
were organizing mine laboTers' move
ment to force the miner TO divide even.
The operators have nothing to do with
hiring the helpers. They are hired by
Che miners themselves. To avert SUBJ
strike among their ''butties," as the
laborers are called, the miners swung
through the general strike ostensibly for
the points set forth in their published
demands, but in reality to enable the
union to control discipline and thus put
it beyond the power of the laborer to
revolt. In the mines also are many
company hands," men paid by the
month 10 run engines, act as firemen,
attend to The pumps, etc. The
unions demand for an eight hour day
was to enlist them in the strike. They
are getting good wages-engineers, 500
to $50 month for long hours but light
work, and others in proportion. Nine
tenths of these men were entirely sa,ish-
ed, and many OF them reused TO go cut.
When the coal in big Jumps comes from
the mine or pit, it is passed through a
high structure called the breakef, where
it is broken by steam machinery into The
various sizes, and the impurities are
picked out. Much OF The labor in the
breaker is done by boys, who average 70
cents day. They have no complaint,
for their pay is better than that Of the
average lad in city Office. But they
belong 10 the union, and have votes in the
calling of strikes, and the idea OF
striking fas developed among them
rapidly. Last year in this end OF the
coal fieldst here were hundred-odd local
strikes, mostly over The pe.,iest conceiv-
able things, and the breaker boy and
barroom loafer element had a good
deal to do with declaring them. / have
lived in the anthracite region fourteen
wears, and know Shat in the year 1901
the miners earned more money than
ever before during my time. Our banks
are full of their savings, very little OF
which has yet been drawn out, in spite
of their five months idlcness. There Is
no similar grade of labor in the country
which is better paid than the anthracite
coal miner, and no workman more IN
dependent because the law OF the state
practically gives him monopoly OF ine
| labor of mining by forbidding any but
licensed miner to work at mining In the
mines. To get license, or certificate,
as it is called, he must first have worked
at least two years in the mines as
laborer, and then pass an examination
70 show that he knows enough about The
peculiar requirements of mining to be
safe man 10 admit to chamber.
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