The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-17
SECOND SESSION
OF THE COMM MISSION
Concluded from Page 81

Messenger Boys Wages.
O. 1 asked a messenger boy from the
Telegraph office, who came here whether
he worked eight hours day and he said
lie worked ten hours | asked him what
lie got and he said thirteen dollars a
month. Would YOU consider that an in
decent or an improper rate of pay?
A. That is more than the breaker boys
yet.
Q. Yes, but they do not work every day
for ten hours?
teri.
q. oh! yes. They live every day, un-
doubleday, and we are very glad they do;
but the question is. who is to pay them
for living every day when they do not
work every day?
A. They must earn their living in the
Industry where they are employed.
q. Yes, but must they earn 1t at an in
creased cost of the product with which
they deal to the poor elsewhere?
y. II an industry will not pay living
wages to its employees. then the industry
itself is of benefit to the country.
Q. Therefore, YOU say unless the an
thracite industry can pay the wages
which you designate as proper in your
judgment, it ought to cease.
A. No: say it it will not pay reason
able living wages. a wage sufficient to
educate children and improve citizenship
then it should cease to exist.
q. Do you knew what the average
wages of farm laborers are in the United
States? A. If he works on an ordinary
farm, n laborer's pay Is from $lS to S25
a month, and he works from eight to
nine months. He is paid his living in adj
dtion to that. | have worked on farm.
Q. Yes; so have !. Uaughter) But 1
never got the wages YOU indicate.
laughter.) ] only wish that rate of
working on a farm. Uaughter) Do
you know of any ordinary farm laborer
who. working ten or twelve hours day,
earns 5000 year? A. No. sir: ] do not
g. What do you say the average pay
per month and their board amounts to?
y. AS far as my information goes, it
varies from slS to $25 a month. Q.
would YOU he surprised to find that it
was below fifteen dollors? A. 1t would
he different from my information: con-
trary to my information. q. But you
have no idea that the average earnings
of z farm laborer I'm the United States is
5000 a year? a. No, [ do not think 1t is.
q. You say. then, as the eightlf'reason
that the wages of the anthracite mine
workers are so low Is that their children
are prematurely forced into the breakers
educated upon the earnings of their par
ents. Do you not know that a great
many of these parents are temporary
residents here? A. | understand that
some of them are.
Ambition of Foreigners.
@. Do YOU not know that their ambi-
tion is to amass a considerable sum, to
them, of money, with which to return
home. Q. And in pursuance of that OBJ
ject they utilize the earnings of their
children as much as possible" A. do
not know that they ever realize their
ambitions.
Q. You also asked for shorter hours Of
labor. You say that demand is similar to
the first, and you say that the ten-honr
day is detrimental to the health, life,
safety and well-being of everybody en-
ployed about a mine? A. The work it,
selfis unhealthful, and the work is very
difficult. and, necessarily the ten-hour
work-day is hard for people.
g. l now ask you, for information you
obtained from your associates as to the
length of time the contract miner works
in the collieries of our two companies.
A. Ny recollection of the returns from
the mines is not sufficiently clear at this
time. @. That is right that is satisfac-
tory. Now, would you be surprised to
u fact nevertheless, that where the vein
is good and blows well, ii is seldom that
a mircr. excepting when he has bad luck.
Is found in his working place after 10
O'Clock in the morning." daughter
from the miners representatives. A. I
do not know what you are quoting FROM
but that is not correct. Q. You may be
sure I am not quoting from my own
knowledge. A. know that; it is well TO
lyn hof in wi a pf
men, that they start to work earlier than
the other workmcn. G. How early would
you say they start to work? A. We have
records of men going to work as early
as o'clock in the morning and 6 o'clock
In the morning, and they perform two
hours work before the ordinary work OF
the mine starts. They have prepared
their coal, which is finally loaded. and
they go home early in the afternooH,>
Q. Would you be surprised, in contra
diction of that, to be told by an official
authority. not on my own authority, that
they reach their places of work about I
O'Clock or little later? A. I should be
surprised very much, in view of the in
formation I obtain from the men who
do the work.
O. ask you this, because from the re-
port OF the Bureau of Mines of the state
of Pennsylvania for 1899, an official docu-
ment which |. with other citizens Of
Pennsylvania. have been taxed to pay
for compiling and publishing, (Which is
under the Hillside Coal and Iron COM
pany's improvement, and is because of
the Immediate relations to the works Of
that company, although the language is
general that l have used iD that | am
getting this information. A. If you will
permit me TO say this much in connec-
tinn with it; that it frequently occurs
that a mine is not producing "a sufficient
amount of coal to distribute. TO furnish
each of the miners with ears. Some
times there may he only two or three
cars i'm q day, and of course, that only
means part of a days work--hc could
load more than that; and while his
laborer is waiting for the company To de-
liver the cars to him. he returns home.
You Northumberland that i'm that event he
would not obtain in the whole day more
than half a days wages. q. But his
average would be required TO be brought
M TO this $500 A. Those are exceptions
that l speak of.
Not an Exception.
Q. This is not an exception. 1t reads:
at is seldom that ii miner, excepting
when he has bad luck, is found in his
working place tffter 10 o'clock in the
mornmg." and the reason is given. For
very likely his home-shot has been fired
long be:ore this, and he is at hong, or,
perhaps, somewhere else with his friends.
In such mines they reach their places
about I. or IA little later and for two or
three hours-it may be AN hour more oc-
cas.onally-they pitch in with all the
vim and vigor they have Ia 'cut' enough
coal for the day, and oftentimes In good
places accomplish this with two or three
shots Then, instead of taking time TO
prop or otherwise secure a seemingly bad
piece of roof, which may be discovered
near the face, they go home. leaving this
work for the next day. when, as they say,
IlP stick up prop under II. But when
they arrive on the next day they find
thai their coal has all heen loaded and