The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-12-17
WHITE SLAVERY
Under Shylock Masters in the Penn
sylvania Coal Mines.
A STARTLING REVELATION.
The Cruelty of the Coal Operators
Told With Simplicity and
Truth by Old Men
and Women.


!. and Women.
Startling revelations are being
brought to light of the cruelties Of
the coal operators in the coal mines of
Pennsylvania by the commission to
investigate the cause Of the coal mi
ner'S strike. The commission is now
in session at Scranton, Pa. The tes-
timony as presented by some Of the
witnesses whose lives are given up to
the coal mining industry, was at times
pathetic and surprising to the COM
miSsioners, who listened to it with
undivided attention.
Henry McColl, a Markle miner, told
how his family, including his mother
in-law, who was hundred y eals old,
was set out on the road with their
household goods. He gave a graphic
description Of how he was injured
many times in the mines. The COM
pany gave him nothing until after
th e employees took up a collection for
him, then he was given $50 after be-
ing on the injured list for two years.
The com pany took out Of the collec-
lion the rent he owed.
In answer to other questions ne
said that he was one Of the thirteen
evicted by the Markle company. Then
followed the most pathetic story yet
told the commissioners. The old miner,
decrepit from many injuries, told un-
der the examination Of how the evic-
tion was carried on. The wife was
sick and her one hundred year old
mother was blind and unable to walk.
The day on which they were thrown
out" was rainy. He took them the
best he could to Hazleton, seven miles
away, and placed them in a cold,
damp, empty house.
I'VE were greatly worried because
of our having been turned out Of our
house, and one night" the witness
said, between sobs, she died."
''She died?" exclaimed Judge Gray,
who was pacing to and fro across the
room as he quickly turued when ne
heard the mans last words.
'YeS, sir, she died, and I buried
her yesterday"
No one cared to cross-examine him,
and Judge Gray said: THAT is all,
Mr.. McColl, and that's enough"
Mrs. Kate Burns, Of Jeddo, told a
story CT how she and her two boys
worked years to pay off an accumulat-
ed house rent and coal bill, due to the
Markle company, the narration Of
which deeply interested the commis-
sioners. She was examined by Law
yer Darrow, and in answer to his
questions she said her husband was an
engineer inside the Markle mines. The
husband was killed under ground,
leaving her with four children, the
eldest of which was boy Of eight
years.
The company never offered her a
penny, but the employees gave her
about $50 to defray the funeral ex
penseS. After her husband had been
killed, she moved from her four-room
house into one containing only two,
one room above the other, and for the
next six years she struggled as best
she could to get along. She took in
washing, scrubbed for the neighbors,
and once in while she was given
work cleaning the Office Of the Markle
company. When the eldest child was
fourteen years old she sent him to the
mines. At the end of the first month
the lad brought home his wage state
ment, showing that the mother oRes
1896 for back rent.
The boys wages for the month had
been taken off the bill and be came
home empty handed. In the course
Of time her next boy was old enough
to earn a living and, be. too, was sent
to the colliery. Like the older brother
the second boy received no pay, his
earnings being deducted for rent. The
mother ON the witness stand, was oy
this time yelling up, and when she
added that the money she earned for
cleaning the Markle office was never
given her but kept by the company
for rent, the commissioners looked at
one another in surprise. She said 1t
took the three OF them thirteen years
to make up the debt.