Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-09-02

the Entertainments Oh greedy ana uIl-
fair employers. ii protects the min
efs and the operators from the rash
ness of radicals within its own ranks.
| II has increased the miners wages
throughout the bituminous fields over
20 per te,if. and it has shortened his
work day to efgfit hours, is it any
wonder that it has loyal member
ship of over 100000, and that employ
ers who have been benefited by its
conservatism and intelligent methods,
are anxious for its maintenance? The
operators need the brain anu ~ lawn OF
the miner and the miners need l,-e
brain and capital of the operators.
Their interests are identical. the pros
perity of each depends upon the pros
perity of both
Proportions and Dangers.
Few people have proper concep-
ton of the immense proportions Of the
coal industry of the United States.
| There are over 100000 men employed
in and around the mines. Add to this
the number engaged in its transporta-
ton, sale and distribution, and we
have over million men, who with
their families, represent more than
one-fifteenth of the population of the
United States. In the coal mines of
the United States every year, more
than 1000 men are killed, over 5000
are crippled and manned, over 500
women are widowed and over 1000
children are robbed of father. Coal
is the most potent factor in the devel.
opment of civilization, but we get it at
a fearful cost. We read of an explo-
sion in the mountains of Tennessee,
Colorado or Pennsylvania, where fifty.
100 or 200 lives go out in the pits of
death, We shudder and forget it till in
some other part of the world another
calls it to our memory.
Lost Creek Disaster.
At Braidwood. Ill.,. there is a gran
lite shaft standing over deserted
mine to the memory of sixty-nine men
who were drowned and left in its
depths in 1888. | will never forget the
Lost Creek explosion and the scene of
human sorrow | witnessed. The ex-
plosion was On Friday and |. in com
pany with ]. W. Johnson, of the Abba
Union, a newspaper man, visited the
scene on Saturday. Twenty miners
had been killed. and others Injured.
oh, the poverty of words to convey,
even a remote idea of the misery and
desolation. A grief not expressed in
protitless wailings or barren means,
but you can feel its presence. 1t is
the contagion of misery. The entire
community wrapped in the somber 81
lence of a great grief: mute and stun
ned in an all prevailing shroud of
ueath. hundreds of their comrades all
! clouded in one brow of woe. How
stale fiat and Improbable are words
to transplant in the minds OF others
this fearless picture of unspeakable
| desolation, fearfully and wonderfully
wrought by the destroying thunder of
! a subterranean explosion. and the red
( flames of an awful doom in the death
| cloud of poisonous vapors. Women
sat dry-eyed in the presence of their
dlshgured dead, with sorrow too
/ deep for tears. Fathers showed the
/ cold faces of their sons, and told how
I they met death tryingIto save com
rade. Mike Fay's8 oldest son drew
I back the pail from the burned. SCARED
| race OF his father and told us how the
old hero had exposed himself to the
! consuming flames trying to save his
youngest son. They all seemed sim.
ned and unable to realize that it was
! their own bereavement: which is com.
I mon to the victims of sudden over
/ Whelming disaster. Let us hone that
the Introduction of shot firers and the
\ additional safe guards with which the
/ miners have been able to surround
! their work will prevent a repetition OF
7 these unfortunate occurrences.
The Burning Necessity of Education
think the laboring man should have
higher appreciation of his true worth
! and value to society. If he could sec
clearly his Importance and the real
4 place he occupies in the social and
1 political structure of orr government
! II would cloth him with a new dierity
and he would realize that he is moi
J only the most useful element in society
/ but tho most powerful as we'll. Ii this
great social and political moral struc
ture of American civilization, the
4 wealth producers, the working men
those who toll with their hands arc
\ the foundation. The great middle
class. the merchants, business and
1 professional men are the wall, abso
4 lutely necessary to the building. but
but not so important as the founda
4 tion. Those who are denOminatet
great men of our land, our statesmen
captains of industry and scholars. mel
I renowned throughout the world fol-
! their achievements in education, com
merce or craftsmanship. are the proof
the gilded domes., lofty towers and the
glittering minarets, the parts of the
i structure that are seen from the great
: est distance and are most talked O
and most admired. But there is M
: part OF this mighty structure tina
: would be so little missed, or so easily
!, replaced as the top. There are yer,
I few great men in public life today wht
! cannot be duplicated, replaced, and il
j, many instances improved upon by thu
: raw material from which are con
structed the foundation and the WALL
: OF the structure of civilization. W.
, could also remove the walls of thi,
|, building, and we would still have tn,
foundation upon which to construc
/. another. 1t will require no stretch o
!, imagination to see that we can fill tn,
; places of the middle classes from til,
! source that has supplied them-th,
, masses of the people. But weaken thu
foundation and you weaken every par