Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-10
CONDITIONS IN COAL REGION
Clean Faces an Indication Of Idlensus
Prevailing at Present
b THE LANO Of rHL eRLAr sTRKl
D%anserous vocstion Filled ~ Mineru
who Ask n BETTER wage and
Are Denied ~ the
Operators.

Just now In the anthracite coal regions
every man has a clean face. In ordinary
times the FIRST thing which strikes a Wis
ttor to the mining villages IL the dirt.
The men on their way home from work
have faces and hands like dusty ebony.
says the Congregationalist. The children
are still Erimy. but that is because they
are still picking coal from the great oulm
dumps. The houses are still dingy, for
eight weeks Of rain cannot wash on the
stain which the wind has for years borne
from the dumps. or the reek that was vom.
tied from the air shaft Of the mine. The
streets are still Uttered with rubbish and
the cutters are choked with fifth. In fact,
there are some coal-mining villages where
the great strike is now on that deserve to
be classed as slums.
This condition Of affairs exists in q re-
gion By nature as beautiful as any in the
world. Tit mountains Of PENNSYLVANIA
are rugged. They we're once covered with
noble trees and splendid ~laurels, while the
streams wore frinRad with rhododendrons
or silvery birches. In the older mining
districts every vestige OF TIE forest has
disappeared. The shrubs and even the
grass are dead and the surface Is furrowed
BY floods or fallen into gaping holes by
reason Of the sinkages In the mines below.
In some Of these hamlets not even q shade
tree is to be found-nothing but the bare
rock or barren earth.
Victims of the Mines.
Another fact likely TO be vividlv Inn
pressed upon the visitor Is the number Of
crippled persona on the streets. Coal
mining is a dangerous business. Last year
more than 500 men we're killed and over
Zoo injured In the hard coal mines OF
Pennsylvania. The expectation Of life Of
the man who enters the mines is fifteen
years. Blu 1t Is not only by premature
blasts or By explosions OF innammable gas
or BY the falling Of the roof ia the chambers
or through some mischance in the operation
OF the dangerous machinery that death
comes, but the very life of the miner uu-
foreground and the breathing OF the air
surcharged with gas or particles Of coal
dust means shortened lives. A peculiar
form Of consumption, known as miners
asthma, kills almost as many victims az the
dangerous machinery or the gas. ana no
count Is made Of these deaths by the State
Bureau OF Mining In its columns Of
statistics. The average boy who enters
the mines At land many enter long before
nat age-has finished his useful life at 80.
IN nfteen years after he has entered the
breaker or the mine he Is either dead or an
invalid.
Physical injury IL nj. the only IN. troyn
which the miners suffer. The hard con-
diiions 0f their iiiiff5 aHs sh .z=. .sss
dents which deprive the family Of ite head
and breadwinner often compel the boys Of
the family to enter the coal breakers at a
very early age. Hence, iliiteraey prevails
to an appalling degree. The law forblds
the employment Of boys in the breakers IN.
DER IL years Of age. but heglects to bring
the breakers under the jurisdiction OF the
factory inspector. 20 that the law Is practl-
caiiy a dead letter. 1t would be hard to say
how much Of the lawiessheks which accom-
panies a strike in the mining regions Is due
to the Ignorance or yicfousness Of those
whose education has been interrupted i'll
not rendered impossible By their being
forced into the demoraiisine school Of the
breaker long before they had reached the
legal age Of II years. i
LabOfers Mostly Foreign.
Another fact which a stranger would
notice Is that the men Of d mining village
are mostly foreigners. Almost all the un-
skilled labor is performed by Italians, Poles
Dr.. HunGariahs. Even tho skilled labor Of
coal Is done for the most part By
these foreigners. or by Immigrants from
Great Britain and the sons Of these foreign
born immigrants. The petty bosses about
he mines are mostly English. Welsh or
irish. OF their sens who have grown up IN
his country. Although thousands Of far
ners boys of pure American stock have
locked into the anthracite districts, few or
lone are to be found working underground.
As the sons Of the foreign born miners be-
'ome better educated. they rise in the social
'cate ana leave the mines. often working
or far lower wages than their fathers earn.
When the strike was declerac > concerted
was made to gatacs Into tAs schools
he thousands Of breaker boys who we're
die. But BY the irony Of fate, At the very
line when they might have been taught, Il
vas discovered that the school funds Of the
tate had All been spent snd the schools
we're closed nearly a month earlier than
Usual.
There is a subduea silence now through
the whole region. This is the month
the mines are usually running az
heir best In order to provide the stock Of