The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-06
TRIP FINISHED
 BY COMMISSION Visit Many CoIIieries and is Lowered Into Seven. CONSUMEDSlX DAYS WORK Trip Shows Inside of the Entire Posi- ton and Commission Will Be Bet ter Able to Decide Strike
 Question Justly.
CONSUMEDSIX DAYS WORK

Mahaony City, Pa, Nov. 5.-The an- thracite strike commission ended it's tour of observation in the Panther Creek val ley today, and the members of the party will return to their homes tomorrow, and will meet again at Scranton on No- vember IA, to take the testimony of the miners. The biggest days work of the entire trip was accomplished today when the commissioners made complete in- spection of two large collieries, and a tour of the region lying between Mount Carmel and this city.
 Six working days have been consumed in travelling from place to place and the arbitrators feel they are now qualified to sit in judgment on the controversy between the mine owners and their em- ployes.
 In Seven Mines.
 In all, the commissioners have been lowered into seven mines of varying con- ditlons and have gone through several breakers. They have met the general su- perintendents, the mine superint endents and the foremen of the various collieries visited and also have talked with the grimy coal diggers below the earths sur face. They have heard the grievances the miners say they hava and also have heard the companies complaint Besides this the commissioners have gained somewhat technical knowledge of mining in its many different features that will be of the greatest assistance to them. They will be able to understand ques- tions and ask questions where they would not have been able to understand them if they had not been underground.
 Visit Mount Carmel.
 The commissioners special train left Mount Carmel at 7:S0 a. m., and first visited the Potts colliery in Columbia county, several miles from Mount Car mel. It Is owned by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Coke company. The breaker of this colliery is different from those seen by the commissioners at other places. They went all over the buildings and were much interested in the workmen employed there, among whom there were many boys. The train then proceeded through Ashland, Girard- vile and Gilberton to the Maple Hill colliery of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron company in the Mahaony valley, a few miles from Shenandoah. This is one of the best mines in the en- tire anthracite field and Is equipped with all modern appliances. The bottom of the shaft is 730 feet below the surface, and during their two hours stay in the work ings the commissioners went about a mile and a half from the shaft The whistle blew the noon hour just as the party came to the surface. At the breaker nearby the commissioners talked with the boys whose faces were black from coal dust. Judge Gray and Bishop Spalding seemed the most interested in the lads and gave some of them small coin.
 To Panther Creek.
 From the Maple Hill colliery the com missioners' train was run down through Mahaony City and Tamaqua to the Pan ther Creek valley. Then the arbitrators visited the No. colliery of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company of Coal dale. The entrance to the mines was through a drift which Is horizontal opening into the base of a mountain. About 100 feet inside the entrance the party was lowered by means of a shaft | to the bottom which is S30 feet down. The mine proved to be quite wet and l every one in the party got more or less of a wetting. As the members of the | commission passed along the gangway, on | the mine cars drawn by mules, they went under worked-out chutes, from | which water flowed in streams. While | going under one chute the mules stop | ped and the water fell into one of the | cars, thoroughly soaking all its occu- pants. It was an uncomfortable posi- | the other cars took it as a good joke on