The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-08-30

crease accorded them. Their greater
prosperity during the last couple years
was due entirely to the greater stead1-
ness Of employment. Eeven the present
steadiness of employment, however,
would have been called great unsteadi-
ness in any other trade. Last year the
anthracite mines were open just 1874
days, so that each man averaged less
than four days week, even II neither
sickness nor disability of any sort inter-
ferred with his work.
When I say that each man averaged
les than four days a week, I should
make an exception Of the engineers,
firemen, and watchmen, who are on
duty the whole year through. One nre-
man with whom talked told me that
for two years, when he and his father
and brother were paying Off the mort
gage on their home, he averaged thirty
three days work. a month. Every
Sunday" he said, II worked twenty
four hours at stretch There were
but two Shifts at the mines. One
week he worked the day shift from sew
en- in the morning to five in the evening
and the next week the night shift, from
five in the evening till seven in the
morning. Eevery Sunday during these
two years he had worked both shifts.
When expressed surprise at the length
of the night shift-fourteen hours-he
replied that the men liked it better to
the day divided unequally, in case only
two shifts were employed. IF we had
only two twelve-hour Shifts" he said,
I'VE would always have to. go to bed
as soon as we had our suppers, in order
to get up in time to 80 to. work: as 1t
tiF nbw,i every other week we can do
somethink with our evenings" This
man, however, felt very bitterly that
three shifts Of eight hours each should
be established. He belongs to the group
the strike fever becomes strong, and
whose calling out would lead to the
flooding Of many Of the mines and the
loss Of vast amounts Of property. No
group of men in the mines care as
much for the establishment Of an
eight hour day as do these men, whose
attitude is now Of such critical i'm
portance.
Among the -'reimnsms, eoay, eTgadee
Among the Enthusiastically so call
ed-there is no concern whatever for
the eight-hour day. In Oliphant, for the
first time, I came across men who
actually worked the short hours which
newspapers hostile to the union try to
represent as typical. In the little mine
where this fireman was employed most
of the miners came out Of the mines
before noon, and it was the exception
when the miner stayed beside his labor
er for the whole ten hours. The mine
boss, in fact, told me that two and q
half hours represented the average time
spent by the miners inside this mine.
This statement, however. was secuted
by a Catholic priest whom met short
" after. There were cases, said the
priest, where the miner would blast as
much coal In an hour as the laborer
could load in a whole day, but such
cases were few. AS a rule, the miner
had to work in the mine six or seven
hours, and sometimes had :. to put in
more than ten in order to make the
chamber secure.
i had very few opportunities to talk
with mine laborers. Apparently their
ranks were chiefly recruited from the
non-English-s races. Just one
young 1rishn1an whom met spoke Of
himself as a mine laborer, but he was
one Of a group, and supported the posi-
t1oncof the rest that the mine laborer
was not often put upon by the miner
who employed him. It was evident
that the miners constituted the aristo-
cracy in the community and controlled
public 'opfnion-for, as Bentham says,
wherever there is an aristocracX public
opinion is the creature of that aristo-
cracy. The miners confessed that when
the Poles and Hungarians first came to
this country they did make them do q
lot OF work, but now that many of the
roles and Huns were themselves min-
ers, the rawest recruit soon learned to
90 more than his share Of pay. Though
1 remained in the impression that the
mine laborer had much the heavier end
OF the load to, lift, became convinced
that poor mine iaborer often earned
more than a poor miner, and that the
line between the two classes was not
Avery sharp one. The mine boss to
Whom havesreferred told me that tho
miners averaged forty dollars a month,
and the mine, laborer = twenty-six or:
twenty-seven dollars: and, from all. Il
learned, this was a fair statement not
only Of a relative but Of actual earn
ings. z =: :. - :, +. :
: Te early average net earnings for all
mine workers. including the twenty
thousand little boys who serve as plate
pickers, are approximately $S25. These
wages are lower than any in similar In !.
dustry In the Northern SEates.. Mr.
Mitchell said that they were nearly one
third lower than they. wages OF the
soft-coal miners IN the West. and on.