The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-19


 mine. I see the men as they pass the tlpple. After day spent in getting out the middle man" I can get out much more coal the next day.
 It takes a day and a half in two weeks to get out the middle man"
 Colonel Bush cross-Examlnes.
 Cross examined by Col Bush the witness said:
 l generally get to my post by 6:15 a. m. I begin to check coal weights as soon as the cars come out As a usual thing be- gin to check and weigh at from 645 to a. m. On an average I check more than ten cars before 7:30, sometimes I check 70 cars before 7:9O. I know where the min CTS go in and come out. I am on the tp- pie. l cannot see the mouth of either mine from the tipple. man devotes about one to one and half days a week getting out parting rock. I usually worked every day the mine was working and took out from 120 to 125 tons beside the yardage. The best month I ever made was some thing over $50 gross. l could get out all the way from IS to p tons of coal with one keg of powder.
 Not First-CIass Miner.
 am not a first class miner. could load six tons of coal day. The general opinion is that I am an average practical miner. 1 could not get out six tons every day
 MT. .Fairley asks Mir Kane If man Is marked as not working on the day that he is taking out the middle man"
 Col. Bush says that is not so.
 Mir. Lewis asks MT. Kane if Gosen was given credit for twelve days of coal work ing and two days for taking out rock. Mir. Kane says no.
 Witness Knight resumes in answer to questions by MT. Flynn.
 Many times men are prevented from working by water and bad air.
 The next witnes produced by the miners Is John Cantley, a miner at Coleanor. who says: I worked at Brookwood In 1898 for the Alabama Consolidated company. worked one or two laborers and their work went in on my check. I paid $45O for a three room house and 25 cents for a hy- drant In the yard It was the common system at Brookwood at that time to work laborers.
 Cross examined by Col Bush he said:
 I turned laborers wages separately from my own. and they were paid separately. I have not worked at Brookwood for eigh- teen or twenty months. I worked six months after they quit having laborers. In 1898 I had checked (say f6) and had two laborers and paid them so much a day.
 Colonel Bush offers to furnish pay rolls, etc, for 1898.
 A recess was here taken until p. m.
 After Recess. At D. m, the board was called to or der.
 The next witness to take the stand for the miners was J. H Fairburn, living at Pratt City and working In the Coal burg mines for the Soss- Sheffield Steer and Iron company He said:
 In 1898 I was working at Brookwood and had laborers working for me. All 1 the coal was run out on my check num- Der. Sometimes I paid tho men myself and sometimes they were paid at the of- flee. I never settled with them in full. I would advance them q few dollars from | time to time I paid the laborers $1.1O 1 per day. The Tennessee company did not work laborers in 1898 at No. 3. l No cross examination. N. l.. Turner of Coalburg, a miner for the Sloss company, was the next witness and said:
 for the last three years. I am now driv- | ing an air course. The expenses are | greater than in room work. We use a good deal of dynamite. I use a half to | three-fourths of a box in a month. Many of the miners use two or three cases. | would not quit room where l was mak- | ing S2.00 per day to go in a heading or air course for an advance of 50 cents day. | The bad air and the water are the de- terrants. The coal where I am working averages about thirty-eight inches In | thickness. A man would have to take 1 down feet 10 inches of rock. He would need a machine costing S35 machine would last eighteen months to two years. The expense of driving a heading is more than double that of room work. There was no cross examination.
 Edward Mckee. | Edward Mckee of the Warner mine was the next witness and said: 1 am driving a heading. I use dynamite as most of the miners do. We pay s70C a case to outside stores. I use Aetna dy- namite 40 per cent. The company stores only keep 8 per cent. have worked a room. heading is 50 to 65 per cent more expensive than a room to work. would not go out of a room where I was making S2.00 to go into a heading for u cents additional per day. Heading worK | is harder There is bad air and water work nine hours n day. That is not too much for my health There was no cross examination.
 Tom Clancy. a Warner miner for the | Republic company was the next witness