The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-13

Il + .
1900 and IS percent of all the men who
appear on the pay rolls as contract miners
get less than $500 a year. OF these 6S
per cent. q large number worked only
small fraction of the year
God knows that the conditions in this
country and in this mining region are
not so good that men will be content to
sit down and earn $500 a year. The fact
that very large numbers of Mr.. Baers
men get such ridiculously low wages must
be due to the fact that the conditions
were very hard. They would drift around
from one mine to another in the wild hope
that somewhere there would be a better
chance. Men who mine coal are not
tramps by profession. You cannot show
me the pay roll of a railroad company
or of any great industrial institution
where so per cent of the men are idle,
vagrant, drunkards as is claimed in this
case, to bolster, up the paltry pay that
they give 10 skilled men,
Mr.. Darrow said the average earnings
of the miners of the Reading company
who earned between S400 and $500 in 1901
was S52S. He said the miners expenses
for supplies averaged $40 a year, which
would only leave the average miner $4SS.
The figures. he said, We're based on the
1901 average. which Is 10 to - per, cent
above the average of other years. s
Mr.. Darrow then analysed the state
ments of the other companies and said
that as near as he, could make it out the
figures were at least 10 ITO Is per cent too
high and said the wages paid by the Read
ing were the lowest in the region.
Dangerous Occupation.
Turning to the mine laborers. he said
more than 8 out Of every 1000 are killed
every year, Ito say nothing Of the
MANNED and the crippled and the blind
who are turned out under the beneficent
laws of the state Of Pennsylvania to the
almshouses and highways and byways.
because no man can recover in this state.
These laborers got last year 1898. Princely
wages, and yet we are told that al was
peace and joy and happiness in the an
thracite region until Mr. Mitchell came"
In discussing the child labor question
Mr.. barrow said: "If the work of this
commission does not result in getting rid
of this abominable, disgraceful evil of
child labor in Pennsylvania then l think
the people may we'll say that it has been
a failure. You may not get rid of it at
once. but no man ever lived that could
make an excuse for it. This custom has
grown up in the state of Pennsylvania
because there is money in it and the in
dustries Of Pennsylvania are dependent
upon it. The evidence in this case shows
that every single one Of these Industries
is run by the labor Of these children. 1t
shows that in the vicinity of Scranton
there are at least twenty mills where little
girls from II to Is or IA years Of age are
working ten and twelve hours a day, and
twelve hours at night as we'll is there
any man SO blind that he does not know
why that anthracite regioni is dotted with
silk mills? They went there because the
miners were there. Every mill in that
region is a testimony to the fact that the
wages that you pay are SO low that you
sell your boys to be slaves of the breaker
and your girls to be slaves in the mills.
when these railroad presidents were
finally called to book before the president
Of the United States one of them shed
tears because the United Mine Workers
allowed these boys to join their organza-
ton, because they taught these poor
babes doctrines of anarchy and disobedi-
ence to law. This railroad president sned
tears because the United Mine Workers
were spelling the souls of these poor chill
dren, and yet he willing to take the
earnings of these poor children. that he
and his family might be richer because of
their toll. These babes know their friends
There is not one Of these children so
ignorant, not one of theme so lost to ma
tural instincts that he does not know
who loves him. There is not one but
would run from a, railroad president to the
open arms of John Mitchell; and they are
right. l have no doubt he loves children
Neither have 1 any doubt that the wolf
loves mutton. These men make living
out Of these children, and if they. can do
nothing else in this region. this infamy
should end. These little children get s165
year. '.--
Mr.. Darrow quoted the late Abram S.
Hewitt to the effect that during the Molly
Mcguire days he found men in the an
| thracite region Giving like pigs and dogs
under wretchedly brutal conditions
IF these gentlemen were stupid enough
to let their mines fill with water rather
than grant this eight hour day, all right.
But keep still about it. After you have
done it, the more you talk of it the more
contemplate it makes you look in the
eyes Of all men who think