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


 mines said-I have been working in a hading since August, 1902. We use ] dynamite in headings and pay $7.75 per | box for it. buying it from the company. | Outside stores there sell 1t for $7.50. l use a case and one-ha1f a month-not much black powder I use a box of caps and some fuse every month. heading mans expenses are double the expenses of a room man. If 1 was making two dollars in room I would not go into beading for fifty cents a day extra. A room man would need tools to do heading work that would cost right smart. His tools would wear out sooner than in room work.
 The Jones machine lasts two years. Wedges wear out rapidly. If I was mak ing g.. 72 per day in room l would want more than a dollar additional to change to a heading. l might change if l had my tools. At Warner they charge for sharpening. I don't know how much.
 The next witness testifies as follows:
 Charley Count am coal miner working for the Central Coal company at Jefferson. I worked in a heading in the month of June. 1 have worked in that district for nineteen years.
 l worked in June with man who paid half of the expenses and he had half of the coal l got all the yardage The other man had his own check. I paid the man who gathered tEe rock at night S1S.00 in all. or at the rate of sl.50 per shot. l received S155.00 from the com pany and only paid out SIS for labor s2l75 for dynamite. s5.1O for powder, s2OO l for fuse, 80 cents for caps and 60 cents | for oil and 40 cents for paper. I have 1 been working in the mine since it opened | The slate will average six inches. The coal is about feet & inches including the | dirt. If l were getting S27o in coom l would not take heading ct an advance of S1.00 per day. The amount of dyna- mite I use Is according to the amount of coal I get down. l would like to have all the wages 1 could get. l usually draw S10S to S15 per month. It sometimes goes to S125 to S150 1 have drawn at least S100 every month but one this year. That month l did not work much. Ordl- narily one stick of dynamite and twenty two or twenty-three inches of powder will break down six to eight feet of rock with three feet of coal. Usually entry drivers get through a month with one case of dynamite.
 AIr Porter Moore asks witness: Under ordinary circumstances can you make S7 u day in that seam?
 Witness says: l don't want to answer excepting to say there are not two Char lie Countses there l have worked there for seventeen years.
 In answer to MT Flynn witness says: Since September last l have paid over $500 on mortgage and supported my family. l have worked fifteen or sixteen hours day.
 w. c. Russell.
 w. c. Russell is the next witness, and says-I live at Jefferson and work for the Central Coal and Coke company. l have been working there for two and half years. My boy works with me He is fifteen or sixteen years old My check number is forty. All coal goes out on my check number. The boy does as much work as l do@ The average of the seam in No. l is two feet eight inches clear coal and six inches of dirt. It costs considerably more to work in heading or air course than In room. It is against the rule to use dynamite in a room.
 My earnings in June were $104 57 for 309,S6O pounds of coal at a scale rate of sixty-seven and one-half cents per ton My total was $l27 so for me and the boy. We worked 1 think about twenty days The yardage price on our seam is less than anywhere where I have ever been. The yardage is $104 less than at the Pratt mines. A man would rather have room than a heading. up there. The company will change a man generally, when he wants 1t. They pay eighty seven and one-half cents for air courses. If was In q room I would not change Into q heading or air course for the difference in price. In making the s127S0 I used two kegs of powder at S3 GO for the one case of dynamite and part of a case making 80 25 worth and one case of caps at eighty cents. and 300 feet of fuse