Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-27
MINE DISASTERS
Richard Newsan,, President State
eoarc. Discusses ex.
plosic
INCREASE IN FEW YEARS
Permanent Blame Should BE Fixed by
Juries That Investigate
Deaths.

state mining board. asserts that there
number of mine disasters during the
/ past few years. He believes that the
kind Of powder used in many mines is
responsible for the loss of life. Pres
ident Newsam says:
What does the average miner know
about carbonic oxide. or carbon mon
oxide. or its chemical symbol. or its
density or its specific gravity or car
bon -dioxide, its density or its specific
4 gravity? \ miner knows when he is
working with any of these better than
the pettifogger who is mixing them
! up
i Now ] wish To say that carbonic
oxide and carbon mon-oxide and white
damp are the same. and if the pettifog-
ger would ask the miner about white
damp he would tell him how it acts.
and If he had said black damp. the
miner would be able to tell him that
the gas is always next to the floor be-
cause il is heavier than the air. lie
has never heard of carbon dioxide OF
carbonic acid gas or its symbol. He
knows that his light will not burn in
4
of the place. But the witness and the
jury are all mixed up and We go from
bad to worse with the loss of life and
the miner is even deceived.
D~nOunc~s Ambulance Chnscrs.
Ambulance chasers. pettifoggers and
damage suits do not decrease the num-
Der of widows and orphans. Ii only
seems to increase the loss of life. and
God knows we have had enough of
them in the last few years. Explosions
are on the increase. In the last few
years have been at several explosions
and know the cause. One at Auburn.
one at Athens and one at Sherman
have been seen, and l was one of the
first TO the point of explosions after
they have occurred. Pettifoggers and
ambulance chasers have brought suits
into court so as to- get damages and a
few dollars in their pockets: they name
fire damps. dust and everything but the |
right one
Now we have been working No. /.
2. 8. >. 6 and in this state for at least
thirty years. and up TO 1898 you scarce
~ heard of an explosion. Wrong state
ments do not bring back the husband. |
to increase the amount of explosions.
have all the sympathy that a man can
have for widows and orphans, but !
want TO stop making widows and or
phans if it is possible. and wrong YER
diets will not do it.
Explosions Few.
| Il wish To- go back only as far as
| 1898. when coal was mined under a
screen-coal basis: that is. man got
paid for good lump coal. We had none
of these explosions. because miner
did not drill dead holes. as he always
wanted TO get lr-up coal. and he used
his picks and got his shots in shape.
Now he is paid just as much for slack
as he is for lump. and with the drill he
uses in these days he can make five
or six-foot hole in a few minutes. and
| he wants the powder TO do the work.
What can he expect? II is powder.
and nothing else but powder. Powder
4 blows up hills. forts and men-of-war,
\ and not one man in thousand knows
the energy of one pound Of powder
4 Our jurors sit and listen to a case
listen to an ambulance chaser, petit
logger. He tells the jury that he is
working for the widow. But stop until
the damage is collected and then YOU
will find how hard he worked for the
widow. The widow and orphans get a
small slice of the benefit that comes
from this suit. ! have respect for a
good lawyer. and we have plenty of
them. but ! have no use for one who
will misrepresent things. We want to
stop these explosions. and we never
can IL they are misrepresented to
jury.
| what does the average jury know
about a coal mine. especially when the
mechanics or farmers? The pettifog- |
ger never has worked in a mine. but
he uses all kinds of chemical names |
just To mix up the average witness and |
the jury. The average miner knows |
so little about chemistry that he can
not answer him.
Recent Mine Disasters.
Let us go down To facts At all the |
explosions have been to every one |
of them-were caused by blown-out |
shots. and there have been several ex- |
plosions where every shot showed |
itself. At Auburn there had never |
been any fire damp in the mine. either |
before or after the explosion. yet sew
eral men were killed and burned 900 |
feet from the point of the explosion
AT Sherman. just Of late. in a new
mine. one of the finest in the state. was
wrecked and two men killed. If there
had been 100 men a. that side of the
shaft at the time the shots were fired.
all would have been killed. The mine
is well ventilated add no gas seen, but
the blowout shots were there and
was the first TO find them. They were
about the worst I have ever seen. and
nothing but what We may expect with