The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-11-15

" IN
the mine Inspector recommends and
adVises thing to be done. thar ~
ue zone at once IL 1t is anything for
me satetS of the men in our mi,ns
IN, Inc mine Inspector is here and / he
ment. '"ae S'ats-
there is no law that man can
make that will mako a mina'ahsa
iuteiy safe. All that can bs done q.
7 10 make the laws that will nro,a,t
rs tar as possible, and punish those
VINO violate the laws. and miners md
ohperators alike II there is any one
shinS that worries me continuonSiS,
IN the management OF those n,ir,s,.
| a. Is that something will hammer 4,
IS nightmare always before ~
air1'a that this will happen or thai
VIII happen. and / have tried avn~v
wa! that know of to prevent ncci.
uehts and avoid accidents. Evnr>,
three months ! have every min III,
me ena or the chain taken on and
1ie ropes on the incline thrown IT.
nre' violate the Sabbath day In do.
my IL on sunday, and heat IL and nnr
~ oach on. 1t takes the chry stnlizn-
uon from the iron and anneais ~ ,na
makes II safer than before "a vn,,
az al KNOW that wnen you heat a lin, ~
| tuere Is any cracks when II Is heat.
eu you can plainly SEQ IL. and ,hrnn
~ 10 one side; there is no law for
mat. IL Is done for the sole purnosc
OF avoiding accidents and Swing III,
lives of the men around the tfnai. IL"
una believe that every oporator on
ms side of the house has the same
,eeunSs that i have. and when there
ID anything around him, for fear thur
ne mas neglected something md
: hi i cause the death of any man.
! nave mad some little experiences In
these explosions myself. / haye heen
IN TOUR Of them; I got out all right
out many others did not. / have been
ut the top OF the shaft when tbn
nothers. brothers. relations and
ar.enas came there screaming and
nave gone through those experiences
anu nave gone down in all thnt
KNOW what 1t is, but all we can do
IS TO properly ventilate the mines,
ana L am in favor of that In eyerv
2Eaclcai way that 1t can be done.
pense unnecessarily. building brat
ticeS and stoppings that we have no
use ior. neither am | in favor ~
making breakthroughs every f,fty
rect. No need OF It, none-abso-
lutely no need OF that Mt all. And
20" take IN the soft coal fields and
we nave difficulty enough at present
70 Keep creek from coming in those
mines on account OF the holes to the
pillars that we make. Il am not in
FAVOR, on the other hand of going in
Two hundred or three hundred feet
aMu9, out under the present law
mat you have find that entries can
De properly ventilated for one hum
ored feet, places where they have
ventilated Will not of Its own accord
circulate from. We use canvas for
carrying 1t TO the face OF the entry.
~ aoes not require great space to
carry up sufficient air to clear out
tho face of that entry, avoid making
those Dreakthroughs and a great
many breakthroughs and thick nil
lars retard entries and make IL dim
cult to get our work In the mines.
ana TOO much work in putting thirty
or forty pillars we have to drive
through, but II there was not proper
ventilation in there for the men
working In the entry II should be the
uuty or the mine inspector, and he
should have the power to stop the
entry until there was proper venti-
iauon. Some say we do not believe
In giving too much power to mine in
spectors. A mine inspector Is simply
n man like one OF us, and / have mo-
objection to the power given to him
because he will use II to good nd
vantage both to the operator and to
the miner alike. He Is the disinter-
ested party so far as cost and pro-
iuct Is concerned, and II he were to
forget himself as one man said to
me one time-"Suppose he were to
become Insane and he were to go
there raving maniac and stop the
mtne--what would you do?" I says,
would try to send him to the asy-
ium.' A man can have no power
given him in this country II he is
wrong that we can not reach him.
There is no one-man power in
America when 1t is taken right or
wrong. II he is right he is right and
u he Is wrong you can reach him.
You are his equal In citizenship and
you can get an injunction restrain
'ng him from interfering which will
bring him and you before the JUS
tice. the court in which you get a
hearing, and If he is wrong he will
be condemned for being wrong and
he will be more careful the next
time that he shuts down a mine, but
| would prefer him to shut down one
OF the mines wrongfully IL he thought
the lives OF the men were in danger
in there than to go away and fear
10 shut it down because he might
offend me or any other man.
Now few more words on this
barring out of the mines q man who
has not worked in the mines a year.
How are we going to get miners?
How are we going to make miners?
You talk about an apprenticeship.
Every miner in this country knows
that another miner cannot have an
n NJ tffc H. - T.