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

all They are the gentlemen VIII,
VIII De alkinS along an entry viii
You and say, there is a DANCE,
marx, will so and show YOU ther.
70 sas Sn this room; l was in il !;
ME ago He goes in with ar
1Ad n-aSbs burns YOU. Take the
men You are talking about, Va.
eoUldl't pun him in there Mith >
saps, he sees the sign in there anG
ne IS AFRAID to so In. Talk about RS
NI4S-ns any length to learn. we have
hsa In the mines that are fun of
SIS they see the mark and You will
IN entry and hug the rib: they are
OF it. a. .
Why don't the men who argue
coSAe plain cut and say that we do
Aot want IN The mines OF West Vir-
MA a non-English speaking peo-
pie! Be plain about il; be frank,
lon put II on the basis of mex
perIenced men, rhs moment you
make a law of that kind you will
2ract. eally wipe out the American
miner, and Will show YOU why. and
every miner within the hearing OF
Ay voice VIII agree with me. There
5 not an American miner today that
"!!i take in miner, man who has
not worked in u mine. and divide up
Win him half and hall. The United
Mine Workers of America saw rhnI
all men are equal as to their earn
ing power OF the mines. Give 70
me my turn and the turn to my
ae-bhbor likewise" is their doctrine
Or Love your neiShbor us yourself"
MIR. NUGENT:
That is pretty good doctrine.
That 10 -.
ask one OF those men TO take in 4
man who has not worked in the
mines he Will say. mo, l have fam
iy 10 support, ] cannot waste nv
une learning this man; he Will have
10 SO somewhere else Take the
Italian, the Slav. take the Hunga-
ran. take any of the nationalities,
they Will not only take in the man
that You set apart for him to take in
out he will write over TO the old
country and bring over six or seven
more and learn them, while the
american is walking around outside.
Ihey are the men who will make the
miners, and not the Americans.
We have not had in all the years
hat L have been manager of those
properties serious accident of any
Kind that was caused by an irexperi-
enced miner. We have had some ac-
eidcnts that were caused by expert
enced miners ] believe as firmly as
believe that l am standing on this
!oor that a law of that kind would
De more injurious to the miners
han it would be to the operators,
toT the very reasons that | have Civ
en-. 1t would only be a short time
until the mines of this State would
DC worked by that foreign labor that
you so much object to.
No" then, let us go little farth-
or along this line. We talked about
The practical, the experienced miner.
Go into any of the mines on the Ka-
nGwha river today, take each and
every man from that mine, stand
hem in a row, put questions to
about the gases that are generated
n the mines. what they know about
protecting themselves in the CASE
gus mines-how many practical eX-
perienced men would you get? Does
man who works in mine that is
tree from gas learn the conditions
that exist in gaseous mine? How
can he learn it? He has had no ex-
0er-ence, and / want to say to you
gentlemen that you can go to no
school, you cannot absorb 1t from the
air, you cannot learn 1t by heresay
from any man, you have got to go
in there and learn by coming into
contact with it, and observing what
is done by those who have had ex-
perience in those mines, and GER
tiflcate from man in n mine on the
&anawha river would make him no
more safe in n gaseous mine than
many of those men whom you objec,
to, and while all the men ] have met
~ there are bright, intelligent men,
up equal to any that ] find In any of
the other States, and I have said that
20 the miners of this valley before.
We talk about certified mine bosses
and certified superintendents. There
was an old book that was written in
Wales some years ago, it is called
The Father and SON. Many OF
The old miners have read it; ! used
to read it myself You can take that
old book-it is n kind of catechism
you can learn from that book the
questions that will give you a GER
tificate in some of the States that re-
you can come awful close TO it in
Pennsylvania also. Would that man
tina: sat down and studied as a
school boy to learn those questions
be competent man to go with his
little old tin Davy Lamp and see if
places were safe and put a chalk
mark on the place? ] would hate to
have to follow him. He would have
to know more than that: he would
have to have had a taste of il, touch
ed his lamp up too high sometime or
other and lost all his hair below the
rim of his hat.
1 want to say to you that the man