The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-12-27
MINE VICTIMS MANY.
Facts Gathered BY Cow
eminent investigator.
Nearly Three Times AS Many Killed
in United States Last Year as in
Most European Countries.

=" c"i'Su o'tttcS buSC tcQP as In
Most European Countries.
The coal mines Of the United States
are killing three times as many men
per 1000 employed as those of most
European countries. In the last
seventeen years 22,840 men have
given up their lives in the mines of
this country. AS many violent
deaths have occurred in the mines
during the last six years as during
the preceding eleven years. The
number of fatal accidents each year
is now double that of the year 1895
These terrible facts have been.
CLEANED by Government experts act
ing under orders from Secretary
Garfield of the interior department.
The conclusions of the experts are
found in a bulletin issued to-day on
Coal Mine Accidents; Their Causes
and Preventions."
The statement in the bulletin that
an increase in the number and
in the seriousness of mine ex-
plosions may be expected to con
tinue has already proven fate
full, for since the words we're writ
ten the country has been startled
with the news of three mine explo-
sions costing nearly 500 lives. The
first explosion occurred in Pennsly-
vania in the early part of December
and cost so lives Then followed
the Monongah mine disaster in West
Virginia with a loss Of nearly four
hundred lives, and the explosion in
Alabama the other day with 81 lives
lost.
Josepe H. Holmes, chief of the
technologic branch, in summing up
the situation, says:
The figures in this report indi
cate that during the year 1906 near
ly 1000 men were killed or injured
in coal mines of this country, anC
that the number of these accidr ats
caused directly or Indirectly by mine
explosions has been steadily increas
ing. 1t is also indicated that thi.
increase in part isdue to the lack d
proper and enforceable mine repula
tions; in part to the lack of reliable
information concerning the exp!o
sives used in mining and the condi
tons under which they can be use(
safely in the presence Of the gas an(
dust encountered in the mines; AM
IN part to the fact that in the devel
opinent of coal mining not only tn,
number OF miners are increasing
but many mines from which coal i
being taken are either deeper O
farther from the entrance whcr,
good ventilation is more difficult ant
4 no 1~nnOnrnl1S 0n,1on,,lntiN,, - ~,
ploSive gas more frequent.
The increase both in the numbe
and seriousness of mine explosion
during the past few years may b
expected to continue unless, throug.
Investigations such as have proveI
effective in other coal producin,
countries, information can be oh
tanned and published concerning tn
explosives used, the conditions un
der which they may be used safely
and the general conditions whic
make for health and safety. Sucl
information may serve as an intelli
gent basis both for executive enact
ment and for agreements anon.
persons associated With mining Oh
, erations."
The bulletin shows that in al
European coal producing countric
tnc output of coal has increased
greatly during the past ten years
) but the number Of deaths per LOO
miners, instead of increasing as il
tins country, has undergone a mark
ed decrease, This decrease ha
been due the bulletin says, to tn,
effect OF mining legislation on thos,
, countries for the safeguarding an,
affection of the lives Of the work
men, and has been made possible b,
Government action in establishing
stations for the study of problem
relative to safety in mining.