The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-29
RED RECORD IN
UNITED STATES
Three Times as Many People
Killed in Coal Mines as in
Foreign Countries.
FIGURES OF THE EXPERTS
SYSTEM OF SUPERVISION SADLY
NEEDED.
Especial to The Herald.l


Washington. D. c.. Dec. 2S.-The coal
mines of the United States are killing
three times as many men per LOCO en-
ployed as those of most European coun-
tries.
In the last neventeen years. 22S4O
men have given up their lives in the
mines of this country. As many vio-
lent 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.
In 1906, s.S61 men were killed or in
jured in the mines. the killed number
ing 2,06l and the injured 4.SeO.
Facts Obtained by Experts.
These terrible facts have been CLEANED
by government experts under orders
from Secretary Garfield of the depart
nent of the interior to investigate the
nature and extent of mine accidents,
particularly those resulting from explo-
sions. and also 20 make suggestions as
to how mining conditions may be inn
proved and accidents prevented.
The secretary's request for informa-
lion was sent 10 George Otis Smith. di
rector OF the geological survey, last
June. who placed these Investigations
under the technOlogic branch of that
organization. Carrying out the sugges-
tions, Joseph A. Holmes, chief of the
technologic branch. Clarence Hall. eX-
plosives expert, and others made a num-
her of examinations of the more dan
gerous coal mines of Indian territory.
In addition, Mr. Hall and his assistant,
Walter o. Smelling, have investigated
the ma ture and causes of number Of
disastrous coal mine explosions in sew
eral of the states
Words Proved FatefuI.
The conclusions Of the experts are
found i'm a bulletin just issued on Coal
Mine Accidents; Their Causes and Pre-
vcntions."
The statement of Mr.. Holmes in the
bulletin that an increase in the number
and in the seriousness of mine explO-
sions may be expected to continue has
already proven fateful. for since the
words We're written, the country has
been startled with the news of three
mine explosions costing nearly 500 lives
The first explosion occurred in Penn
sylvania, i'm the early part of Decem-
her, and cost 80 lives. Then followed
the Monongah mine disaster in West
Virginia, with loss OF nearly SUI lives
and the explosion in Alabama the other
day with 81 lives lost.
Steadily Increasing.
Mr.. Holmes, in summing up the situa-
ton. says: The figures given i'm this
report indicate that during the year
1906 nearly 1000 men were killed or in
iured in the coal mines of this country,
and that the number of these accidents
caused directly or indirectly by mine
explosions has been steadily increasing.
Tt is also indicated that this Increase
has been due in part to the lack of
UroDer and enforcible mine regula-
lions: in part to the lack of reliable in
formation concerning the explosives
used in mining, and the conditions I'M
der which they can be used safely in
the presence of the gas and dust en-
cOuntered in the mines; and in part to
the fact that In the development of coal
mining not only is the number of miners