The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-12-25
Mine VICTIMS MANY.
Terrible Facts Gathered By Gov.
erninent investigator.
Nearly Three Times As Many Killed
III United States Last Year as in
Most European Countries.
The coal mines of the United St:

The coal mines Of the United States
are killing three times as many men
per 1,00C employed as those Of most
European countries. In the last
seventeen years 22,S40 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 1898
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 tha:
an increase in the number and
I in the seriousness of mine ez-
piosions may be expected to COLI
tinue has already proven fats
full, for since the words were 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 81 lives Then followed
the Monongah mine disaster in West
Virginia with a loss of nearly fou,
hundred lives, and the explosion II
Alabama the other day with 81 live:
lost.
Josepe H. Holmes, chief of the
technoIogic branch, in summing ur
| the situation, says:
The figures in this report indi
cate Gfat during the year 1906 near
ly 1000 men were killed or injured
in coal mines Of this country, ane
that the number Of these accident!
caused directly or indirectly by mine
explosions has been steadily increas
ing. It is also indicated that thi
increase in part is due to the lack o.
proper and enforceable mine regula
tions; in part to the lack of reliable
information concerning the explo
sives used in .miring and the condi
tions under which they can be uset
safely il the presence of the gas ant
dust encountered in the mines; ant
N part to- the fact that in the devel
opment Of coal mining not only thu
number of miners are increasing
but many mines from which coal !
being taken are either deeper O.
farther from the entrance wher
good ventilation is more difficult ant
the dangerous accumulations OF ex
plosive gas more frequent.
"rhe increase both in the nunbe
and seriousness Of mine explosion
during the past few years may b
expected to continue unless, throug
Investigations such as have prove
effective in other coal producin,
countries, information can be OF
tained and published concerning tn
explosives used, the conditions ur
der which they may be used safely
and the general conditions whic
make for health and safety. Sac!
Information may serve as an iaiLtlil
gent basis botn for executive anact
rnent and for agreements among
persons associated with mining %
erations.
The bulletin shows that in a
European coal producing countrie
:, rne output of coal has increased
greatly during the past ten years
but the number of deaths per 100
miners, instead of increasing as il
iilis country, has undergone a mark
I'd decrease, This decrease IA
been due the bulletin says, to tn
effect Of mining legislation on taos
countries for the safegua riding ant
protection 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.