The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-19
Startling Facts Cleaned by the Government Experts h. yestigating Recent
 Disasters.
2,o61 KILLED IN ONE YEAR
List Constantly on the Increase and Three Times as Great as Any Other I-Producing
 Country.


 lines of the United States are killing three times as many men per 10000 men employed than those of most Eu- ropean countries. In the last seven teen years 22,S4O men have given up their lives in the mines of this coun- try. AS many violent deaths have oc- cured in the mines during the last six years as during the preceding eleven years. The number of fatali- ties each year is now double that of the year 1895. Tn 1906, 6,S61 men were killed or injured in the mines, the dead numbering 2,o61 and the in jured 4.S00.
 These terrible facts have been gleaned by government experts acting under orders from Secretary Garfield of the interior department to inyesti- gate the nature and extent of mine accidents, particularly those resulting from explosions, and also to make suggestions as to how mining condi- tions may be improved and accidents prevented.
 The secretarys request for informa- ton was sent to George Otis Smith, di- rector of the geological surveys last June Carrying out the suggestions, Joseph A, Holmes, chief of the technol- ic branch, Clarence Hall, explosive ex- pert, and others mace a number of examinations of the more dangerous coal mines of Indian territory. In ad- dition, Mir Hall and his assistant Wal ter o. Smelling. have investigated the nature and causes of a number of dis astrous coal mine explosions in several of the states,
 The conclusions of the experts are found in a bulletin issued to-day on "Coal mine accidents; their causes and prevention g.
 The statement of MT Holmes in the bulletin that an increase in the num- N Der and in the seriouseness of mine ex- piosions may be expected to continue has already proven fateful, for since \ the words were written the country \ has been startled with the news of X three mine explosions, costing nearly 800 lives The first explosions occurred in the Penna in the early part of De ceTnber and cost 32 lives Then came N the Mononagh mine disaster in West Virginia with loss of nearly 400 lives and the explosion in Alabama the other day with 61 lives lost.
 2 MT Holmes, in summing up the sit. i uation says:
 "The figures indicate that during 2 the year 1906 nearly 1000 men were Il s,, oJ ,,oi,, rt #this country and number of these & &saccidents were caused directly or in. EsSlirectly by mine explosions has been 4 4Bteadily increasing. It is also indicat. Ned that this increase has been due ir bart to the lack of proper enforcible mine regulations; in part to the lack ,f reliable information concerning < he explosives used in mining and the Y conditions under which they can be # lsed safely in the presence of the gas nd dust encountered in the mines; M nd in part to the fact that in the VI evelopment of coal mining, not only the number of miners increasing, . ut many are--as from which coal is M Icing taken, either deeper or farther % rom the entrance where good yenti- ation is more difficult and the dan erous accumulations or explosive gas @ Aore frequent
 'sThe increase both in the number . nd seriousness of mine explosions dur sAg the past few years may be expect 2 l to continue unless, through inter
 1ptions such as have been proved ef sctive in other coal-producing coun-
 ies, information can be obtained ant
 lbished concerning the explosives us
 the conditions under which the. ay be used safely and the genera a3 nditions which make for health ant W fety. Such information may serve a
 intelligent basis both for legislativ
 actment and for arguments among <s rsons associated with mining opera
 Dns"
 .'- The bulletin shows that in all Euro
 an coal-producing countries the out . of coal has increased greatly dur
 p the last ten years but the numbe
 deaths per thousand miners instea'
 increasing as in this country ha
 dergone a marked decrease.
 Considered in regard to the mum
 of deaths per 1000 men employed
 United States occupies a less ia
 Table position than any other of tn
 s1-producing countries, more thai lee times as many men out of eacl
 loo employed being killed as il
 he countries"