The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-15

were useless in the smoke and gas chOk-
| ed chambers. Those entering the mine
sald IL was still On fire ana caving in
| badly
That every bit of life giving air had
] Teen exhausted many hours ago, was
| declared certain
Inree deScentS were made but no
sign of life was seen. and the rescuer>
declared no life could exist for, hum
CreCS OF feet beyond the shaft entrance.
A few miners caps and lamps were
seen-tragic tokens of the first rush for
| Safety ty. the miners who escaped but
10 bodies were found
This indicated that when the miners
| re&nzed they were .1enned hopelessly in
a pit from which there was no exit
/ they rushed to the farthermOSts end of
the veia. where some air might be
found that would keep them alive till
help came. President Richard Newsam
OF the state committee declared he would
have prevented the futile attempt of
Superintendent Bundy and others to en-
ter the mine immediately after the ex-
rlosion He asserted any chance of
escape by the main shaft was Impossi-
bic.
| state Mine Inspector Taylor said d
small supply of air probably existed
in the mine and that it fighting
chance for those within. This was de-
nied by miners who ins pected the open
T, iEgs yesterday.
| When Hope Disappeared.
| Acting Chief of Police McFadden,
| for years a miner and one of the last
| TO leave the mine alive, said that the
closing of the shaft shut off the last
j Nestige of hope for the entombed men.
1t was planned to bring the bodies of
The miners to the surface late this
! fternoon
| The task presented many difficulties.
Searching parties, provided with
| oxygen helmets to guard against the
| smoke, carried stretchers on which to
bear the bodies to the cage. The Sec
ond and third veins are said to be fill
{ d with smoke and the darkness made
:he Journeys through the galleries slow
and hard.
1t is believed too that the men in
| their desperate fight for their lives.
erawled to the further extremities of
the veins. The fire which now seems
tc have been burning steadily long
after 1t was first reported to have
burned itself out, kept driving the
| miners farther and farther toward the
blind ends of the galleries.
Cap lanterns and dinner buckets
were found on the first two descents
today at the intersections of the shafts
and galleries and it was reported,
though officials would not admit it,
that some bodies were found there. 1t
was feared the many relatives and
friends of the dead would in their ex-
element break through the limits set
| by the officials and rush to the shafts
when the first bodies appeared.
New Laws Needed.
Prof. Graham Taylor of Chicako. a
member of the investigating commit
| tee, reached the scene of the disaster
today. He came to look into the cir
| cumstances with a view to aiding the
committee in the suggestion of mining
| legislation.
'Tt is the province of this committee
Of which A. r. Newsan is the chair
man. said Prof. Taylor, ito propose
legislation which will better mining
conditions. Something must be done
to distribute more equitably the finan-
| cial burden of such calamity as this.
| That the wage earners alone should
suffer, and organized labor, particu-
| .arly. be forced to contribute to the
support of the survivors is unjust.
illinois is far behind other states
and the country behind other nations
| IN such legislation. The German law
| distributes the burden between the en-
| ployer. the employees and the organized
workers.
1.-The committee had an excellent
aw which the Illinois legislature threw
in the waste basket. Here we have a
oncrete case. The conditions which
; will arise from this appalling calamity
will certainly furnish an argument for
! The necessity of legislation such as the
| committee promised to insist upon"