The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-05-20
CURSE OF EARTH THEY ROBBED
FALLS ON CITY OF COAL KINGS
WEST PITTsToN, HOME OF
OPERATORS, FAiREST TOWN
IN COAL COUNTRY, is SINK
ING DAILY INTO THE EARTH.
BY SAM 3. ANSON.
Special Correspondence 60 The Press
WEST PITTSTON, Pa, May 20.

| 800
WEST PITTSTON, Pa, May 20
This is city doomed 1t is slow
ly, fearfully, surely dropping into
the bowels of the earth.
1t isn't that vice and iniquity is
dragging it down. West Pittston is
a beautiful residence community,
the richest town for its size in all
this great anthracite region-clean-
er, morally, than most towns. 1t
is sinking literally.
The mines below the city are
caving in!
In many parts of West Pittston
the drop has been five inches al
ready. Houses are settling, great
assures are appearing in the pave
ments, the grave stones in the GEM
etery-as dread omens of the end
that is to come-are tipping.
At the rate the town is now sink
ing, it will drop another foot be-
fore New Year. 1t will keep on
dropping, say experts-a little each
day, little each hour. Finally,
some day, SOON, the bottom will
drop from beneath the whole city
That will be the end of West Pitts
ton.
'Tis the retraybution the GUIDE
Book tells o., that the dominic tells
We about in the kirk of Soondah,"
a stout old Cornish miner told me-
ut is the vengeance O the Lord;
he ha' stickit forth His strong RIGHT
arm and is deemandin' His scoore."
For this is the rich mine opera
tors own city-they live here. They
picked it out, the only undespoiled
spot nthe valley, to build homes
in for their wives and children.
But they couldn't resist the tempta-
ton to mine under it. Nor after
that to rob the pillars"
Robin the pillars is peculiar
ly a Pennsylvania thing. 1t means
that after you've stripped the mines
bare, leaving only pillars of earth
and coal to support the roofs-that
you get busy then and take the
coal out of the pillars.
In a dozen cities for 70 miles
along the river valley. the pillars
have ben robbed, the countryside
undermined. They are looking at
West Pittston with dismay and
fear.
In this emergency the rich oper-
ators are in a quandary. If they
make any move they may draw
down the fire of legislative enact
ments forbidding pillar robbing in
the future, which will cut into their
fat dividends. If they don't move
they will lose their homes.
OF course, they have poor people
in West Pittston, merchants and
small taxpayers. They stand to lose
their homes, too. They have moth
ing to fear from the legislature.
Why don't they get busy, you ask?
Why, bless you, they've been 60
ing to the legislature since before
either of us was born. It's like
chasing the pot of gold at the rain
bows end. The coal barons own
the legislature, own the courts, own
the mine inspectorS-own the state.
The sinking was first noticed in
the yard of the Vulcan Iron Co. S
plant on the river bank. The walls
of the buildings began to crack
| The ground settled. first one, then
two, three, four, five inches.
In a day or two the tissues be
gan to crop up in the heart OF the
| town. The Methodist church foun
dations shifted. The Warren street
school suddenly fell out of plumb
Brick pavements began to crack.
The operators, stirred by popular
outburst, sent three state mine in
spectors and a bunch of their owr
experts down into the Clear Spring
colliery. whose workings honey
comb West Pittston below streets
But these were Pennsylvania
state mine inspectors. That reser
walton counts for a lot. These go
their orders and reported tina
there is no more danger of sink
ings."