The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-05-23
BY RORI. e. WILSON.

nSot. "IIS0Ns
WASHINGTON, May 23.-Amer-
lean indifference and the cupidity
. of the mine barons are responsible
for the needless sacrifice of the
lives of thousands of American min.
ers each year.
According to figures submitted
to the senate committee on mines
and mining, nearly $4,000 coal min
ers alone who lost their lives dur
ing the past ten years might have
been saved had proper mining reg
ulations been observed.
Mortality figures regarding metal
mines have not been kept, but the
cursory investigation made by the
United States geological survey re-
veals the startling fact that the
death rate in American iron, cop
per, silver and gold mines is even
higher than that in the coal mines.
This is new information. Metal
mine disasters attract but little
notice, owing to the fact that 1t is
seldom a large number of miners
are killed in any one accident. But
the metal mine accidents make up
in frequency what they lack in size.
in this day of anti-toxin.
In the Iron county (Mich) ore
mines nearly seven of every thou
sand laborers employed are killed
each year. The man who takes a
Job in an Iron county mine has
about the same chance of living a
year out as the man stricken with
appendicitis has of pulling through
his Illness.
He has even a poorer chance for
life than the child with diphtneria
in this day of anti-toxine.
Science has come to the relief of
the sick man and child. American
apathy has left the miner to his
fate. He delves underground that
we may be warmed and fed and
clothed, but we have taken no
thought Of him. The safest mines
we have in America today would
be scandals in Europe. where the
governments have given the miners
the protection they need
America. profligate with her
lives, is just as wasteful of her nat
ural resources. The committee on
mines is informed that the annual
waste of coal in mining is 100000
600 tons. The total production is
only 500,0O0.000 tons. That is the
mine operators throw away one
ton for every two tons they bring
to the surface. All because it's
cheaper to mine that way.
The owners of zinc, copper, sill
yer and gold mines equal the coal
mine owners in prodigility in aban-
doning half worked mines. One
western copper mine daily wastes
$4,000 Of copper in the smelling
process. Cheaper,
And so it is estimated that
American mines, coal and metal
together, throw away each working
day of the year 81 600, 600 of price
less resources.
1t is to do away with this Grim
inal waste Of life and resources
that the government geological
experts are proposing an American
bureau of mines. The bill providing
for the bureau has been reported
favorably from the committee, and
is likely to pass.
Three years ago the technologic
branch of the geological survey
took up the work of scientific life
saving at mine disasters and the
scientific measures to prevent dis
Asters.
Government red tape has made
the service Intellectual. The survey
men, with their oxygen helmets and
other appliances, have no legal
rights in any mine after disaster.
Mines at present are under state
supervision.
This life saving service will be
undertaken by the new bureau. Sta
lions with men and apparatus to re-
spond to alarms will be situated in
mining districts, and ii is believed
many lives will be saved.