Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-28

IE4 H%{tHl InlnR that nullidlnlN may
Id 49, well shudder at its awful
"a ~ record. In the last ten years
lkzzszg twenty thousand coal miners
and nearly ten thousand
metal miners have perished while at
work. In the year 1907, 1925 unfortu-
mates lost their lives, and the following
year 2450 we're lost in the coal mines
of the United States alone. This ter
rible tragedy of the mines is being
enacted almost every day. Only
short time ago more than three hun
dred men were roasted to death in a
coal mine at Cherry, Ill, and since then
two hundred more have been killed
in explosions. Seventy-nine were
numbered on the death roll at Pri-
nero, Colo. and few days later
thirty-five were killed in Kentucky.
Eleven were hurled into eternity at
Indiana, Pa, and after that an eXplo
sion i'm a mine in Mexico wiped out
nearly a hundred more. These disas-
ters are coming so thick and fast that
there does not seem to be time between
explosions to bury the dead. Every
time the newspapers report one of
these horrors a half million feminine
, hearts falter for a moment, for the
wife of the miner has every reason to
live in constant apprehension.
At present at Cherry a most grew
some series of events is taking place.
One hundred and eighty bodies are
still in the mine, whose shaft was
sealed weeks ago in the hope of smoth-
ering the fire that was raging. Miners
and officials. hoping that the fire has
been eXtinguished, are preparing to
bring out the bodies The few surviv
ing miners, fearful that an epidemic of
disease will follow the removal of the
/ L.
Inanding that the bodies of the men in
the mine be destroyed by chemicals.
The women, many of them made wild
ows by their husbands being lost in
this holocaust are pleading that the
bodies be preserved for burial. Senti-
ment means more to them in their
great grief than any dire consequence
that may follow. Many of them feel
that they have already lost all and
that nothing worse can happen. A
sad feature of this heartrending
| tragedy is that seventy-four babies
have been born to these women since
| that terrible eday-seVenty-four pitiful
little orphans whose helpless plight
calls for the deepest sympathy The
very suggestion that their fathers
| lives may have been lost by careless
ness is an awful arraignment against
| those who are responsible.
A shot firer in coal mine, who was
getting SO a day for his dangerous
work, made a demand upon the super
| intendent for more money! You're
getting more wages now than you are
entitled to-" was the reply of the su-
perintendent. "Wages?" exclaimed
the shot firer, this company doesn't
pay me wages. 1t bets me SO a day
that l won't come out of this mine
alive. If I do, the company gives me
SO; if I don't, they bury me-" Seven
hundred thousand coal miners and
100000 metal miners daily make a bet
with the owners of the mines that
| they will come out alive If they win,
they get their wages for the day: if
they lose, the company buries them
and that is about all. A little later the
widows may get a few hundred dollars
| twenty of them settled the other
day at the rate of $3.50 each.
! There is, however. brighter side to
this dark horror of the mines. The
people are beginning to realize the sit
| uation and to act accordingly. The in
vestigation stage has passed and the
public is stunned at what it has
learned. Statistics of mine accidents
in this and foreign countries have been
eagerly scanned for information, and
the results have been in every in
stance to the discredit of the United
states. The European figures show in
many countries not more than one
man killed in every 1000 employed in
years time, and in other countries
less than two In the United States
in 1907 nearly five men in every thou
sand employed We're killed in the coal
| mines, and in 1908 the rate was nearly
four.
Someone who delves in figures makes
the statement that if the United States
had the record of the best Euronean
countries, such as Belgium, $1,000 out
of the 10000 men killed in the coal
mines of this country in the last ten
years might have been saved. Further
investigation of the European figures
discloses the fact that years ago these
countries had records as dsgraceful as
our own. The reduction in the number
of accidents in this most hazardous oc-
cupation began when these countries
took up a scientific investigation of the
causes of accidents. The decrease in
the number of deaths has continued
until today in Germany, Great Britain,
Belgium and France, the coal mines
are killing slightly over one man in
| every 1000 employed.
The year 1907 witnessed four of the
most SHOCKING mine explosions in the
history of the United States The
greatest of these was at Monongah
w. Va, in which 36S men were killed.
A few days later there followed the eX-