The Alaska citizen., 1910-09-05

move the siouGhed ground and waste
 preparatory 10 mining the pay dirt
 As matter of right and good
 common sense. the law does not
 demand that the foreman. either in
 person or by another set of labor
 CTS. should expressly go along and
 pick down the roof along the face
 before the miners begin taking out
 the thaw. II is but natural that
 these miners should do that work
 themselves. not only as a reason
 able and practical way to re
 move loose waste. but in order to
 protect themselves at any and all
 times. It k necessary for another
 reason 10 apply, in modified form.
 the rule of safe place to conditions
 such as exist in this action; and
 that by reason of the change in
 the temperature of the mine.
 sloughing from the roof is ever pre-
 sent when the men are at work
 underground. Their mere presence
 in the mine with necessary lights
 to guide them in their labors will
 produce sufficient heat to cause the
 falling of sand and gravel from
 the roof.
 u iE "iiil'' tFNsNtil .Np Say. lldt dS
 the ventilation of the mine becomes
 impaired. an additional heat is gen
 erated underground by reason of the
 presence of the steam pipe lines
 rubber hose. numerous and neCes-
 Sary connections attaching the
 points. and the almost inevitable result that more or less steam will escape from some of the joints and connections and especially from the points in the face of the thaw. II k by reason of this rather uniuue and unusual condition existing in underground drift mining in Alaska. that il seems both just and proper to both operator and laborer, that the law of safe place should be ap- piled only in a modified form. It would be almost an impOssibility. and certainly the height of folly. To demand or expect the foreman
 10 be responsible for the condition
 of the roof in such mining. when il is within the easy reach of the laborer with his pick and shovel; and he Is constantly standing at the place and knows when it is and will be necessary for him to repeatedly remove the more or less constant accumulation Of | thawed ground In the roof above
 his head,
 The plaintiffs dc not deny the ] applicability of this law and reason l ing to the ordinary drift and it's roof, except as 10 that part of the drift newt to and parallelling the tunnel The plaintiff contends that l here the safe place rule should ap- 1 ply, by reason of the fact that the | necessary process employed in run | ming the tunnel by constantly ap- l plying live steam 10 the points. and 1 in making the number of thaws nee | essary to run tunnel 160 feet 1 will, in itself. cause the roof of l the tunnel. as well as its sides. | 10 become thaWed in varying depths
 and thicknesses He likewise con | tends that the escaping steam from
 the drift alongside of the tunnel. 1 from which the dirt fell inflicting
 the alleged injury to the plaintiff. l was caused by this escaping steam | passing al that particular place from l the thaW into the tunnel. and that 1 by reason of this escaping steam l thawing ill the roof of the tunnel
 and along its sides, a much thick | CT mass of gravel and sand is l thawed in the roof of each face along the side of the tunnel and 1 for that reason the roof is inevita- | bly, higher at that portion of the | drift than in any other portion and as the plaintiff alleges and testi- | fies in this action, the roof at the l point he was working reached the l height of L. feet from the floor of
 the drift.
 The evidence shows that the roof
 Of an ordinary thaw in this mine
 was from 41& to ! feet. and that | by reason of sloughing became at | least from two to twelve inches | higher by the time the next thaw | succeeding was taken out Ordin- arily such roof reaching the | height of not more than six to sev-
 en feet during the time the labor
 CTS are required to work under | them That the roof of the drifts ultimately sloughed much higher and | sometimes stabbed down in i'm
 mense quantities, filling the entire | space of the worked out drifts. | there is no contention.
 I he witnesses invariably fixed the | height of the roof of the tunnel as | being from 112 to two feet above | tie laSging of the timbers of the
 sets in the tunnel making this roof
 ordinarily about 712 to feet to
 the highest point. which is in the
 center of the roof of the tunnel. It will be observed that the side
 of the drift adjoining the tunnel will be higher than in the drifts | some distance away from the tun-
 mel, and this difference is usually | evidenced by an arched shaped roof | extending from the top of the tun- nel into the roof of the drift, some 1 times for few inches, and at | other times to several feet A mo- ments consideration and thought will convince that had the roof at | the point where plaintiff was alleg- ed to have been injured, risen to | height of from F to 15 feet, it would have been so unusual and out of the ordinary as to have caused any miner of even a few days experience to have hesitated before going underneath to work; such condition in the roof amount in drift mining, and would have
 caused exceptional interest, fear and comment, not only among the min-
 CTS, but also between the operator
 and the foreman.
 am convinced as was said above