The Appeal., 1911-05-06

was to blame came out at the hearing, but was g.
nored. Fire Boss Trader at No g. in which the cars
ended the run said that twice before there had been
runaways, and each occasion fires had been
started in the coal dust but had been extinguished
before they spreda. And Blacksmith jenkins, fgur-
Ing the time between the passage of the cars aed
the moment Of explosion, showed that between the
short circuit and the explosion there had been at
: least a remarkable coincidence
There 362 men killed in that disaster and
II the cause had been fixed electricity the own
ers might have been forced to pay 81 800 a man,
like the owners of the Cherry Hill mine who faced
public opinion outraged at the thought of men be-
ing sealed alive in burning mine. AS it was they
got off by contributing $4,000 to be added to the
public relief fund of $149000 Sd instead of ST.
each man cost only $55.25.
Electricity was also not blamed in the case Of
the Marianne disaster of November 49, 1908, when
154 men lost their ves but after the public inter-
est had blown over the of electricity was aban-
doned at the suggestion of the department of mines
and compressed air replaced in it's stead. This
might appear to indicate guilty knowledge of the
real cause.
AS a matter of fact the owners of the mine the
Pittsburg-Bufalo Company, had already had warn
ing that all was not right in the Mariana. On Au-
gust H. more than two months before the big ex-
plosion, there smaller explosion which result
ed in the death Of one man and serious injury to
two others; and Alderman A. R. Day. of Mononga-
hela before whom the preliminary hearing took
tricity William Underwood, foreman in charge Of
the NINE was arrested on information filed by State
Mine Inspector John F. Bell on charge of permit
ting t'the of spark-throwing machinery in that
part of the mine where only safety lamps are al
lowed" @~
the fact Of this accident but the report Of the state
department of mines for 1908 contains account
of the accident .- r..
Now that the United States government has
recognized the danger of electricity it has taken
the position that it would be blocking progress
prevent it's use. So it has set about solving the
problem in a way that will bring final relief, but
this will not prevent the death Of thousands of men,
who Will lose their lives account of electricity
tween now and the time when safely devices are
invented. 1t is impossible to fix an exact number,
but probably no less than five hundred have come
&c their death through unsafe electric apparatus
the past year. the length of time the government
has been at work on the problem
In March, 1910 the federal department of mines
sent word to all manufacturers of electric mining
apparatus that H. H. Clark an engineer had been
placed in charge of the work at the Pittsburg test
Ing station and was ready to stamp the seal of gov
ernment approval on all electric mining machinery
that did not spark; but nine months later he had
not yet discovered single piece of electric appara,
tus which met the requirements. Just consider that
for moment. Even with all the improvements
winch have been made to electric apparatus safety
Ol. q
But what is to be done? It is objected that you
can't stop ninetenths of the mines from operating
until they are made safe. And yet If they are per.
mltted to go ahead present. they are absolute
certain to kill from 1000 to 5000 men before safe
apparatus Is devised and installed.
Are those 5000 lives to be sacrificed? Is nothing
to be done meanwhile? Apparently not
those 5000 men were in one mine and abso-
lutely certain to death there unless the cleo
TIC apparatus were torn out, the situation would be
dramatic, public opinion would be aroused and some
thing quite efectual would be done. The real need
IS no less lnsistent then 1t would not be absurd
to demand immediate action n one case it in
not in the other.
But, 1t Is objected again, It would interfere with
business. It would be too expensive. impossible.
Money, then, has more rights than humanity Money
must be saved at any cost to men And these 5000
must die because 1t would be too expensive to save
them.
In Colorado they are beginning to zee the light
- whole serfe. of horrible disasters forced
On them The coroners jury that investigated the
starkvle explosion found It had been due to cleo
t1ctty, and commisston appointed by the governor
strongly urged the legislature this spring abso-
lutely to forbid the use Of electricity in mines rs
Eardless Of the cost
Having no power to enforce the use OF safety
apparatus. the department Of mines u basing its
undertaking on moral suasion. With the help Of
mining Inspectors and new state laws It hopes to
get results. Eventually. It has reason to believe
It will be successful. Il doing similar work IN