The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1911-05-04

was to blame came out at the hearing but was ig.
nored. Fire Boss Trader at No g. in which the cars
ended the rum said that twice before there had been
runaways, and each occasion fires had been
started in the coal dust but had been extnguished
before they spreda. And Blacksmith jenkins, fgur-
ing the time between the passage Of the cars and
the moment Of explosion, showed that between the
short circuit and the explosion there had been at
least remarkable coincidence.
There were 1862 men killed in that disaster and,
II the cause had been fixed ON electricity the own
ers might have been forced to pay 81 800 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 $149OO0 So instead of ST. 8OO
each man cost only $685..
Electricity was also not blamed in the case Of
the Mariana disaster of November 28 1908, when
154 lost their lives but after the public inter.
est had blown over the of electricity aban.
doned at the suggestion of the department of mines
and compressed air replaced In its stead. This
might appear to indicate a guilty knowledge Of the
real cause.
AS matter of fact the owners OF the mine the
Pittsburg- Buffalo Company, had aready had warn
ing that all was not right in the Mariana. On Au
gust H. more than two months before the big
plosion, there a 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
place, found that the accident had been due to eec
tricity. William Underwood foreman in charge of
the mine was arrested on information filed by State
Mine Inspector John F. Bell on a charge of permit
ting the use Of spark-throwing machinery in that
part of the mine where only safety lamps are al
lowed"
The Pittsburg Buffalo Company repeatedly denied
the fact of this accident but the report of the state
department of mines for 1908 contains an account
of the accident
Now that the United States government has
recognized the danger Of electricity it has taken
the position that it would be blocking progress to
prevent its use. So it has set about solving the
problem in 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 be-
'ween now and the time when safely devices are
Iented 1t is impossible to fix an exact number
but probably no less than five hundred have come
TO their death through unsafe electric apparatus in
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 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
lor d moment Even with all the improvements
which have been made to electric apparatus safety
is as far off as ever
But what is to be done? 1t is objected that you
cant stop nine-tenths Of the mines from operating
until they are made safe And yet If they are per.
mitted to go ahead at present they are absolute
y 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
If those 5000 men were in one mine and abso,
utely certain to meet death there unless the elec
trio apparatus were torn out the situation would be
dramatic public opinion would be aroused and some
thing quite effectual would be done The rea! need
is no less insisent II, then 1t would not be absurd
to demand immediate action in the one case il ia
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 And these 5000
must die because it would be too expensive to save
them.
In Colorado they beginning to see the light
whole series of horrible disasters has forced it
on them. The coroner's jury that investigated the
Starkve explosion found it had been due to cleo
tricity, and commission appointed by the governor
strongly urged on the legislature this spring abso.
lutely to forbid the of electricity in mines re-
gardless of the cost
Having no power to enforce the use of safety
apparatus, the department of mines is basing it's
undertaking On moral suasion. With the help of
mining inspectors and state laws 1t hopes to
get results. Eventually it has reason to believe.
it will be Successful It Is doing similar work il
respect to explosives.