Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1911-05-10

III the lead burst into her cabin. and selling a
.evo1ver' rushed at her terrified children, bu<, be-
~. sue could shoot, her arms were seized from
oen'no The struggle was short and decisive
One plunge backward across the pounded dirt
hoor and the second woman staggered to enc
s1de painting, with the revolver safe in her hand.
JUST at that dramatic moment the body of her
own husband was being carried to the surface
4nls was mere incident, almost lost in tho
stupe1actlon following local calamity. But 1t
serves as meaningful Introduction to a splen.
ala example OF the kind of occurrence which has
doubled the number OF men killed in our coal
mines in the last ten years.
Inc Starkvllle mine Is an average American
coal mine. The last annual report before the
plosion showed that the mine had cleared $780,
600 In the previous year, 1t pointed out that the
property was yielding handsome returns on the
investment but it did not mention the fact that
the mine was so dusty new air-shaft WAS
ly needed The air-shaft would have cost $100 900,
and the management decided against it. Unfor-
tunately there was no one in the state of Colo
RADIO to make the company sink it.
One-ffteth Of the years earnings was too
much to make the mine reasonably safe! Re-
suit, ffty-five dead, thirty-two widows thrown
upon the world and almost hundred children
fatherless. They formed an important addition
to the years total from the coal mines of more
than seven thousand killed and injured fifteen
hundred widowed, and four thousand children de-
pendent on ignorant and helpless women.
sion of the coal dust, but they really killed
by greed It is the same with all mine disasters.
You can find volume after volume on the causes,
but, sift them to the bottom and In more than
three-fourths Of the you will find that spirit
off, Get out the coal, never mind how many men
you kill, but get out the coal" AS Ex-Governor
Dawson of West Virginia once exclaimed in ex-
ASPIRATION, There coal companies which
have no regard whatever for human nfe"
This explains why there are killed in certain
sections of the naturally not unsafe bituminous
coal fields Of Pennsylvania and West Virginia
twelve times as many men in comparison to the
number employed in the highly dangerous
coal mines Of Belgium. For in this one section
alone, from killing six out Of every thousand in
1900, by 1908, when the last reliable figures were
obtained, the annual death roll had increased
to more than twelve.
The truth is that men are ruthlessly killed in
pur coal fields because the coal operators find It
less expensive to repair damage than take pre-
cautions. The human cost they do not take the
trouble to figure because, to them, there Is none.
TO kill miners entails no financial loss. In the
Pittsburg district, even in the big notorious ex-
plosions Of recent years, the average cost to the
operating companies has been less than $50 for
every man dead
You mustn't blame the mine operators" an i'm.
portant government official apolesized, when tho
blame laid at their doors. 1T isn't their
fault They are doing all they can"
You need only turn to the governments own
reports to sec the fallacy Of such a statement.
The increase in mine disasters became 80 marked
about i've years ago that It even attracted the at
tention Of the geological survey more a scientific
than . characterization organization, and two men,
Clarence Hall and Walter Smelling were detailed
to study the situation here aud abroad. They
found the contrast to be almost unbelievable It
is summarized in these few sentences:
In spite Of all the natural conditions tending
to reduce the percentage Of mine disasters in the
United States to low figure, the accidents dur
Ing the last fifteen years have shown directly
contrary results. Considered in regard to the