The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-10-12

IN the lead burst into her cabin and seizing a
revolver. rushed at her terrified children but be.
Iore she could shoot, her arms were seized from
oehlnu me struggle was short and decisive.
one plunge backward across the pounded dirt
moor ana the second woman staggered to one
SIDE, painting, with the revolver safe in her hand.
Just at that dramatic moment the body. of her
own husband being carried to the surface.
This was mere incident, almost lost in the
stupefaction following local calamity. But 1t
serves as meaningful introduction to a SPLEEN
did example of the kind of occurrence which has
doubled the number of men killed In our coal
mines In the last ten years.
The Starkville mine Is average American
coal mine The last annual report before the ex-
plosion showed that the mine had cleared $780,
900 In the previous year, it pointed out that the
property yielding handsome returns on the
investment, but 1t did not mention the fact that
the mine was so dusty new air-shaft was sore
ly needed. The air-shaft would have cost $4,000,
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-hftieth of the years earnings too
much to make the mine reasonably safe! Re
suit, ffty-fve dead, thirty-two widows thrown
upon the world, and almost a 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 ignorant and helpless women.
Officially these men were killed by an explo-
sion of the coal dust, but they really killed
by greed 1t 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
threefourths of the cases you will find that spirit
Of Get out the coal, never mind how many men
you kill but get out the COAL" AS Ex-Governor
Dawson of West Virginia exclaimed in ex-
ASPIRATION. There are coal companies which
have regard whatever for human life."
nlafn xzhu Had In
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
obtained. the annual death roll had increased
to more than twelve.
The truth is that men ruthlessly killed in
our coal fields because the coal operators find 1t
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-
plosons 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 apologized. when the
blame laid at their doors. ut isn't their
fault They are doing all they can"
You need only turn to the governments own
reports to see the fallacy of such statement
The increase in mine disasters became marked
about Ave years ago that 1t even attracted the at
tention Of the geological survey, a scientific
than humanitarian organization, and two men,
Clarence Hall and Walter Smelling, detailed
to study the situation here and abroad. They
found the contrast to be almost unbelievable 1t
Is summarized In these few sentences:
"In spite Of all the natural conditions tending
to reduce the percentage Of mine disasters in the
Uuited States to low figure. the accidents dur
Ing the last fifteen years have shown directly
contrary results. Considered in regard to the