The Elbert County tribune., 1911-05-05

In the lead burst into her cabin. and. seixinr a
revolver rushed at her terrified children, but be-
,o,s sue could shoot. her arms were seized from
oehino. The struggle short and decisive.
one plunge backward across the pounded dirt
moor and the second woman staggered to one
side. painting with the revolver safe in her hand
Just n that dramatic moment the body OF her
own husband was being carried to the surface
This was mere incident, almost lost In the
stupefaction following local calamity. But 1t
serves as a meaningful Introduction to a splen-
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 10 average American
coal mine. The last annual report before the ex-
plosion showed that the mine had cleared $780,
900 in the previous year. 1t pointed out that the
property was yielding handsome returns the
Investment. but 1t did not mention the fact that
the mine was 20 dusty new air-shaft
ly needed. The air-shaft would have cost $40 900,
and the management decided against 1t. Unfor-
tunately, there 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. hfty-hve dead thirty-two widows thrown
upon the world and almost hundred children
fatherless. They formed 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
Ofically these killed by explo-
sion of the coal dust, but they really killed
by greed. 1t is the with all mine disasters.
You find volume after volume the causes.
but. sift them to the bottom and in more than
hreefourths of the cases you will find that spirit
Of, Get out the coal. never mind how many
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."
This explains why there killed in certain
sections of the naturally not unsafe bituminous
coal fields OF Pennsylvania and West Virginia
N tn n %
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 ruthlessy killed in
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
To kill miners entails financial loss. In the
Pittsburg district. even in the big notorious
plosions of recent years the average cost to the
operating companies has been less than $50 for
every dead.
You mustn't blame the mine operators" an i'm
portant government official apoogized. when the
blame was 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 see the fallacy of such statement
The increase In mine disasters became marked
about five years ago that It attracted the at
tention of the geological survey. a scientific
than a humanitarian organization, and two men.
Clarence Hnll 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
United States to low figure, the accidents dur
ing the last fifteen years have shown directly
contrary results Considered in regard to the