Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1911-05-05

IN the lead burst into her cabin and sei0ing n
seVoi'er rushed at her terrified children but be-
80 sue could shoot, her arms seized from
Denind The struggle was short and decsive
One plunge backward across the poupded d,rt
moor and the second woman staggered to one
sue painting with the revolver safe in her hand
just ~ tnat dramatic moment the body of her
own husband was being carried to the surface
rms was mere incident almost lost In the
seupe1action Following local calamity But IL
serves as meaningful introduction to a splen.
ana example OF the kind of occurrence which has
doubled the number of men killed In our coal
mines in the last ten years
me StarkV1He mine is average American
coal mine. The last annual report before the ex-
piosion showed that the mine had cleared $780,
GOO 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 a new air-shaft was sore
y needed. The airshaft would have cost 100000
and the management decided against It, Unfor-
tunately, there was no in the state of Colo
rado to make the company sink it.
One-nfheth of the years earnings was too
much TO make the mine reasonably safe! Re
suit, hfty-1ve dead, thrty-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
Officially these men were killed by an explo-
sion of the coal dust, but they were really killed
by greed. 1t Is the same with all mine disasters
You can hsd volume after volume on the causes
but sift them to the bottom and In more than
rhreefourths OF the 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 once exclaimed In ex-
ASPIRATION There coal companies which
nave no regard whatever for human life"
This explains why there are killed in certain
sections OF the naturally not unsafe bituminous
coal nelds OF Pennsylvania and West Virginia
WE'VE times as many men in comparison to the
number employed as 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
20 more than twelve
The truth is that men are 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.
10 klN miners entails financial loss In the
Plttsourg district, even in the big notorious ex-
ploslons 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 inn
portsnt government official apologized when the
blame was laid at their doors "It isn't their
fault They are doing all they can"
1ou need only turn to the governments own
reports TO see the fallacy of such a statement.
The increase in mine disasters became so marked
about five years ago that 1t even attracted the at
tenton OF the geological survey more a scientific
than humanitarian organization. and two men,
Clarence Hall and Walter Smelling were detailed
TO study the situation here and abroad They
FOUND the contrast TO be almost unbelievable. 1t
de summarized in these few sentences:
Tn 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