El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-12-21
COAL MINE IS
IMMIGRANT
HAVEN
Where Skill Is Not Required
and Wages Are Low the
Foreigner Thrives.
USUALLY GLAD TO
GET WORK IN MINES
By Frederic J. HaskiR.

/ instance, he and his children cOnSu-
tute practically three-fourths of the
labor force of the bituminous coal
mines Of the United States. And. gen
/ orally speaking, the bulk of this immi-
grant labor found in the mines is but
lately arrived and of the new immi-
/ grafton. Prior TO 1890 the average BIZ
( luminous coal miner was native
American, a Welchman, Scot, an
I IriShman, an Englishman, or a Ger
man. He welded a pick, and his work
{ required skill and experience. He un-
! dercut the coal, drilled his own holes.
tired MS own ShotS. and, together with
his helper, loaded his coal on cars at
| so much per ton for the entire opera
1 Then came the invention of the min
/ ing machine, capable OF doing the work
/ of many pick miners, and thereafter
/ shovelers were needed With the coal
! undercut by machinery, the holes
| drilled in the same way, and the shots
| fired by an expert IN his line, any I'M
/ migrant, however initerate, and how
/ ever ignorant Of mining conditions.
/ could do the bulk of the hand work in
/ the mine. The result was that the
/ husky SlOvak, whOpe only skill was
J main force and aWkWardness, could do
/ immigration After the Slovak came
! the Magyar, the Pole and the Italian.
! And when they came into the mine
/ their predecessors went out
! One frequently heSrs that the new
work. drives out the native American
and the old" immigrant and then
/ stays there. But this is not a fair
statement Of conditions. They work
ers many of them searching better
/ fields in the same industry, or climb
/ ing up rung of the industrial ladder
into work on top the ground-maybe
into q steel plant, a pillow factory. or
willing to Work Hard.
The new immigrant, illiterate, in
experienced, unable to speak or to un-
derstand English, makes an excellent
mine worker He cannot talk back to
! his boss, he is unacquainted with any
thing that savors of insu bordination,
and his training in the fields in Eu-
rope, where he frequently had to walk
four or five miles from his village
home to his work and back, and work
ing from sun to sun, have made him
tTactable and willing to work hard.
He-is usually glad to get work at the
wages the operator IS willing to pay,
for that is a great Improvement over
what he got at home.
The story of Calumet. in the north
ern peninsula Of Michigan, illustrates
the immigrants monopoly of the min
ing industry in America. 1t is a city
Of 5000, and almost as unAmerican
as Naples, Warsaw, or Trieste. It is
difficult to find an American in the
place. There is a babel of tongues, 20
different races constituting its pOpu-
resented in its school teaching force.
It's people are the foreigners and their
children who live by the copper mines
under Lake Superior. The native born
are the ones who have coIonized at
Calumet, and they have named their
settlement 'Houghton.'
Not Always MOles.
The men who mine our coal were
not always human mOles burroWing in
one-fifth of those who mine the soft
coal of the country every worked in
a mine before they. came. to America,
and nearly three-fifths OF them grew
to manhood working in the fields OF
southern and eastern Europe. Perhaps
they were sheep herders following
their flOcL<c the rough hills
hap they worked in the bright hued
poppy fields. Whatever they did they
lived close to nature, amid bright, 1
health-g1vlng' trength-maklng sur
rOundings. Now they must work where
never a ray of natural light comes
Peter Roberts strihngly tells the /
story Of the miner Of today. " Pro |
ductiOn,' tonnage says he, that is |
the talisman in the life of so many /
managers who want to make a record. !
and they forget the men, who ought Z
to count for more than production In /
almost wholly foreign, the man IN
charge wanted to make a record. Get (
out the coal was the order, and the /
wheels were running at their sW1ftest. /
A boy came and said, There's fire on I
level three The foreman replied, It's 4
a mistake, get out the coal An hour (
the word was passed, we are brea king /
the record, get out the COAL Then an !
and then the cry, The third level is /
full of smoke The wheels stopped; !
but it was too late; no word could be /
sent to the surface. The air current Z
changed, and none of the men on that 4
level could escape. The manager made ]
his record. but it was a record so grue- {
shock the next morning. Z
At the same time it is to be remem- /
bered that the immigrants Indifference {
is oftentimes the cause Of accidents in (
mines as well as elsewhere Some of I
them are so reckless and take so many
chances that the ADDED risk alone mas /
been sufficient to Danish native !
American and older immi grants from /
the mines The bureau of mines puts /
some of the burden of responsibility
for accidents upon the shoulders OF the /
miners themselves. It says that some 1
take proper precautions for their own
safety or for the safety of others, and |
that this becomes a serious menace u11-
less they are restrained by carefully
enforced regulations.
Coal Miners Poorly Paid.
o4 3a average b ~agg P5iG the +i6 Of tbs
immigration commission showed that
ali miners over IS years of age aver
worked only enough days in the year
10 make their total income per year
S443. only two-fifths of the families
investigated showed that they could /
live on the wages of the head of the !
house alone More than a third of I
them supplemented the family income /
by keeping bOarders, and some OF them
had children at work
But the foreigner in the mine seems
NllGEI4u 4lg 70 suit his SLdli4dEu u 4lf4Al5
to his income. This is illustrated by /.
the rents paid per person among ma
tive and foreign born families inves- /
tiSated by the immigration commits
sion. The Bulgarians, for instance,
were able to crowd themselves so much I
that the rent of their houses. averaged
81 cents a month per person. The
MacedOnians went them still better, !
their average expense for house rent
being IS cents per person. Nearly all
of the new" immigrants were able
10 hold the expenditure below $3.50 per I
month.
The indications are that for many
years to come the miners who dig the I
coal with which we run our railroads. |
steamships, factories. furnaces and /
mills. and with which we heat our
homes. will still come from southern /
and eastern Europe. and they Will con-
tinue TO live as men down in the dark
ness of the earth rather than as men |
up in the sunlight of day. but at the
same time they viii probably Join the