The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-08-28
AMERICANS MINE COAL
IN NO MANS LAND
American Arctic Company Has
Profitable Enterprise on Island
of Spitzbergen

CHRISTIANA, Norway, Aug. 26.-
The enterprise of American capitalists
from Boston, who two years aga
started coal mining in the Arctic
islands of Spitzbergen, has brought
about results important to the des-
TIMES of that little-known territory.
Hitherto Spitzbergen has held the le-
gal status of mo Mans Land" While
lit was supposed to have mineral re-
sources, no one had been sufficiently
bold to venture capital and human
lives in an attempt to wrest them
from the ice-bound rocks. Whaling
ships touched at the island occasion
ally, and it has been the base for Arc
tic explorers, but otherwise it had no
use to civilization. Hence it remained
a geographical maverick, without ma
tionality, laws or inhabitants.
No sooner had the operations of the
American Arctic company proven a
success-for although an output of
$4,000 thousand tons year does not
seem large to American and Euro
pean mining magnates, it discloses
DISQUALIFICATION promoters from
other countries began to descend up
on the islands. Claims have been
located already by Russians, Belgians,
English and Scandinavians. This in
ternational occupation, with its
chances for disputes, and the expert
ences of the American company have
brought about a strong need for some
sort of government. Norway has
made representations to the United
States and the principal European ma
tons in the matter, and an interna-
tional conference will be held at Chris
tiania before the end of the year, with
the purpose of giving Spitzbergen a
definite status. Norway has the clos
est relations, geographical and COM
mercial, with the islands, but any pro-
posal to assert sovereignty might meet
with objections from her Scandina-
Wan neighbors and from Russia. The
output of the American mine is
shipped to Norway, and within the
ipast year the. Norwegian government
established wireless station on Spitz-
bergen to bring the country into COM
munication through the Norwegian
station at Hammerfest. ia. F.
The experiences of the American
mining managers have been exciting
and dangerous. About two hundred
and fifty men, Swedes, Norwegians,
Firms and Russians, have been en-
ployed in the mines The darkness
and hardships of the last Arctic winter
brought them to state of rebellion.
Assaults were made on the foremen,
and during most of last winter they
lived in daily peril. When the COM
pany appealed to the Norwegian gov
eminent for punishment of miners
who attacked a foreman with picks
they found that Norway had no jur-
isdiction.
Late in July the troubles at the
mine eliminated in a general mutiny.
TIL miners seized the steamer al
ma chartered by the company,
which was at Advent bay and COM
PEELED the captain to take them to
Tromsoe, where they were landed.
Forty Norwegians among the number
were willing to continue work, but
the others coerced them, under
threats of death, to join in the strike.
Better barracks and higher wages
We're the demands made by the min
ers, who were paid six Kroners per
day, but asked for seven. While the
wage paid was a high one for the
north, the men represent that the
peculiar hardships of life in Spitzber-
gen entitle them to exceptional pay.
Reports have reached here from ST
Petersburg that Russia intends to es-
tablsh military stations along the Nor
wegian frontier, such as those which
occupy the German, Austrian and
Roumanian frontiers. The report
s-ates that troops are to be sent from
Archangel to the districts adjoining
Norway, whose frontier is 10S miles
long.
At the Congress of Scandinavian
dentists in session here, Dr. Hansen,
youthful Norwegian dentist, an
nounced that he had succeeded in dis
covering the bacillus of pyorrhoa al
veolaris and the means of combating
the disease, which causes the loss of
teeth. His colleagues assert that Han
sens discovery is epochal in the
| science of dentistry and represents a
distinct step in advance.