The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-01-24
COAL MINING COSTS LIVES.
One Miner Killed for Every 1S3, 600
Tons Produced.


Tons Produced.
Washington, D. Cone miners life
is snuffed out with every 183, 600 tons
of coal mined in the United States.
In 1907. when the Federal bureau of
mines was beginning its work, this
ratio was greater. Then one life was
given with every 144, 900 tons. DR..
Joseph A. Holmes, director of the
United States bureau of mines, in his
annual report to Secretary Fisher, at
tributes the decrease in mortality to
the Federal governments work in the
mining fields, and points out how the
enormous death list may be still fur
Their reduced.
The death rate in the metal mines
of the country is nearly as high, he
declares, as in the coal fields, averag-
ing more that three men per thousand
employed; the death rate in the quar-
ries is larger than it should be, aver
aging far more than that in foreign
countries; and the same is true in
metallurgical plants. He recommends,
therefore, that money be given the
bureau to carry it's mine-accident IN
vestigation into these other fields in
larger measure than the limited ap-
preparations so far granted have al
lowed.
The enormous annual loss in mining
and preparing coal for market, the
huge waste of natural gas, as well as
lack of efficiency and waste in the
metal mining industries, are men
toned by DR.. Holmes. This extrava-
gance of natural resources, he asserts,
should be checked.
"Pioneer educational work, temper
airy in character" is the way in which
the director refers to the mine rescue
and first-aid work among the more
than 700, 900 miners in the 5000
mines of the country. Ultimately this
must be taken care of, he says, by the
coal mining companies through the
training and organization of miners at
each of the larger mines or groups OF
mines. He says that already several
companies maintain rescue stations at
their own expense. The chief purpose
of the bureau of mines is to train
miners in first aid, mine rescue and
fre-fghting methods; and he adds
that "during the year more than 3d.
900 miners have attended the lectures
froyo hn
mine-safety cars; more than 1000 adj
ditional miners received training suffi-
cient to enable them to participate in
actual mine rescue work and more
than twice that number have been
added to the list of miners trained in
frst-aid practice"
Health conditions in and about
mines should be investigated, in the
opinion of DR.. Holmes. Preliminary
inquiries, he says, ~have indicated the
prevalence of tuberculosis and the
presence Of hookworm as miners dis
eases in several different localities in
the United States. 1t is important
that this work should be extended rap
idly, because of the fact that the
health conditions as we'll as the risk of
accidents, may be influenced by con-
ditions susceptible of easy improve
ment.
"The large and continual influx of
foreigners into the mining regions of
the United States may bring to an in
creasing extent the hookworm and
other diseases that exist in mines in
parts of certain European countries.
Various questions that concern the
health of workers in mines, quarries
and metallurgical plants cannot be an
swered finally without Investigations
and inquiries that are national in
scope. Among such questions are the
most efficient methods of preventing
the diseases peculiar to mining and
metallurgical industries, and the most
effective sanitary precautions to be
observed in and about mines and in
the various metallurgical occupa-
TONS"
The director dwells upon the neces-
sity of trying to prevent explosions
rather than check them after they are
started. In this connection he calls
attention to the fact that there has
been revolution in the use of explo-
sives in coal mining" and the work of
the bureau ''in investigating explo-
sives has alone value far greater
than the entire cost of maintaining
the bureau since its establishment. !"