The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-09-05
ARMY OF MINERS
FIGHTING. HUNS
UNDERGROUND WORKERS ARE
EFFICIENT SOLDIERS.
EXHIBIT INTENSE PATRIOTISM
Are Waging War AS Truly and Ad
Earnestly AS Men In Trenches
The Hazardous Character Of the
Coal Digeers' Occupation. :.

Washington, d. c., Sept Am
army of three-quarters Of a million
men, with no divisional or corps
numbers, with no insignia except
that of the man who labops, and
working far from the fanfare of trum-
pets, is the subterranean army of
men who toll in the darkness of the
underground to produce the coal that
supplies the vital necessities of the
otIcr army now fighting the Huns.
Are a Big Army.
That the coal miners constitute an
army as truly as the men who march
to the front is being attested daily
by the enthusiastic reports that reach
the Bureau of Mines of the Depart
ment of the Interior of records
smashed in the production of coal.
From all parts of the country, from
isolated villages in places where one
would imagine the war spirit was
slow in penetrating come these re-
ports that miners have gladly given
up their holidays in order that there
should not be any slowing up of the
great war machine that is destined
to finally crush the Hun. These re-
PORTS from operators not only give
the facts of greater production but
generally add virile comment upon
what their organizations intend to do
in the near future to help win the
war. The patriotic spirit that per-
vades the operators is the same in
the superintendent. the foremen
and the men themselves. The lone
miner in bis work, tearing the coal
from its resting place, knows that
more coal means more guns, more
ships, more. munitions, and that
these mean victory and the saving
of the lives of their brothers who
are fighting across the seas.
May Mine Pyrites.
Just recently the Bureau of Mines
sent one Of its representatives into
the mines of Michigan, Tennessee,
and Ohio to investigate the pyrite
which may be needed in the manu-
tacture Of sulphuriC acid, the pyrite
being the sulphur found in the coal.
1t is not known as yet whether it
will be necessary to use these sui
phur balls, the Bureau making the
investigation as a measure of pre-
Daradness. The investigator how
ever, found that the operators and
the miners were ready to mine the
pyrite just as soon as it was de-
manded.
Patriotism Of Miner.
The message brought back to the
Bureau by the investigator was that
the outstanding feature of his trip
was the absolute patriotism of the
men and the general anxiety to help
tho government in any way posi-
BILE. The investigator found that
the old socialistic chalk slogans on
the walls Of many mines have given
way to, Buy Liberty Bonds" and
many other references to winning
the war. One of the most familiar
of the signs in a number of mines
reads, ITO He'll With the Kaiser"
Almost every electric motor seen in
the mines carries miniature Ameri-
can flag, bringing continually to the
miners that the war Is on and giving
him the inspiration to greater effort
Casualties in Mines.
And the miner is risking his life
as we'll as the soldier boys at the
front. In the year 1917, the last for
which statistics are available, 1896
miners gave UP their lives while dig
ging coal to win the war. Unfor-
tunately the Government does not
tabulate the casualties of the mines
as it does Of the soldiers. If the
number of injuries could be shown,
they would indicate that mining per-
haps is as hazardous as war. Yet
the miner goes about his work with
the same enthusiasm and the same
tearlessness as the boys "over there
and is as surely doing his part to-
ward winning tho war