The Cordova daily times., 1919-04-26
VARSITY MEN TAUGHT MINING
 UNDERGROUND

MOSCOW, Ida, April 26 (by Asso- ciated Press).-A school room 140O feet underground in the Morning Mine at Mullan, Idaho, in which re- turned soldiers are being taught the art and practice of mining lead-zinc ore, is one of the latest educational innovations of the University of Idaho. This work, which has been inaugurated by the School of Mines at the university, is, so far as is known, the first attempt to apply to actual, underground mining work the new system of vocational education provided for by the Smith-Hughes act and the experiment is being watched with interest by miners and mine op- orators alike throughout the western states.
 The school room, is far under ground and is devoid of blackboards, books and benches. Pupils and teach CT alike are dressed in overalls and mining boots, and the school eqoip- ment consists of rock drills, driven by compressed air, or machines as they are generally termed in mining parlance, steel or drill bits for these machines, picks, shovels, timber, ,dyna- mite caps and fuse and all the other | ,1,1 1io of wi hN to the mine in skips.
 ] The teacher is Lieutenant Frank H. | Skeels, officer of engineers of the U. S. army, recently released from serv- ice for this work. Before going into the army, Lieutenant Skeels had been a mine manager and mine superin- tendent to which position he had risen after spending all his life since boy hood in and about the mines of the Occur d'Alene district.
 | Admission to the school is obtained by application to the federal employ ment agent at Wallace, and prefer ence is given to returned soldiers who are young enough and bright enough to be teachers.
 The work in hand is what is known as drifting, that is driving horizon tai gallery or working lengthwise of the vein. The pupils operate the rock drills in turn, learning the intricacies of the drift round," studying the number of holes necessary to break out the predetermined section of rock, the angles at which they must be driven to make the greatest progress with the least amount of drilling and the smallest possible supply of dyna- mite. In addition the placement of timber to support weak wall or "slabby" roof, and all the various kinks of the underground trade are taught, and taught by making the student do them in actual workman like fashion to pass the scrutiny of dogmatic mine foreman and a lynx eyed safety engineer.
 | There is more prosaic work of "mucking" or shovelling, and of the tramming the broken ore or waste to the shaft or dumping place. The young fellows who attend the school receive fair compensation for their time, as the school is carrying on drift work by contract, and payment is made per foot advance. Whatever is left over after paying for explosives and other supplies, is divided pro rata among the men, the salary of the in structor being paid jointly by the state of Idaho and the federal gov ernmeEt
 While at the present time there is school in one mine only, it is ex- pected that within the next month or 1.-two, schools will be organized at each of the other four or five big prop critics in the Couer d'Alene district
 Like every other novel enterprise the school has, of course, had to over- come a good deal of skepticism and passive opposition on the part of some of those who should be most concerned in it's establishment, but this is gradu- ally fading out as the practicability of the scheme is being demonstrated" said Dean F. A. Thomson of the Uni versity School of Mines. Applications for enrolment far exceed the present capacity of the school.
 of being driven," said Mrs. Doggett,