The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-03-01
SAVE /, 900 LIVES A YEAR
BY TEACHING ENGLISH
Instructing Foreign-Born Workers in the
Mines So That They VIII Be Able
to Read Warning Notices
Win Prove Great Help.
VIII Prove Great Help.

Washington. d. c., March Ivan III.
! Manning director of the bureau Of mines,
department of the interior, informed
Congress to-day that the education Of
| the non -English-s speaking foreign born
among the miners by the so-called Amer
! icanization bill should result in the saw
| ing from death each year Of nearly 1000
Of these men and the saving from injury
of about 10000. Teaching these men
how to read and write the English Ian
guage would permit them to read the or
binary precautionary signs in the most
dangerous mines and enable the men to
understand the suggestions for safety
given by the bosses. according to MIR.
Manning
Mr.. Manning blames the present high
death and injury rate in the mines to
| the presence of these foreigners from
the nom English-speaking races, a ma
! iority of whom are not even able TO read
or write their own languages. He finds
| that the death and injury rates among
| these men are twice as high as among
the English-speaking miners and that
their presence in the mines is responsible
| for higher accident rate than would or
| UNFAIRLY tAlSb dHioiS INC J4itE ii9h SPCc'TN
| ing miners, making these men menace
TO all of the miners. The statistics show
| that there are more than 10000 foreign
born men employed in the mines and
that IS per cent of these, or 465,000 are
from the non Engish-speaking races,
nearly all of them from countries where
there is no mining.
"These are the men the bureau of
mines is unable to reach with its life
| saving recommendations, for they can
not understand. We have tried to reach
them in their native tongues, but this
seems to be hopeless too, for we find
that but few Of them can read even
their own languages What / object to
most seriously is that it is the great
horde Of men of this calibre which is
! ieopardizing the lives of the American
miner. The intelligent American miner
has been making much progress in safe
| ty, and ii we had to deal with him alone,
the death rates would soon be down TO a
par with the natural hazards OF the in
dustry, and it would not be pointed out
that this country has the highest fatal
ity rates OF any civilized country in the
world, For the protection of the Eng
disappearing miners, we should educate
these ignorant, illiterate men or keep
them out of the mines They should be
given the opportunity OF keeping pace
with American progress and chance To
become good American citizens, or they
should be kept away from places where
they endanger the lives Of men who are
kgood, intelligent citizens.
with the mining industry increasing
in extent about 10 per cent year, the
leaders believe that we need all the men
we can get. If that is true, let us give
these men a decent chance for their lives
and let us give the miners from the Eng
| speaking races, who do understand
the difficulties and dangers, little more
than a $3.50 chance for their lives,
There are two points in this that APP
peal to me. First, it is our duty as citl-
Gems to make better citizens out Of these
non English speaking foreigners and save
them from the dangers we know so wei
aud second, it is our greatest duty to
furnish our own English-speaking miners
with the protection they are entitled tc
against the irresponsible and ignorant
type of fniner who does not understand
| the dangers and apparently cares so lit
tie about them. The mad dog that Is
running amuck in the mining industry
to-day is the foreign born from the non
English speaking races who does not
know the English language and who in a
majority of instances is SO ignorant that
he doesn't know how to read or write
even his own languages"