The Cordova daily times., 1923-02-07
IN COAL MINES
 LAST YEAR


 indicate that 1850 fatalities was the toll of human lives exacted in the coal industry during 1922. This is ten tative figure based on actual reports mate for December based upon the ! probable output of coal for the month. The estimate represents a reduction 1 of 23 fatalities from the total for 1921, | but will not represent a lowering of the death rate. In relation to the quantity of coal produced, the acci l dent rate will be actually higher than for the previous year, the report said. |
 In a summarization of the years | record, bureau statisticians point out l that from the first of April to the last of August large part of the in- dustry was closed down on account of a miners strike the production of fresh-mined anthracite was complete ly stopped and the output of soft coal was cut in half. This stoppage natur- l ally eliminated the accidents that would have occurred had the mines been in operation. The net result, therefore, was that the five-month period of the strike showed an abnor- mally low number of fatal accidents, and this reduction will, of cource, be reflected in the total number of ia talities for the year. The reduction in loss of life, de- spite the strike shutdown, was not as large as it might have been because of the large number of lives lost dur | ing the year by mine explosions. The outstanding feature of the mine year. was what the bureau officials call "maior" disasters, accidents in which at least five lives were lost. There were thirteen of these during the year, eleven of which were explosions which together cost the lives of 261 men. During 1921 there were only five major accidents, with a loss of 34 lives. Only three of these were mine explosions and they resulted in l only 21 deaths. The largest killed Il men; the largest during the past year exacted 87 lives, while another took 77.
 On the basis of number of fatalities per million tons of coal mined, the ! deathrate from gas and dust explo- | sions in 1921 was only .233, while for the first eleven months of 1922 it was .731, more than three times the rate for the previous year.
 The records of the past six or seven years had furnished grounds for the hope that the coal mining industry was no longer to experience the ter rible explosions of gas and dust which | formed so distressing part of the industry's record in earlier years, the statisticians declared. For many years the Bureau of Mines and other agen- cies have been investigating theI causes of these explosions and have been endeavoring to find ways, not only to stop them altogether, but also when they occur to stop them from travelling through the entire mine, de- stroying everything in their path.
 Proper ventilation to prevent dan gerous accumulation of gas; wetting the mine to alley dust; the use of 1 rock-dust to obstruct the progress of explosions; and other safety measures have been investigated and devised. | Yet in the face of what would seem to be adequate knowledge of the sub- | ject, and sometimes apparently in spite of intelligent precautions, an ex- plosion occurs, causing the loss of many lives and bringing destruction to property.
 However the grave loss of lives in the mines is not entirely attributable to explosions, it was declared. Less than ten per cent of the fatalities are caused by explosions; nearly fifty per cent result from rock and coal falls. | The carelessness of the miners them selves and their disinclination to give time to take precautions against the falls are given as the reason for that fact Such are attested by none of the spectacular features that oharac- terize large explosion But it is found at the end of the year that fl falls of rock and coal could have been eliminated nearly half of the lives lost in mine accidents could have been