The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-09-13
Coal Mine Disasters

We are killing coal miners three
times as fast as they kill them in
Great Britain.
The explosion of the supposedly
homogeneous" coal mine at Spangler,
Pa, last November, resulted in the
death of II men.
Hardly had the toll of dead and
manned been taken in this state when
a still more terrible coal dust explo-
sion in mine near Birmingham, Ala,
wiped out the lives of "a men.
With the ink scarcely dry on the
news of these appalling accidents there
came the terrific dust explosion in
New Mexico coal mine in which 100
miners were killed.
Significantly, this last disaster is the
second occurring in ten years in mines
owned in the same town by the same
company the earlier explosion. in
1918 snuffing out the lives of 261 min
ers and two members of a rescue crew.
During the past year there were in
the United States IL major disasters
in coal mines due to explosions. The
death rate from gas and dust exple-
sions in coal mines in 1922, per million
tons mined, was three times the rate
for the previous year Ri
Great mine explosions merely drama
tie loss of human life which occurs
in less spectacular fashion in our
mines as daily incident in the produc-
tion of coal. In the past 10 years in
the United States we have killed 3D.
979 coal miners. A much larger NUM-
Der is seriously injured every year.
Mining engineers say the spreading
of explosions by coal dust is prevent
able. Has anything been done to pre-
vent such accidents What is now most
needed to reduce to minimum the
number of such tragedies in American
coal mines?
Coal mining is recognized as a dam
gerous occupation. We have been
killing an average of 23sS coal miners
each year in the United States = a
fatality rate more than three times as
high as it is in Great Britain y but
not without making some effort to cut
down the frightful sacrifice of human
life.
Dr. John Randolph Haynes, special
commissioner on mining accidents,
made an earnest plea in 1911 for the
radical reduction of fatalities. DR..
Joseph Holes. then director of the Fed
eral Bureau of Mines, declared that
"three-fourths of this loss can be east
ly prevented" A dozen years later,
d.
of the United States Bureau of Mines,
issued a public statement saying:
Mine Owners Responsible.
investigations carried on by the
Bureau of Mines for more than ten
years have demonstrated beyond ques-
ton of doubt that such spreading of
explosions by coal dust can be pre-
vented. Responsibility for this rests
upon the mine arrangements. Explo-
sions can and must be prevented"
Coal operators, probably, need not
be regarded as less humane than most
other employers of labor. They doubt
less also mourn when wives and chill
dren of miners, following a mine ex-
plosion, gather about the shaft mouth
and the hastily improvised morgue;
As mine host appears and reappears
with its gruesome load while rela-
tives, friends. sweethearts wait to
claim their dead - the mine operators
are surely not unmoved. But they
have not accepted their responsibility
and ended these needless explosions.
In practically every mining state
there has been for many years an Of
fetal Bureau of Mines. It's chief duty
under the law is to study mine acct
dents, inspect for mine safety, and en-
force its safety orders,
Dust Explosions Needless.
To an unusual degree in state in
spection for safety the employees have
been active participants in the selee-
ton of official mine inspectors and in
the supervision of the administrator
Of mine safety laws. Yet, as the mount