A. There was one reduction the mechanics had that didn't reach the miners.
Q. And are the wages of miners fixed by the price of coal at entirely the same scale?
A. They got so much a car. There is one grand mistake been made in the assessment of the car. It leaves the impression that the men get so much a ton instead of so much a car. When a man gets sixty-four cents a car, it is not sixty-four cents a ton, but sixty-four cents for two tons of clean coal.
Q. That would be thirty-one cents a ton?
A. Yes; for loading and mining and all the expenses in connection with it. The price of a car contained the price of mining coal, loading the coal, and all necessary expenses.
By Mr. Engelbert:
Q. Did not your mine wagons average more than two tons of clean coal?
A. I believe they average it so that a car carries about two and a half tons. There is half a ton allowed for breakage and culm, so it makes it about two tons of clean coal.
Q. Is that not a big average of loss?
A. It appears to me that it is, but it appears on the other side that it don't satisfy the corporation.