Men and Things

by Henry A. Atkinson

According to statistics regarding deaths of miners during the years 1907 to 1912, it is shown that 23.2 out of every hundred died from accidents; and among the metalliferous miners 24.7 per cent. of all deaths were caused by accidents. A great many industrial accidents are due to failure on the part of the management to make proper provision against accident, and to keep abreast with the increase in efficiency of the machinery and output in the matter of precautionary measures. Also it is now known that industrial accidents are caused by excessive fatigue, carelessness, and ignorance on the part of the workers themselves. Taking all of these things into consideration, however, we must realize that a large proportion of the accidents and fatalities in the coal-mines are inherent in the business itself.

Returns for Labor Received by the Miners. Coal has to be dug where nature put it. Therefore, the mining village is almost certain to be located in a desolate region, and thus the miner and his family will be denied many of the good things that other people enjoy, because of the conditions under which they are compelled to live. We hear a great deal about the enormously large wages paid to the miner. Unfortunately this condition is not true; for the stories we hear of the big wages the miners receive are very largely fictitious. In the Colorado mines it is shown by actual study of the statistics taken at the time of the last great strike in 1914, that the average wage for the miner when actually employed was $4.58 a day; but other figures given at the same period show that other miners were paid an average wage of only $2.61 a day. It is impossible to get at the facts as to wages.

The miner is forced to buy his powder, oil, pay doctor’s fee, blacksmithing charges, union dues, and other expenses. These are deducted, so that the wage is reduced to the point where perhaps not more than one per cent. of the entire number of workers receive as much as $25 a week. In fact, the wage is so small compared to the difficulties of the work and the hardships of living, that the miner finds it almost impossible to move freely in order to better his condition. The result of this situation has been that, whereas formerly nearly all the miners were English-speaking men, they are now practically all non-English-speaking immigrants. In the camp at Ludlow, where the miners lived after they and their families were driven out of their homes in Colorado during the strike of 1914, there were twenty-two nationalities, and they were living together in some sort of amity.

Workers in the Metal Mines. The workers in the metal mines have a problem different from that of the workers in the coal-mines. The copper country of Michigan located on Lake Superior in the upper peninsula is the most famous metal-producing region of the United States. These mines have been operated for half a century; and for the most part a humane policy has been followed and, consequently, the cities and towns in the region have developed some civic pride, and have an unusually high reputation for orderliness and morality. There are very few of the bad features which one is accustomed to find in such communities. The district has approximately forty-two mines and the products from these mines amount to fifty million dollars a year. The shafts of these copper mines are the deepest holes that have ever been dug in the earth as far as we know. The “Red Jacket” mine is almost a mile and a quarter deep. The shaft of a copper mine is pierced every one hundred feet by levels or tunnels. The trams run in these levels to the chambers where the rock is cut and are known as stopes. Drills are operated by compressed air; the miner bores the holes, places the dynamite charge in readiness, and touches off the charge as he leaves his work at the end of the shift. The broken rock is picked up during the next shift, loaded into the tram-cars by the trammer, and then dumped into the skip or little car by means of which it is raised to the surface.

Press Illustrating Service.

The new U. S. Bureau of Mines Rescue Car is manned by a mining engineer, a mine surgeon, a foreman miner, a first aid miner, and a clerk.

In the Cœur d’Alene field the process of mining in the lead and zinc mines is very much the same as that in the copper mines of Michigan. The Cœur d’Alene region of northern Idaho is a district in itself. It might almost be called a province, it is so extensive. The drills that are used by the miners are protected in some cases by a stream of water which pours off the end of its point as it comes in contact with the rock. This prevents the dust from flying and being breathed by the worker. These drills are just now being introduced. The old-fashioned drill had no such protection and is called by the miner the widow-maker, because of the gruesome effect on the worker.

Wages. The wages in the Calumet district as well as in the Cœur d’Alene section are not, and never have been, adequate to the needs of the men, nor are they proportionate to the returns received from the work that these men have been doing. Wages must be considered on the basis of comparative value. The type of the worker, however, and the risks incurred, and the opportunity for improving the worker himself must all be taken into account. When we remember the enormous profits made on the metals, especially within the last few years, we will find that the increase in the wages of the men has not been enough to meet the increased cost of living. Wages have advanced about 20 per cent. and living expenses 140 per cent. Some welfare work is being undertaken in almost all of the mining communities. But welfare work cannot supplement poor wages, nor does it do away with the feeling of unrest always present in the community and which threatens to break out in rebellion and throw the whole district into disorder.

The Church and the Miner. The pastor of the miners’ church told the story of the desolation in the life of his people. He said: “There are no chances for cultural work. When I talk about the higher life the people listen to me as if I were giving a lecture on Mars. It is something that is more or less interesting because I am able to make it interesting, but there is no special personal interest in it. All of my people live in this desolate and isolated village. There is nothing attractive anywhere around. The superintendent and a few of the English-speaking workers live five miles away in a place that calls itself a city. There are five other villages like mine; no one from the other places ever comes here except on business. Every Saturday night most of the men go to the ‘city.’ On Saturday, or pay-day evening, the stores, amusement places, saloons, and the principal streets of that center are filled with a heterogeneous mass of people of all races and there is a regular babel of tongues. The destroying forces work havoc with my people. Now what can I do to meet the conditions?” Listening to him I wondered and went away still wondering. In these places where men are working to produce the coal for us, and the metals that form the foundation-stone of our civilization, there must be something more than merely the touch of charity; there must be worked out a plan by which true brotherhood may become a reality. We are accepting the gift of these men, the things that they produce at such risk, and we are forgetting the men themselves. They are serving our interests and we have a responsibility for them, but what are we doing to meet the situation?