In supplement to sheer skill and intelligence, efficiency can be gained only by the application of the man himself. A few months ago a mine in California changed managers. The new head reduced the number employed one-third without impairing the amount of work accomplished. This was not the result of higher skill or intelligence in the men, but in the manager. Better application and coördination were secured from the working force. Inspiration to increase of exertion is created less by "driving" than by recognition of individual effort, in larger pay, and by extending justifiable hope of promotion. A great factor in the proficiency of the mine manager is his ability to create an esprit-de-corps through the whole staff, down to the last tool boy. Friendly interest in the welfare of the men and stimulation by competitions between various works and groups all contribute to this end.
Contract Work.—The advantage both to employer and employed of piece work over wage needs no argument. In a general way, contract work honorably carried out puts a premium upon individual effort, and thus makes for efficiency. There are some portions of mine work which cannot be contracted, but the development, stoping, and trucking can be largely managed in this way, and these items cover 65 to 75% of the total labor expenditure underground.
In development there are two ways of basing contracts,—the first on the footage of holes drilled, and the second on the footage of heading advanced. In contract-stoping there are four methods depending on the feet of hole drilled, on tonnage, on cubic space, and on square area broken.
All these systems have their rightful application, conditioned upon the class of labor and character of the deposit.
In the "hole" system, the holes are "pointed" by some mine official and are blasted by a special crew. The miner therefore has little interest in the result of the breaking. If he is a skilled white man, the hours which he has wherein to contemplate the face usually enable him to place holes to better advantage than the occasional visiting foreman. With colored labor, the lack of intelligence in placing holes and blasting usually justifies contracts per "foot drilled." Then the holes are pointed and blasted by superintending men.
On development work with the foot-hole system, unless two working faces can be provided for each contracting party, they are likely to lose time through having finished their round of holes before the end of the shift. As blasting must be done outside the contractor's shifts, it means that one shift per day must be set aside for the purpose. Therefore not nearly such progress can be made as where working the face with three shifts. For these reasons, the "hole" system is not so advantageous in development as the "foot of advance" basis.
In stoping, the "hole" system has not only a wider, but a sounder application. In large ore-bodies where there are waste inclusions, it has one superiority over any system of excavation measurement, namely, that the miner has no interest in breaking waste into the ore.
The plan of contracting stopes by the ton has the disadvantage that either the ore produced by each contractor must be weighed separately, or truckers must be trusted to count correctly, and to see that the cars are full. Moreover, trucks must be inspected for waste,—a thing hard to do underground. So great are these detailed difficulties that many mines are sending cars to the surface in cages when they should be equipped for bin-loading and self-dumping skips.
The method of contracting by the cubic foot of excavation saves all necessity for determining the weight of the output of each contractor. Moreover, he has no object in mixing waste with the ore, barring the breaking of the walls. This system therefore requires the least superintendence, permits the modern type of hoisting, and therefore leaves little justification for the survival of the tonnage basis.
Where veins are narrow, stoping under contract by the square foot or fathom measured parallel to the walls has an advantage. The miner has no object then in breaking wall-rock, and the thoroughness of the ore-extraction is easily determined by inspection.