One miner in about 600 is killed, and one miner in six is more or less seriously injured in the course of a year. The incapacity of the injured included in these figures and proportions ranges from one week to life-long disablement.
In the slate quarries of North Wales, one man in every three is injured in the course of a year. The wages paid are very low.
Returning now to the figures of the table on p. 132, it will be observed that the deaths in recent years are almost precisely the same in number as the average of the fifty-eight years examined. That, of course, points to great improvement, because the number of miners at work and the quantity of coal got has rapidly increased in the period. With regard to explosions alone, the saving of life under the Coal-Mines Acts has been very great. In his valuable paper on the effect of British labour laws upon industrial occupations, read to the Royal Statistical Society in 1905, Mr Leonard Ward, H.M. Inspector of Factories told us:
"The total number of deaths from explosions which occurred during the five years 1856-60 was 1,286, and if the number of persons employed and the death-rate from that cause had remained constant, the total deaths for fifty years would be 12,860; allowing for increase in numbers employed, the total deaths during that period would probably have exceeded 25,000, instead of which the actual total is about 15,000 less than that, hence it would seem that by the prevention of explosions alone, no less than 15,000 lives have been saved during the last fifty years by the operation of the statutes which regulate the hygienic conditions of employment in coal-mines."
That is to say, legislative insistence on ventilation of coal-mines saved some 15,000 lives in fifty years.
This fact should, in the first place, give pause to those who have no faith in legislation, and in the second place it should give encouragement to those who believe that further great improvements can be effected. The law prevented 15,000 deaths in fifty years; it permitted 10,000 to occur. It is impossible to read such an official report as that upon the Whitehaven explosion of 1907 without being impressed by the great carelessness which still obtains in dangerous mining operations. The last great Rhondda accident occurred through wanton carelessness. I do not know the cause of the Whitehaven disaster, but, speaking of fiery mines generally, it does appear that there is a strong case for the total prohibition of shot-firing. One may hedge round this labour-saving process with what restrictions one will; if it is done under any conditions serious accident or disaster must come sooner or later. Can there be any justification for labour saving of such character?
That is to speak of but one factor in the production of mining accidents. Other considerations, and serious ones, arise in connexion with such a case as that of Whitehaven where workings extend for miles under the sea and where yet there is no attempt made to provide egress to an emergency shaft. The men went down at Whitehaven and out to their work under the sea. They had either to return the way they came or to return not at all. It may be that the provision of a return passage to an emergency shaft would have burdened the undertaking with such a capital expenditure as to prevent the economic working of the mine. If that is so, a nation which owes its industrial greatness to coal should consider whether it is desirable to work this under-sea coal or not, for it would appear obvious that a mine as fiery as the 1907 inquiry proved the Whitehaven colliery to be, must sooner or later be the scene of serious disaster under the given conditions. To pass to another point, a large proportion of mining accidents occur in the shafts. It would be interesting to know the ages of many of the cages and of much of the winding machinery which are employed in our coal-mines. From reading official reports on mining accidents I have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that far too many of the appliances are fit for the scrap heap.
In the figures relating to mining casualties, many young children are included. In the ten years 1895 to 1904, 414 children between the ages of 12 and 16 years were reported as killed underground, under the heads "haulage," "machinery" and "sundries."[32]
It is quite unknown to the general public how many women, girls and boys are employed in and about mines. The figures of the 1901 Census show that in the coal-mines of England and Wales only, 134,422 boys and 1,458 girls under 20 years of age are employed. Of the boys as many as 31,587 are between the ages of 10 and 15 years! I dwell upon these facts because I once had brought home to my mind in a very striking way the necessity of making them known. Speaking to an audience at the National Liberal Club, I mentioned incidentally that a very large number of children were employed in our mines. To my astonishment, I was loudly interrupted by a certain Liberal candidate for Parliamentary honours, who openly scoffed at the idea that children were so employed, while the audience clearly did not know which of us was in error.
With railway accidents the public is more familiar, although it is questionable whether many people realize that, in an average week, 10 railway servants are killed and 250 are wounded.