One real difficulty with the miners is a lack of constructive leadership. When they are taught such anarchistic ideas as that voiced by Mr. Houston at the investigation of the commission, it is no wonder that such men, under the leadership of individuals, whose past history will hardly bear the light of day, band themselves together for desperate purposes. Mr. Houston stated that the miner should be paid every cent that the coal brings in the market, except what the railroad gets for transportation, and there are many mine workers who actually believe this.
My sympathy is with the miner whose work is dangerous and who should have every consideration consistent with good order and business conditions. There is no calling which requires so little investment on the part of the worker that brings such returns in money. Any miner in the Cabin Creek or Paint Creek field who is willing to work steadily can earn anywhere from $3 to $6 per day and many earn more than this clear. The real difficulty with these men is that they need education and training as to how to care for their money after it has been earned. It is true that there are many days when the mines cannot run owing to breakdowns or lack of sufficient cars in which to load the coal. This latter reason is especially frequent in some sections.
I have hardly touched the subject but I do hope this matter will be thoroughly investigated and I personally believe no person is more anxious for a federal investigation than the operator himself, although Mr. West says the operators oppose such an investigation.
Ira D. Shaw.
[Industrial Department, the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association.]
Pittsburgh.
To the Editor:
I went to the strike district unprejudiced. My instructions were to tell the truth about the situation. I did so to the best of my ability. I believe I was fair. In my article in The Survey I simply told what I saw in the mines. I believe such conditions as exist there are brutalizing in the extreme. I believe they are responsible for much of the lawlessness that exists throughout West Virginia.
In regard to the cost of the houses, I was told in the mines by a well informed man that the labor cost on a certain set of the cottages erected some years before had been $40 each. That is not at all unreasonable. Two carpenters at $2.50 a day each could build one of them in eight days. As I happen to be somewhat familiar with building operations I am confident that my figures are not out of the way, especially when you consider that the land on which the buildings stand cost little or nothing. The expense for lumber was only the cost of sawing the timber already at hand, plus the cost of window frames and doors, bricks for the chimneys, composition roofing and the little hardware required.