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THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 29
LOSS OF LIFE IN COAL MINES COMPARED WITH OTHER
HAZARDOUS OCCUPATIONS*
By Jesse K. Johnston, General Superintendent Charleroi Coal Works.
The American workingman can and does better
work in any given time than any other workingman
in any country in the world, and this fact
has been proven by the Westinghouse Electric Co.
becoming dissatisfied with the slow work of the
British workingmen during the erection of their
British plant and importing American bricklayers
in order that the work might be rapidly accomplished.
When work was started on the great
Assouan dam on the River Nile, contracts were
asked from all over thhe world for structural iron
work and the contract was awarded to the American
contractors because they agreed to furnish
material and perform their work quicker than any
contractors from any other part of the world.
The employes inside of American coal mines are
producing almost double the coal of the employes
of the mines in any European country, man
for man and hour for hour, and are also earning
more money. In Great Britain in 1909 the number
of tons produced per inside employe was 322
tons, in Pennsylvania bituminous mines 893 tons.
This speaks well not only for the introduction of
modern mining machinery, but the energy and
activity of our miners. The average for two
years 1908-1909 shows that for 1,000.000 tons of
coal produced in Great Britain 4.71 lives were lost;
and for every 1,000,000 tons produced in
THE BITUMINOUS MINES
of Pennsylvania 4.13 lives were lost, a result somewhat
favorable to Pennsylvania.
It is not the purpose of this paper to burden its
hearers with a mass of statistics, which are always
uninteresting at best, but to draw some conclusions
and comparisons with other hazardous occupations
and see if the fatal and non-fatal accidents
have causes and reasons similar to those of the
coal industry, and find out if there is any remedy
for their prevention.
The coal operators of Pennsylvania have been
the subject of much unjust criticism indulged in
by the people at a distance, and by a portion of
the public press, on account of mine disasters and
the great loss of life inside of the mines. In a
recent issue of Pearson's Magazine there appeared
an article on the danger of electricity in the mines
of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and charged the
officials of the mines with the deliberate murder of
the miners. The writer of this article not only
insulted every coal operator, superintendent, mine
foreman and fire boss, but he allowed prejudice
"Paper read before the Mid-Summer Meeting of the Coal
Mining Institute. Data Compiled From Pennsylvania State
Mine Reports, Interstate Commerce Commission. State Factory
Inspector Reports.
to outweigh analysis, and fancy to outstrip facts,
and in answer to this article, it might be well
to quote from the actual reports furnished by the
mine inspectors to the chief of the Department
of Mines for a period of thirty-three (33) years.
Inside. Percentage.
by falls of coal, slate and roof 59.38
By mine cars 14.09
By explosions of gas and dust 16.33
By explosions of powder and dynamite.... 1.03
By explosions of blasts 1.2S
By falling into shafts and slopes 1.55
By mules .25
Suffocation by gas .49
By machinery .64
By electricity 1.73
Miscellaneous causes 3.23
100.00
Electricity as a cause of accidents, while small
in percentage, has slowly increased. In 1892
nothing; in 1909, 4.63 per cent.; in 1910. 0.3 per
cent.
It is a much easier task to fight a raging fire in
a coal mine with tongue or pen at a distance,
than to
BRAVE THE DANGERS
of poisonous gases and perform the actual work at
close quarters. There is no comparison between
a fire in the 24th story of a skyscraper and fire
down in a shaft mine 1,000 feet below the surface.
There is also a vast difference between discipline
in an army, where disobedience brings the
severest penalty, and discipline in a coal mine,
where the breaking of the law sometimes results
in the discharge and prosecution of the evil doer
only to receive protection from the labor organization
to which he belongs. The best thoughts of
most officials in the bituminous mine industry are
being given to the invention and adoption of
safety appliances and other means that will insure
greater safety to the thousands of persons
employed in the coal mines, and it is hoped that
the loss of life, deplorable as it is, will, through
their efforts, show a decrease for the future.
The three great subjects of history. War. Famine,
and Pestilence, meet on common ground with
the killed, maimed and shattered beings resulting
from the operation of the American railroads.
It is estimated that fifty millions of dollars is
the price that must be paid for the safety of persons
traveling or working on railways. In spite
of all the block signal systems, air-brakes, self