Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite and bituminous ...

No. 12.] Seventh Bituminous District. 453
not be far distant when conflicts between capital and labor in the coal
trade will become things of the past, and when each will regard their
interests as being mutual and be actuated by a spirit of equity and fairness
towards each other, and when our coal will be mined by American
citizens and those who come to our country with the avowed intention
of making for themselves a permanent home and accepting the respon-
sibilities of citizenship.
In my report for the year 1889, I called attention to the matter of oil
and gas wells being drilled through the coal measures of western Pennsylvania,
and the danger likely to arise therefrom, unless the proper
safeguards are provided by the legislature. At this time I deem it
proper to mention the subject more in detail, but with no desire or intention
to antagonize the oil of gas business or to place any burden upon
it beyond what is absolutely necessary for the preservation of our coal
fields for future use, after the oil and gas industry has ceased to exist.
Up to the present time a very considerable acreage of the coal bearing
strata of this region has been penetrated by the drill which is still under
busy headway and likely to continue so for some time to come in search
of those necessary and valuable commodities, oil and gas. While the
wells are drilled through the solid coal at a reasonable distance from
where mining operations are in progress, there is no immediate danger,
but where a large number of wells are drilled through the worked out
parts of the mines and through the entry and room pillars, also through
the working chambers where the men are at work, and where the oil
penetrates through the solid coal and through the broken strata in
copious quantities into the mine, covering the floor several inches deep
for a considerable distance in some of the entries and rooms, and where
the men have to breathe an atmosphere impregnated with the foul odor
of crude petroleum, under these conditions we consider that the danger
is rather too near at hand for the benefit of our permanent health and
safety. Such conditions as above described exist in this section at the
at any rate we
present time, and there appears to be no legal remedy ;
have failed to obtain any so far. As before stated, thousands of acres of
coal territory in this region are perfo' ated by the drill in search of oil
and gas. A great number of the wells are already abandoned as being
no longer of any commercial value to the owners, and the number of such
abandoned wells is continually being augmented, but while the Avells are
no longer of value, it does not follow that all the gas is extracted from the
oil and gas-bearing rock, the fact is that there may be a considerable
quantity of gas in the rock but not sufticient pressure to propel the fluid
through the mains to the point of consumption, and I believe that most
if not all the gas wells are abandoned in this condition, and most of the
oil wells also discharge large volumes of gas. Now we understand that
there is no oflicial record kept of the number or location of those abandoned
wells, the only legal stipulation is, that they be plugged, after