coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

and the miners, the proportionate loss of life from
mine explosions decreased from 30.3 per cent, of
the total deaths in 1907 to 12.7 per cent, of the
total deaths in 1912.
Although the investigations of the Bureau of
Mines during the past few years have been limited
largely to the problems relating to coal-mine
explosions and the causes of such explosions, including
explosives, electricity, open or defective
lights, etc., the general educational work has included
all classes of mine accidents, and through
the co-operative efforts of mine inspectors, mine
owners, and miners there has been a reduction
in the aggregate number of coal-mine accidents
and a general improvement in mine-safety condi­
tions.
The decrease in the loss of life in coal mines
since 1907, the year prior to the beginning of the
mine-safety investigations authorized by Congress,
is shown by the following tabular statement:
Number of men killed in and about the coal
mines in the United States in the calendar years
1907 to 1912, inclusive, with death rates:
Number killed
Per 1,000,000 Production
Years Total Per 1,000 short tons per death
employed mined (short tons)
1907... 3,197 4.88 6.93 144,325
1908... 2,449 3.64 6.05 165,346
1909... 2,668 4.00 5.79 172,699
1910... 2,840 3.92 5.66 176,618
1911... 2,719 3.73 5.48 182,501
1912.. .2,360 3.27 4.42 226,469
The mine-rescue and first-aid training has now
been under way more than three years, and during
this time 31,203 miners have been trained
in the use of the necessary equipment and methods.
In connection with mine disasters the
Bureau of Mines men have rescued, through the
use of breathing apparatus, 83 miners. A large
number of miners have been rescued by others,
many of whom were trained or aided in the use
of modern rescue methods by the bureau, and
a very much larger number of miners have been
aided or brought to recovery through the prompt
first-aid work of miners trained by the bureau,
by the American National Red Cross, and by
other agencies.
In addition to the actual saving of life, an
important part of the work has been the lessening
of the suffering of injured miners through the
prompt and expert services of the men trained
in first-aid work. This work has not only re-
' duced the severity of injuries and kept some men
from dying, but it also has enabled miners to
resume work much sooner than they could have
otherwise. This is a conservation that it is difficult
to estimate in dollars and cents.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 29
The Bureau of Mines has been widely and
seriously criticized of late because of the slowness
of progress or the lack of progress in a
number of the more important investigations
authorized by its organic act. These criticisms
have come from mine inspectors, mine owners,
and especially from miners in different parts of
the country, and it is unquestionably true that
the effectiveness of the bureau's
EFFORTS TO OBTAIN
the active co-operation of all these forces with
a view to the prevention of accidents and the betterment
of mine conditions has been seriously
lessened by these delays. Even the confidence of
the niiners in the good faith of the National Government
regarding its work for better safeguarding
the lives of those who labor underground has
been weakened by such delays.
It is unfortunately true that the bureau has
made slow progress in safety investigations. Thus,
for example, as regards its efforts to determine
the causes of mine explosions and the means of
preventing them, the results of its laboratory investigations
during the first two years have required
confirmation by tests under actual niining
conditions. With the limited funds at the disposal
of the bureau for this work during any one year,
it has required three years to prepare a small
experimental mine for these confirmatory demonstrations—a
work that with adequate funds might
easily have been done within a single year. Meanwhile,
each year in reply to the many inquiries
coming from mine inspectors, mine owners ,and
miners, in regard to what methods could be
adopted for preventing mine explosions, it has
been necessary to ask for more time for testing
the proposed methods.
Again, the investigation of mine safety lamps,
which requires a well-equipped laboratory, a number
of experts, and an extended series of researches,
the work that the bureau has been able
to accomplish in three years might easily have
been accomplished in a single year under more
favorable conditions. Meanwhile it has been necessary,
in replying to constant inquiries from
miners in different coal fields, to ask for more
time within which to complete the necessary tests.
The outlook is highly favorable for oatiofacte-i*y
ultimate results, but the long delay in obtaining
these results has developed a serious impatience
not only among the mine inspectors but
among thousands of miners who are unable to
understand the reasons for such delays and are
inclined to consider them as indicating a lack of
interest in the miners' welfare on the part of
the National Government.
Equally serious has been the delay in connection
with several other researches in behalf of
greater safety, which, owing to a