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through the coal mining industry, back again to
the precious metal mining industry, until now it
seems that the precious metal mining of the West
is about to receive tbe assistance which they have
been striving for, for the past fifteen years or
more and which we are glad to say has now been
in a measure accomplished through a preliminary
appropriation of $50,000 at the last session of
Congress to begin investigations. It is confidently
hoped that in the expenditure of this small appropriation
such results will lie obtained as will guarantee
the necessary future appropriation for further
investigations.
From this rehearsal of the Bureau of Mines legislation
it is very apparent that to
ACCOMPLISH ANY DEFINITE RESULTS
for any section of the country in the way of bettering
conditions, it can only be done by united
action.
Another problem which was brought to the attention
of the Mining Congress and which was
taken up by them : : n a way that no other organization
could do was the question of the Workmen's
Compensation. This was ably handled by
a committee of the Mining Congress composed as
it was of men who had intimate knowdedge of this
subject as applied to mining, and who could doubtless
in no othei way have been brought together.
The result of their deliberations, after approximately
two years of work, was to formulate a hill,
which was recommended and approved by a later
meeting of the Mining Congress designed for passage
by the various state legislatures. In order
to show the importance of this work, it might be
said that during the period that this matter was
under discussion and since the committee has
made their report no less than thirteen or fourteen
different states have passed workmen's compensation
acts. Some of them very similar to the bill
prepared by the committee of the Mining Congress,
others differed quite materially from them, but
there is no doubt in my mind that all of these
various bills that were passed by the different
states received a great impetus by the influence
of what had been done by and through the American
Mining Congress. Another matter which is
almost a counterpart of this was the question of
the Prevention of Mire Accidents. The work
and report of this committee of the different
CONDITIONS TO BE FOLLOWED
in mining has been of great advantage in tbe way
of prevention of mine accidents. Still another
work of the Mining Congress that has been of very
great good is that done by a committee on the
Standardization of Electrical Equipment for coai
and metal mines. The committee on the coal
mining section made a report several years ago
which has been submitted to a number of differ­
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 49
ent organizations and winch has received very
little criticism ft om any source and very high
praise from many quarters; in fact, two years
ago the legislature of Pennsylvania passed a new
mining code which embraced the report of the
committee of the Mining Congress almost verbatim.
Other committees of this congress such
as that on Forestry Relation, Revision of Mineral
Land Laws, Smelter and Freight Rates, an 1 Federal
Legislation have all had problems assigned to
them to consider, and their reports from time to
time as given to the Mining Congress have been
of such great, importance that wo can scarcely
estimate the value of them at the present time.
Again a committee wdiich has labored assiduously
for several years is the committee on "Alaskan
Affairs" and probably during no time has there
been such activity in connection with Alaskan
affairs as during the past year. The committeeas
constituted during ihe last year deserves the
very highest commendation of this congress for
the able and arduous work which they performed
in connection with the various bills which were
before the last session of Congress.
I do not by any means claim that I have gone
over all tbe problems that have come
BEFORE THE MINING CONGRESS
for consideration but this brief review will show
conclusively the advantage that the American
Mining Congress has been to the mining industry
in the past. 'Ihe mining industry, however, has
before it to-day many problems that are equally
as important as those which it has already deal'
with and some of those heretofore enumerated are
only in their infancy ancl wdll require very careful
consideration in tbe future.
First, the Safety and Efficiency in mining operations
This is a large question and one that remains
constantly before the mining fraternity,
that it goes without saying, that it wdll be a live
issue for many years to come.
Second, the question of Conservation which has
been before the Mining Congress for a great while
is probably one of the great things for the future.
Not, in the sense that some would define conservation
but in the broader sense of true conservation
which means not only the conserving of tbe
interests of one phase of affairs hut conservation
''n all its broader application to the present generations
as well as those to follow. This is exemplified
clearly in statistics regarding the amount
of coal lost in the production of the present large
output of the mines of this country, which amount
to practically 50 per cent In other words, in the
production of coal of this country, which is nraotically
five hundred million tons, it is estimated
that two hundred fifty million ions were lost and
in the production of this e0ai there- were employed
553.000 men of whom 2,835