A federal mining commission

Haynes, John Randolph· 1912 · Historical

January 9, 1912.— Referred to the Committee on Printing January 18, 1912.— Reported favorably from the Committee on Printing and ordered to be printed

This 1912 document, A federal mining commission, is preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library for research and reference. Original source: archive.org.

62d Congress 2d Session j

Senate

j Document I No. 265

A Federal Mining Commission

Address

By

John Randolph Haynes, M. D,

Special Commissioner On Mining Accidents State Of California

BEFORE THE JOINT SESSION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEGISLATION, AT WASHINGTON, D. C.

December 30, 1911

PRESENTED BY MR. WORKS January 9, 1912.— Referred to the Committee on Printing January 18, 1912.— Reported favorably from the Committee on Printing and ordered to be printed

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Government Printing Office

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A Federal Mining Commission.

Mr. Haynes said:

Of all the nations of the earth, America is the most wasteful of the lives of its citizens. Seventy-five thousand of our people are killed each year by accidents, of which number 35,000 are workmen slain while engaged in their daily occupations. If we add to these figures the number of the wounded and crip pled in industry, we shall find that Mr. Mercer, of the Min nesota, Employees' Compensation Commission, is not far wrong in claiming that industry now kills and cripples more each year than did bullet and shrapnel in any year of the Civil War. Of all American industries, coal mining is the most hazardous. From three to five thousand coal miners are annually killed outright, and the number of killed and seriously injured combined amounts to from eight to ten thousand each year in the United States. Since 1890 more than 30,000 coal miners hase been killed and more than 80,000 have been seriously injured. In the single State of Pennsylvania in the year 1907 alone more than 1,000 miners were killed, leaving nearly 1,000 widows and 3,410 children under 10 years of age.

Now, this would be a frightful story to relate if it were necessary and inevitable, but as a matter of fact it is not at all necessary. The leading mining experts both of America and Europe tell us that it is perfectly practicable to prevent most of this loss of life. Mr. Joseph Holmes, Director of the Bureau of Mines, declares that three-fourtns of this loss can be easily prevented. In view of these facts it becomes a question whether these fatalities which can be so readily foreseen and so easily prevented ought to be called accidents; some day we may come to regard them as little better than murders. While the average annual death rate from mining accidents in Europe runs, per 1,000 men employed, below 2, and in the case of France and Belgium is less than 1, in the United States the rate in 1907 was, for the smgle year, 4.86 lives lost for each 1,000 men employed; in other words, our death rate in that year through mining accidents was about five times that of France and Belgium and about three times that of other European countries. Perhaps the most discouraging feature of the whole situation is the fact that statistics show that, while the death rate during the past 10 or 15 years has been steadily decreasing in every European country, it has been steadily increasing in the United States.

The death rate by accident per 1,000 miners employed has decreased in the 11 years from 1895 to 1906 in Prussia from 2.54 to 1.94; in England from 1.49 to 1.29; in Belgium from 1.40 to 0.94; in France from 1.07 to 0.84. In this same period the death rate in American mines steadily increased from 2.67 deaths per 1,000 miners employed in 1895 to 3.40 deaths in 1906, and in 1907 this already frightful rate

A Fedeeal Mining Commission.

leaped, as we have seen, to a figure hitherto unheard of in the liistory of mining — 4.86, or practically 5 out of every 1,000 miners in the United States were killed by accident in the single year. The death rate -per 100,000 tons of coal mined has also similarly increased. In Pennsylvania, where the number of mining fatalities amounts to from one-third to one-half of the entire number occurring in the United States, there was killed in 1899 one miner for every 215,587 tons of coal mined, and in 1908 one miner for every 167,066 tons, both, of course, under State regulation. These figures indicate clearly the need of drastic measures to improve mining conditions," says James E. Roderick, chief of the department of mines of Pennsylvania, in his report to the governor in 1908.

In the last three years a slight improvement has taken place, but not enough to alter the general situation. The question arises: Are the natural conditions in American mines more dangerous than those found in Europe? The truth is that quite the reverse is the case. Three distinguished European experts, Messrs. Victor Watteyne, inspector general of mines, Belgium; Carl Meissner, councillor for mines, Germany; and Arthur Desborough, inspector of explosives, England, who were permitted by their respective Governments to accept the invitation of the Government of the United States to make an examination of American mines, after an extensive investi gation in the year 1908, unanimously reported that the natural con ditions in American mines were much better than in Europe. They found, for example, that up to the present time Americans were not operating in the very deep levels of 4,000 feet and lower, not uncom mon in Europe, where the task of supplying fresh air and getting rid of dangerous -gases is very difficult. In America, also, only thick seams more easily ventilated are, as yet, generally worked. More over, the supply of timber for supporting the rock roofs, as compared with Europe, has been up to the present plentiful and cheap. Of late years, with the gradual exhaustion of higher levels, of the tliicker seams, and of the supplies of supporting timbers, conditions have come to resemble more nearly those found in Europe, and it is for this reason that the percentage of fatalities has so rapidly increased in the past decade.

As yet, however, our natural conditions are still far better than those encountered by the operators of Belgium and France, according to these European experts, and the fact that our fatalities exceed those two countries by a percentage of more than five to one, and in absolute number exceed the totM of the whole world outside our Nation, is due, these gentlemen were compelled to admit, to the almost unbelievable state of carelessness, negligence, and ignorance which they found generally prevalent in the mining industry of the United States. This condition will never be materially or perma nently remedied until a department of the Federal Government is established which shall be vested with the actual power of controlling mining methods, to the end that the lives of the miners shall be safeguarded.

Before going into the question of the nature and jurisdiction of such a tribunal, it may be of advantage to look into a few of the faults characterizing American mining which these European experts dis covered in their investigations. As compared with European mining methods, they found, briefly, the following: Ignorance on the part of

A Fedebal Mining Commission.

mining superintendents, ignorance on the part of miners, slackness in the rules regulating the use of safety lamps, carelessness in permitting the accumulation of coal dust, use of coal dust in tamping charges, negligence of State omcials in acting upon the reports of inspectors, incompetence of State inspectors, carelessness in the arrangement and use of electricity in mines, use of improperly compounded explosives, the use of excessive charges of explosives, the use of wooden shaft structures, and the failure to provide more than one opening to the mine.

First among the causes of the high fatality rate in American mines may be placed the ignorance and carelessness of superintendents and other mine officials. One of the European experts to whom I have ref erred —whose name I am not privileged to mention — told me that while passing through a mine in West Virginia with a party carrying both naked and safety lamps he lifted his lamp toward the roof to test for gas and was surprised to find it present in very dangerous quan tities. Turning to the mine superintendent, he remarked, "You should not allow naked lamps to be used in this mine.' ' ' Oh,' replied the superintendent, easily, "we are installing a ventilating system that in a few months will rid the mine entirely of gas and render the use of safety lamps unnecessary.'' "Before that time arrives," protested the European expert, "your mine will be blown up." And this is pre cisely what happened. The naked lamps were not excluded, the mine was blown up a few weeks later, and hundreds of miners lost their lives. A hundred other cases, big and little, might be cited to show that our requirements as to the qualifications of our mining superintendents compared to those in Europe are little better than a farce. Some of the States have nominal examinations and grant licenses to superin tendents and foremen; but they are of little value, as is shown in the case of the large mine just mentioned. No European mining super intendent would dream of taking such chances as he foolishly took at the cost of so many lives ; and if he were so inclined the Government inspector would not permit him to do so. In another mine a foreman, testing in the early morning, found gas in dangerous quantities. Not being able to write, he laid a piece of iron across the railroad track before the entry, assuming that the miners would guess that it was a danger signal, and went to breakfast. The miners coming later not unnaturally failed to understand the purpose of the piece of iron. Supposing that it had come there by accident, they removed it from the track and passed on into the dangerous section, where every man lost his life.

In Europe a situation where a mine foreman could not read would not be understood. There every mining official is a man of intel ligence, thoroughly grounded in the principles of his profession; no other can secure a license. Shall we go on in this country, clinging to our inefficient system of State regulation of an industry that is essentially interstate in character until we have uselessly sacrificed the lives of tens of thousands more poor miners before we stop this slaughter under the only practical system of safety, the Federal regulation of the mines ?

A secoml large contributing cause to the loss of life in American mines is the ignorance of the miners themselves. Not only are regu lations in Europe very stringent as to the qualifications of the mining officials, but they contain rigid provisions forbidding miners to handle

A Federal Mining Commission.

explosives, or to do any work that may imperil their own brothers' lives until after a long apprenticeship under the charge of experienced miners they have demonstrated their fitness to assume such respon sibilities. In America, where almost anybody is considered good enough to be a mine foreman, what qualifications can we expect of the common miner? In some of the principal coal-mining States, American miners have almost disappeared; ignorant foreigners are cheaper; brought over by the immigrant steamship companies at a rate of $25 a head or less, they are poured into the mines by the thousands. Coming chiefly from the agricultural districts of Europe and utterly ignorant of mining methods, they are at once intrusted with the handling of the most dangerous explosives, a license which, of course, would not have been permitted them in the countries from which they came.

In one mine in Pennsylvania 21 separate languages are spoken; many of the miners can read in no language at all; yet any one of these men by his ignorance or carelessness may cause the death of all the others; and the figures show that this does, indeed, often happen. Capt. Desborough, the English mining expert, asked a workman in an American mine what he would do if his safety lamp showed the presence of gas in dangerous quantities. Oh," was the ready reply, would put the lamp on the floor and go on with my work." One of the chief purposes of a safety lamp is, of course, to enable the miner to be warned when the amount of gas is dangerous. As the danger ous gases are more abundant, usually, above the floor level, he raises his lamp, and if the lengthening flame in the safety lamp indicates a dangerous proportion of gas, it is his duty to warn his fellow miners in order that all may flee for their lives. Such astounding and perilous ignorance as that of the American miner, who considered that the danger of gases could be avoided by placing the safety lamp in the better air near the floor, could not be encountered among European miners. The European miner must show his knowledge of the fundamental facts as to the nature of gas, the use and handling of safety lamps, and of explosives, etc., or he will not be permitted to work. In America these ignorant men come to the mine free of ex pense to the operator; if they are slain, they do not cost much; miners' families are too poor to carry on damage suits dragging into years for settlement, with the likelihood of an unsympathetic judge throwing out the whole case on the ground of some technical defect in the drawing of the plea, or upon the ground of the 'assumption of risk" or of the "fellow-servant" legalistic theories. The company claim agent therefore, settles with the bereaved families for a few dollars a head, and fresh thousands are poured into the mines, and the Lord above is depended upon to take care of them. After an explosion in a Virginia mine in which many of the miners lost their lives, the sur vivors refused to work in a certain part of the mine, knowing it to be dangerous. A crowd of fresh immigrants, unfamiliar with the situa tion, were brought in, put to work, and soon after perished in a second explosion.

Mining superintendents are not heartless, but they are pressed for dividends by the presidents of their companies; the presidents are not heartless, but they are pressed for dividends by their directors who live perhaps a thousand miles away in New York, and are interested in the mines only as a matter of profit. State mining

A Fedekal Mining Commission.

mspectors would like to better conditions, but they do not wish to impose more burdensome regulations than do other States, all selling coal in a common, competing market. Moreover, they do not wish to .lose their positions, which they are very likely to do if they annoy the owners of coal mines, who very commonly own the railroads which carry the coal, and enjoy intimate relations with banks and other corporations that exercise quiet but effective power in State politics.

Certain States, it is true, are more careful of the lives of their miners than are others. For example, in the 20-year period ending in 1908 the rate of mining fatalities for the whole country was 3.11 per 1,000 miners employed, while in the east central section, com prising western Kentucky, Indiana, and Illmois, the rate was only 2.25 per 1,000 men employed. This is quite high compared with European States, but low compared with that of most American States. The western section, comprising the States of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, showed a rate of 6.4, the northern Pacific district of 7.4, while the single State of Colorado in the year 1910, just passed, has achieved the unenviable record of kiUuig 21 out of every 1,000 miners employed in that year; more than 20 times the annual death rate of France or Belgium. Efficient inspection and regulation will come only through the strong arm of the Federal Government, less subject to such influences, and able to impose regulations equal and the same upon the mining operators of all the States. The Federal Government can afford to equip and maintain bureaus of experiment and investigation, of an efficiency, and secure scientific experts of an ability, such as are impossible to the individual States. An interstate mining commission would have no authority, of course, to prescribe the conditions of coal mining where the product is sold within the State where it is produced. In the case of some small mines, doubtless, their operations would not fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal commission. The great majority of the coal mines of the country, however, would receive the protection of the safety regulations of the Federal commission.

Another important contributing cause to mining accidents in America is the presence of coal dust, which through carelessness is allowed to accumulate. There is now no question among scientific men but that coal dust is explosive, and that to it may be traced some of the most frightful mining disasters in history. Among the first, if not the first, to experiment on this question was Mr. W. E. Garforth, manager of the Altofts Colliery, England. I was fortunate enough last year to witness as his guest the one hundred and fifteenth and one hundred and sixteenth experimental explosions conducted by him under conditions similar to those actually existing in the mines. This great-hearted Englishman related to me the origin of his interest in this subject. Some years ago he led a rescue party into his mine after an explosion, and when he came upon the bodies of the poor fellows, fathers and sons locked in each other's arms, the sight almost over came him. He formed a resolution then never to rest until he had learned the causes of these terrible explosions. He has demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt the explosiveness of coal dust, and his conclusions have been corroborated by experiments conducted by the mining bureaus of the United States and other Governments. Mr. Garforth has shown that by keeping the walls and floors of his mine

A Federal Mining Commission.

covered with stone dust composed of the pulverized shale commonly found adjacent to coal-bearing strata, that the coal dust, smothered by noninflammable material, will not explode. The total cost for this protection amounts in his mine to only one-fifth of a cent per ton of coal mined. The lives of many hundreds of miners have been thus saved at only a trifling expense.

In certain districts, such as the Longwall fields of northern Illinois, this smothering of the -coal dust by stone dust is accomplished by natural means. In that district particles of shale are continually falling from the roofs of the mines. Crumbling to powder from exposure to the air, the shale dust becomes so mingled with the coal dust as to render the latter noninflammable; and in the 40 years in which this field has been worked no explosion has occurred. Various methods are now used to render coal dust nonexplosive — the use of stone dust as mentioned, the use of water or steam to keep the coal dust moist, and a combination of the two in a sort of shale whitewash which forms a protective coating over walls and floors. A State mining inspector in Alabama reported to the State officials, after each visit to the Virginia mine near Birmingham, that there was a large accumulation of dry coal dust in the mining hallways. These reports were correctly stamped and filed away in the proper pigeon hole, until one day the coal dust became ignited, the bowels of the earth were torn asunder by a terrific explosion, and a few days later the bodies of 160 miners were brought to the surface. The inspector had made his examination all right; the State official had filed the report all right; the only trouble was that nothing was done about the coal dust.

Another fruitful cause of miners' deaths is the use of wooden struc tures in shafts of mines. On September 6, 1869, the wooden shaft of the Avondale coal mine, in Luzerne County, Pa., caught fire. Ten thousand people gathered about the conflagration, helpless to give aid. Finally the whole mass of burning timbers fell with a crash into the mine, setting it afire. One hundred and nine miners lost their lives. Such an accident would be impossible in Europe, where no wood is permitted in the shaft structures. The Avondale disaster occurred more than 40 years ago. Did it deter coal operators from building wooden shafts Not at all; the wooden shafts went right on building, and piano a miner since then has lost his life from the burning of wooden shaft structures erected since the Avondale disaster, and to-day nearly all shaft structures in America are of wood. In Europe, as has been said, wooden shafts are not permitted. Experience has shown at frightful cost that these things can not be left to the volition of the operator or the miner or to the regulation of individual States. The National Government must enact regula tions and appoint inspectors to enforce them. An niters tate mining commission is necessary to see that superintendents are competent and faithful, that miners understand the fundamental principles of their dangerous profession before undertaking their duties; that safety lanips are used where gas exists in dangerous quantities; that coal dust is kept wet, earth covered or removed; that shooting in or off the solid is not permitted; that only permissible explosives appro priate to the mine in question, and only in permissible quantities, should be allowed; that the use of electricity shall be carefully regu lated; and that several openings to the mine shall be maintained!

A Eederal Mining Commission.

In the Avondale disaster just referred to, where the single opening into the mine was blocked by the burning shaft, another mine open ing would have saved the lives of all. A separate opening, however, would have cost money. The bodies of the whole force, 109 men, were found back of a small embankment which in their last hours they had attempted to throw up to dam back the deadly gases. A large proportion of American mines to-day have but a single opening, rendering escape imssible if the shaft itself or the passageway to the shaft takes nre. The recent Briceville, Tenn., accident is one of many cases where a second opening to the mine would have saved hundreds of lives.

In Europe the one distmguishing characteristic of mine manage ment is the careful, prudent foresight which the miners' lives are safeguarded. In America the one universal characteristic is the reck less disregard of the morrow, the criminal disregard of the consider ations of safety. The Cherry, Ill., disaster, in which 350 miners lost their lives, was caused by a boy pushing a tramcar, loaded with hay for the mules, against an open torch stuck in the walls of the hallway. Such management in the case of either the hay or the lighting would have been impossible in any European mine. The Austrian consul, in rendering to his Government the report of the catastrophe, charges the operators with criminal carelessness and negligence in seven dif ferent specified particulars.

Newly arrived immigrants are very cheap. While it would cost something, say 1 cent per ton of coal mined, to make conditions com paratively safe, the present system is perhaps cheaper. It is doubt ful if the average miner killed during the last 20 years has cost his employer S50 in damages paid to his dependents. If these men were slaves worth about $2,000 apiece, as in antebellum days, they would not have killed 30,000 of them in 20 years, bringing upon themselves a loss of $60,000,000. They would have made their mines as safe as those in Europe or else have gone out of business.

It is doubtful if there is a mine to-day in the United States which could pass the inspection which is required of all mines in Europe in the matter of careful minute precautions against accidents. State regulations, for the reasons I have mentioned, will never solve the problem. W'e have had a good deal of State legislation in the past few years having for its object the lessening of dangers in mining; but it has been in just these years that the highest mortality ever known in the history of mining in any country has taken place in American State-regulated mines. In the Marianna, Pa., disaster, costing the lives of about 160 men, the State mining inspector had just completed his inspection, pronounced everything to be in perfect condition, and had proceeded a short distance frotn the mouth of the shaft when a fearful roar shook the earth, and he turned to see the heavy iron cage from which he had just stepped out torn from its chains and hurled a distance of 300 feet, bearing in its flight the bodies of the two men who had it in charge.

State' inspection has never been efficient, is not now, and them is no reason to believe that it will become efficient in the future. The Federal Government must take hold of the situation and use compel sion. An advisory relation to the miners on the part of the Federal Bureau of Mines is good, but it does not go far enough; it must not only be able to make recommendations, but it must be able to compel

A Federal Mining Commission.

the mine owners to carry them out. A Federal system of rescue sta tions equipped with oxygen helmets and other safety apparatus de serves great praise. However, the essential thing is not to rescue survivors after an explosion has taken place, but for the representa tive of the Federal Government to be able to say, 'Your mine is unsafe; you must do this, and this, at once, otherwise your products will be debarred from interstate commerce.' Prevention, not cure, should be the policy.

Now, how should the Federal Government take hold of this matter ? We advocate the following plan:

The establishment, b}" congressional enactment, of a permanent commission of, say, five members, analogous in character to the Inter state Commerce Commission; this commission to have complete power to prescribe the conditions under which coal entering into interstate commerce shall be mined, just as the Federal Government at present passes upon tjie character and conditions under which meat products enter into interstate commerce. This commission should have power to appoint Federal mining inspectors and to enact regulations for all coal entering into interstate commerce. The members, to be appointed the President, should consist of three scientific men, selected for their special eminence in the subject of coal mining; one practical coal miner; and one business man of expe rience in the mining and marketing of coal. This commission should be empowered: First, to appoint its own inspectors; second, to pass and enforce regulations protecting the lives of the miners ; and, third, to prevent the waste of coal in mining (now nearly one-half) for the benefit of future generations.

In the case of coal lands still owned by the Nation — still one-third of the total coal area— protection of the mineracan be most effectively secured by retaining the ownership in the hands of the whole people and operating them either directly by the Government or through leases in which the provisions are made for safety regulations such as have proved so effective in saving life in European mines.

The fact that private profit is eliminated under government owner ship and operation would make it easier both to safeguard the miners' lives and protect the consumer from extortionate charges. Even under private ownership, however, there is much misapprehension as to the amount of the increase in the cost of production necessitated by safety precautions. Mr. Victor Watteyne, inspector general of mines, Belgium, one of the European experts invited by our Government to investigate American mining conditions, states that in his opinion the transformation of American mining methods, now extremely dan gerous, so as to bring about a condition of comparative safety would be attended by little, if any, increase in the cost of production. He remarks that similar dangerous conditions once existed in France and Belgium, now the safest coal-mining countries in the world, and that the safety regulations which brought about this result were, when first introduced, bitterly opposed by operators on the ground of increased expense. To-clay, he adds, the operators, once so hostile, are perfectly satisfied with these regulations and admit that the increase in the cost of production has been trifling in amount. Mr. Eoderick, in his report above mentioned, states as his opinion that with an additional cost of about 1 cent per ton of coal mined in Penn sylvania safety precautions could be introduced which would reduce

A Federal Mining Commission.

the number of fatalities one-half. In other words, of the 8.893 miners killed in Pennsjlvania in the period from 1899 to 1908, inclusive, the lives of 4,447 miners could have been saved by merely increasing the cost of coal production to the extent of 1 cent per ton.

Even if the cost of production should be increased to a greater extent than is claimed oy Mr. Roderick and Mr. Watteyne. humane and broad-minded operators will be willing to assume tliis extra bur den, provided, of course, that it fall equally on all competitors, so that such expenditure can be charged up to the cost of production, along with labor, freight, etc., and thus be added to the sales price of coal.

The movement toward employers' liability legislation, now gaining strengtli in many States, will, moreover, render safety mining regu lations more popular among employers, for if the employer is com pelled to pay accident and death losses to the families of the killed miners precautionary safety regulations will become an economical business policy. The broad-minded and humane employer under safety regulations will be placed on a footing of equality with his unscrupulous and inhumane competitor. It is only by clothing some com]>event tribunal with effective power that this tremendous waste of life will be brought to an end. And when we once realize the actual conditions we will put an end to them. When we read in the diapers that some 300 miners were killed in the Menengah disaster, 350 at the Cherry mine, as many more at Connellsville, and so on, the statements are mere figures to us, they have no human meaning. But if we could stand at the mouth of the mine upon its reopening after an explosion and behold the seemingly endless column of charred bodies borne hour after hour to the surface; if we could witness the long line of hearses on their way to the hillside burial ground; if we could hear the heartbreaking sobs of stricken wklows mingled with the pitiful wails of little children bereft of their fathers, if we could go in the days that follow to the bare homes deprived of then-breadwinners, and find that the little children have been taken out of school to gain their little pittance in the coal breakers; if we could see these things we would realize that it is not a question of States' rights" or 'constitutionalism"; we would see that it is a question of ])protecting the lives and the homes of our humble workers.

, after years of weak and inefficient State regulation of impure food products, the American people decided that they wished their lives and their homes protected by the strong and farreaching arm of the Federal Government, all kinds of constitutional objections were brought to bear the manufacturers of impure products. They feared for the future of our country if the (Consti tution were to be so trampled upon at the expense of the so'ereignty of the States. But when we decided that we wanted it, the lawyers found a way for us. Uncle Sam now places his inspectors in the packing houses of Kansas City and thereby protects the homes of New ork and San Francisco. The question for us is, do we really want the lives and the homes of these poor miners protected ? If we do-really, earnestly do — the lawyers will arrange the constitu tional problems involved.

At the best the coal miner leads a hard life, in the depths of the mine, shut out from the light of the sun, breathing all day foul air and gases, prone by his occupation to tuberculosis and other diseases.

A Federal Mlniitg Commission.

Ih-ing vith his family usually in dhty, smoke-covered villages, bare of trees and vegetation, ail tKis for miserable wages, in order that vou and I may enjoy our bright firesides, and that the business of the Na tion, through factory and railroad, may go on. Is it not the least that we can do for these poor fellows to see that the present farce of State regulation should not stand in the way of a strong interstate mining commission that 'will protect them against the useless, fool ish, . and umiecessarv waste of life which now characterizes our American mining industry ?

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