COAL’S COST IN HUMAN LIFE

TWICE IN A DECADE have coal-miners of Dawson, New Mexico, been trapt and entombed by mine explosions which snuffed out a total of 383 lives. And in both instances the mines were owned by the same corporation. In ten years, declares the New York Evening Post, “we have killed approximately 24,000 miners.”  Quite properly, then, the Denver Rocky Mountain News asks: “Are we utilizing everything that science can devise to make mines safe? Or do we hold human life cheaper than the cost of proper precautions that might cost a few cents more per ton to mine the coal?” In the latest disaster at Mine No. 1 of the Phelps-Dodge Corporation, only two miners out of 122 entombed Were saved. These had wrapt wet garments about their faces, and stretched full length in the shaft until the fatal gases cleared. Some of the others were burned almost beyond recognition.

On the same day, by a strange coincidence, an explosion occurred in Mine No. 4 of the Canadian Collieries, at Cumberland, B. C., in which 33 men lost their lives. Little hope is held out for the twenty or more who remain entrapt, say Associated Press dispatches. The origin of the explosion, according to a telegram from the company, is unknown. Hence the query by The Rocky Mountain News, which is published less than three hundred miles from the New Mexico tragedy. Continues this paper:

“True, the Federal and the State Governments have taken in hand the question of mine safety, and experienced men are employed at strategical points as mine rescuers. Still the question remains of whether everything is being done that can be done to make coal-mines safe.

“That familiarity breeds contempt for danger is true in the mine among certain classes of employees, but all the same it is the first duty of owners of properties to do everything possible to save the innocent from the criminally careless and to use precaution against conditions known to exist.”

Coals Cost in Human Life continued…

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 6:55 am and is filed under 1920's, Mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.

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