COAL - Clpdigital.org

LABOR AGENT GIVES FIGURES
ON COST OF ALABAMA STRIKE.
Testimony was given before a hearing of commissioner
of license and heating in New York City
to the effect that the United Mine Workers of
America had spent more than $1,500,000 in an
effort to win the strike which began in the bituminous
coal mines of Alabama and Tennessee
a year ago. The statements were made by General
Labor Agent Dewitt of the Tennessee Coal,
Iron & Railroad Co. Dewitt asserted that the
union contributed an average of $1,000 a day for
the maintenance of the members of the local
unions in those two states, and that in addition
to the $365,000 spent by the organization, the
union had expended $26,000 within the last three
months for railroad tickets to enable new men to
return to their homes. The statements made by
Dewitt were brought out in hearing complaints
against two large employment agencies in the
city, which have been engaged in obtaining men
for the mines. The charges against agencies are
to the effect that they engaged men and sent them
to the south under false pretense, restraining
them on the trains en route against their will.
One witness was the wife of a machinist. She
told of being locked in with her husband and a
carload of other men. who broke the windows of
the coaci at Birmingham. Ala., and made their
escape.
;>! COAL TRADE CASUALTIES. ;
Night Mine Manager Caldwell was killed in
Joseph Leiter's Zeigler mine on July 17. Owing to
a defect in the cages of the main shaft he was
compelled to come to the surface by the stairway
in the air shaft. When half way up, it is supposed,
he lost his balance and fell to the bottom.
—x—
An explosion of dynamite at the storage powder
house at the mine of the West Riverside Coal Co.,
near Des Moines, la., on July 19, caused the
deaths of six workmen and the destruction of
$100,000 worth of property.
—x—
During an electrical storm on July 19, lightning
struck the big new breaker at the Pine Brook
colliery, near Scranton, Pa., and set it on fire.
The breaker was rebuilt less than a year ago. after
being destroyed.
—x—
An explosion of gas in the engine house at the
Ohio River coal tipples at Parkersburg, W. Va.,
on July 17, caused a fire which destroyed the tipples,
entailing a loss of $5,000.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 41
The coal tipple, power house and several small
sheds of the Pittsburgh Coal Co.'s mine at Morgan,
near Bridgeville, Pa., were burned on July
27, causing a loss of about $5,000.
—x—
The wreckage of an engine and eight coal cars
near Norristown, Pa., completely tied up the Reading
railway main line on July 16. The property
loss was $100,000.
•—x—
Fire recently damaged the plant of the Wenona
Coal & Mining Co. at Wenona, 111., to the extent
of $20,000 or $30,000 and threw 325 people out of
employment.
—x—
The coal tipple and other buildings at Junior,
W. Va., owned by the Davis Coal & Coke Co., were
burned July 21; loss, $30,000.
—x—
The store and offices of the Deanefield Coal Co.,
at Deanefield, O, were burned recently causing a
loss of $9,000.
$ CONSTRUCTION and DEVELOPMENT. K
The Star Cahaba Coal Co. has begun opening
a new mine near Parkwood, six miles east of
Bessemer, Ala. Preparations are being made to
build a number of houses and to make other improvements
necessary to a mining town. A line
will be constructed from the Louisville & Nashville
railroad to the mines in the immediate future.
It is estimated that the mines will be
turning out coal in about a year's time. Its daily
capacity will be about 1,000 tons and it wilt employ
between 400 or 500 men.
1
The Westmoreland Coal Co. has just finished the
largest exhaust fan in the Irwin, Pa., field at its
Shafton mine. It is driven by a 40-horse-power
engine. At its Export mine work has been started
on a steel tipple that will serve its two mines so
that five cars on as many tracks can be loaded at
one time. The improvements will cost about
$100,000.
—+—
The Braznell Coal Co., which recently took up
a large tract of coal territory in the Bentleyville
district in Washington county, Pa., is preparing
to operate its holdings. A corps of engineers has
located the tipple for the new works. This tract
was taken up about two months ago by the Braznell
company, and contains about 425 acres.
—I
The Riverview Coal & Coke Co. has let the contract
for the immediate erection of 200 additional
ovens at its plant along the Monongahela river
above Masontown.