COAL - Clpdigital.org

50 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
after having deducted from his wages the amount
due.
The niininiuni of disability or infirmity pension,
which is not allowed for less than 200 weeks' work,
is $28 for the first class, $31 for the second, $32.50
for the third, $34 for the fourth and $36 for the
fifth class. After fifty years, or 2,000 weeks, of work
these pensions are increased to $44.75 for the first
class, $65 for the second, $79.50 for the third, $94
for the fourth and $108.50 for the fifth.
An old age pension is paid to every insured
workman of seventy years or over who has deposited
not less than 1,200 weekly dues. The dues
deposited for the employe by the state during
military service is counted among these 1.200 as
well as temporary interruptions. Old age pensions
of the first class amount to $26, second class $34,
third class $41. fourth class $48 and fifth class
$55.50.
AMERICAN COAL IN ONTARIO.
United States Consul General Holloway, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, reports that during the last
fiscal year 4,252.333 tons of soft coal were imported
into Canada from the United States, practically
all of which was taken by Ontario. Some
of this coal was produced in Ohio and shipped
across Lake Erie in vessels; the remainder was
Pennsylvania coal, which entered Canada by rail
via the Suspension bridge route. After the duty
has been paid this coal can still be sold at a considerably
lower figure than that for which the
Nova Scotia product can be delivered, owing to
the cost of transportation and the royalty exacted
by the government of Nova Scotia from its coal
producers upon every ton of coal mined in consideration
of the protection afforded them by the
Dominion tariff.
From this latter feature arises much of the
dissatisfaction of the Ontario steam users; they
assert that they pay 67 cents a ton duty and get
no return, as no Ontario industry is benefited by
the tax which all have to pay. Neither do the
Nova Scotia mine owners derive any advantage
from the duty on this tonnage, as practically none
of their coal goes to Ontario, and therefore their
interests would not be adversely affected if coal
from the United States were admitted into that
province free of duty. Petitions have been made
to the Nova Scotia government asking that a
remission of this fee be made on coal shipped
west of Montreal, but such requests have always
been refused. If this royalty did not exist, the
Nova Scotia coal might possibly reach some parts
of Ontario, and to that extent displace the Pennsylvania
and Ohio product.
This state of affairs has set the Ontario manu­
facturers to discussing the question as to why
they should continue to pay a duty on United
States coal for the benefit of Nova Scotia, when
that province refuses to put its own coal within
their reach, and they insist that there will be no
cessation of efforts to secure a more equitable
arrangement.
MISS MORRIS URGES MINERS
TO BEAUTIFY THEIR HOMES.
Miss Elizabeth Catherine Morris, secretary to
President John Mitchell, of the United Mine Work­
ers, who is touring the anthracite region with him,
is so full of enthusiasm in the work of improving
the condition of the mine workers that she is
suggesting an improvement according to her own
ideas. Impressed with the beauty of the Wyoming
valley and other places, and also with the
general unsightliness of the miners' villages, she
is advocating an effort at adornment by the aid
of nature, which would transform many of the
ugly cottages and houses into bowers of beauty.
The majority of the mine workers neither cultivate
their gardens nor evince any desire to beautify
their homes.
Miss Morris says: "Could anything be more
beauRjful than the laurel-crowned mountains of
the Wyoming valley, or anything more unlovely
than the culm-capped hills of the same region?
And in some cases the people dwelling in what
should be this paradise of beauty seem to have
caught the spirit of destroying man and to conspire
to make their homes as unattractive as are
the surroundings of the breakers.
"I do not know whether mountain laurel will
grow in the soil that is found in the yards of the
miners' dwellings; but it seems not impossible
that proper soil could be brought, without much
effort, to the yard. And how a man whose house
backs up against a hill transfigured by these blossoms
can allow his door yard to be barren even
of grass, to be littered with old boards and tomato
cans, to be the permanent abode of chickens, is a
paradox it is difficult to comprehend.
"I suppose, though, it has never occurred to
him to have any of this beauty within his own
gate. Won't you try it, anthracite miners? See
what you can do at the expense of a little time and
money to reedeem portions of Pennsylvania from
the curse of being hideous and make them blossom
like the rose.
"Some places in Wilkesbarre, in Sugar Notch,
in Nanticoke, some homes in Hazleton. in Mahanoy
City and Shenandoah are bowers of beauty. Surely
with the laurels and the ferns growing so abundantly
on the hillside the miners' homes should not
be unadorned."