i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
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Machine miners paid per ton screened in<br />
headings 53<br />
Machine runners paid per day 2.48<br />
Machine runners paid per ton run-of-mine<br />
in rooms 07%<br />
Machine runners paid per ton run-of-mine<br />
in headings 09<br />
Machine runners paid per ton screened 12<br />
Machine runners paid per foot 04<br />
Machine runners paid per hour 19 1 5<br />
The ton used in the above is gross.<br />
SELLING PRICES.—The selling price of coal per<br />
ton of 2,240 lbs. was $1.05 at the mines for runof-mine<br />
coal, a decrease of 27% cents compared<br />
with 1903.<br />
Coke sold for $1.83% per ton of 2,000 lbs., a<br />
decrease of 82% cents under prices for 1903.<br />
MEN EMPLOYED.—The greatest number of men<br />
employed within and about the mines and coke<br />
ovens, for any year, was during the present.<br />
when 45,492 were employed, an increase over<br />
the previous year of 6,040. These were employed<br />
as follows: Pick miners, 18,880; machine<br />
operators, 1,574; machine miners, 6,821;<br />
inside laborers, 9,041; coke workers, 3,511; and<br />
outside laborers, 5,665.<br />
STRIKES.—During the months of April, May and<br />
June of the year there were strikes among the<br />
mine employes in the panhandle counties, or<br />
Wheeling district, which were brought about by<br />
reason of the operators and miners being unable<br />
to agree to a new scale to conform to the Indianapolis<br />
joint agreement between the operators of<br />
the several coal producing states and the United<br />
Mine Workers.<br />
During the same period there was a strike<br />
among a number of mines in the Kanawha valley,<br />
for the same reason.<br />
In the entire state ten counties and 42 operations<br />
were affected, throwing out of employment<br />
2,926 men, and causing a loss of wages to the<br />
employes of $126,032.00 at 17 mines and a loss<br />
to the operators of $23,210.00 at 11 companies.<br />
LEGISLATION.—With the increase in the coal<br />
industry in the state the work of this department<br />
has materially grown. This is brought about by<br />
reason of the increased number of mines requiring<br />
inspection and a growing tendency on the<br />
part of the mine employes and operators to avail<br />
themselves of frequent conferences with the personnel<br />
of the department in relation to matters<br />
for betterments at the mines.<br />
The work of this department has been conducted<br />
with the view of a systematic inspection<br />
of the mines, and an observance of the mining<br />
statutes with the least possible friction.<br />
The duties required of the district inspectors<br />
are such that it has become a physical impossibility<br />
for the inspector to make the required num<br />
._ <strong>COAL</strong> TRADE BULLETIN. 37<br />
ber of inspections of each mine. If the inspector<br />
should merely go to the main entrance of each<br />
mine in his district four times per year it would<br />
consume every working day of the year, and leave<br />
him no time in which to make an inspection of<br />
the mine, while there are mines in each district<br />
that are of such extent that it requires two and<br />
three days to make the necessary inspection.<br />
The efficiency of the inspector's work is much<br />
reduced by his having so many mines and so little<br />
time to devote to each. Oftentimes matters and<br />
conditions are such that it is essential that a<br />
mine be given special attention, and in doing so<br />
others have to be given less attention. Important<br />
instructions may be given requiring immediate<br />
attention, and to make such instructions effective<br />
the inspector should return at an early date to<br />
see that the instructions have been executed,<br />
otherwise important matters are frequently neglected<br />
for many weeks or until the inspector<br />
returns to make his regular inspection.<br />
There are not a sufficient number of district inspectors<br />
to do any part of justice to the work<br />
required of them. There are now 630 mines requiring<br />
inspection, an average of 126 mines for<br />
each inspector, necessitating 504 inspections to<br />
comply with the law. Sixty mines is the greatest<br />
number that should be assigned any one inspector.<br />
It is, therefore, highly essential that there be at<br />
least five additional inspectors provided for by<br />
legislation, which would allow 63 mines for each<br />
inspector at the present time.<br />
In the matter of oil for illumination within the<br />
mines, it has been found that greater trouble is<br />
had with the employes in burning mixed and inferior<br />
compounds than is had with the retailer of<br />
oils.<br />
The testing of oils is a part of the duties of this<br />
department and many tests have been made, but<br />
owing to the other duties of the inspectors sufficient<br />
time is not available to take up this oil<br />
matter in a systematic manner.<br />
Owing to the prominent position to which the<br />
coal industry of the state has reached—it being<br />
the greatest commercial industry which the state<br />
possesses, and the future destined to bring the<br />
industry into greater prominence—it appears that,<br />
with wisdom exercised in a proper spirit for the<br />
building up of our state's greatest commercial<br />
asset, it would be proper to give a little additional<br />
prestige to the mine inspection branch of<br />
the state government by giving it a name, such<br />
as the "Department of Mines."<br />
In addition to this the statutes should be so<br />
amended as to place the Department of Mines<br />
under the direction of a chief whose duties shall<br />
be as far-reaching as those now prescribed for<br />
the Chief Mine Inspector.<br />
As the statutes are to-day the terms of office of