THE PERILS OF THE COAL MINE.
THE picture which has of late been drawn of the Collier, re- presenting him as spending the greater portion of his time in play, drinking champagne, travelling in first-class railway carriages, and altogether leading a life of indolence and ease, although fascinating, is misleading. Whatever grain of truth there may be at the bottom of these representations, that there is another side to the picture is shown very forcibly in the Reports -of the Inspectors of Mines recently published. Few among us, we imagine, have any vivid conception of the perils of the coal mine, or of the immense sacrifice of life yearly taking place in our -coal-fields ; and we must not let our exasperation at the recent almost doubling of the price of coal make us unjust towards a large section of our working-classes.
In the f rat place, as to the matter of idleness, a reproach which we now bear constantly alleged against the colliers, and which is popularly supposed to be one of the chief causes of the high price we are paying for fuel, if we go back some thirty years, to the time of the Royal Commission on the employment of children in mines, we shall find Mr. J. C. Symons, one tf the Sub-Cora- missioners, reporting the same tendency to "lie idle" of which we now complain. From his account it is clear that the nature of the work is such that everyone employed in the mines always looks upon getting out of the pit as the summurnbonum, and strives in every way to shorten the time underground. The men go to the pita as seldom as they can afford, and when there they work so as to compress the greatest amount of labour into the shortest period of time. Rather than work overtime, they will exert themselves to the utmost to accomplish any extra work they may have to do within the usual number of hours. It is, moreover, by no means improbable that the enforced idleness to which the men have always had to submit at times when the supply of coal happened to be greater than the demand, has helped to increase the inclina- tion already implanted in them to enjoy as much life above-ground _as possible. Mr. Symons noticed that this irregularity of work, the making-up at the end of the week or fortnight (when pay-day was approaching) for the lost time at the beginning, and the working overtime when the masters were anxious to get at any given moment an unusually large supply of coal, told prejudicially on the health of the men ; and he recommended that the Legislature should limit the number of hours for "the -drawing of coal" to nine per day. His remarks in relation to the -effect which this regulation would have upon the price of coal, although beside our immediate purpose, have a special interest at the present moment. Such a law, he says, although it would be stoutly opposed at first by the masters, would in the end conduce to their benefit, as well as to that of the men. Limit the supply of coal, and you will increase the wholesale price the masters will thus obtain higher prices and no less profits, while the men will have the same wages for less labour. At that time, it seems, the coal-owners were making but slender profits, as shown by the fact that excellent coal was selling at Barnsley at 4s. 6d. and 5s. a ton, and inferior but by no means bad coal was selling near Wakefield at 3s. a ton. Mr. Symons saw that with these small profits it would be impossible for individual colliery proprietors to limit the liours of work, and that it was necessary, therefore, that the rule should be universal and compulsory. By raising the wholesale price of coal, he considered that "the exorbitant profits of coal- dealers, for whose exclusive benefit it appears that these long hours are maintained," would be curtailed. And if we are to accept some of the evidence on this point given before the Select Committee appointed last Session to inquire into the causes of the present dearness and scarcity of coal, this forecast appears to have been correct as regards the increase of the wholesale price curtailing the profits of the coal merchants.
We repeat then : the habit of the collier to lie idle when he can, although, of course, more indulged in now, when his wages are so much higher than they were, is no new thing ; and when we consider the arduous nature of his employment, and the fact that for generations it has been the practice to make him idle whenever it has suited the convenience of his employer, is it to be expected that he should now work harder than ever in order that ceal may be cheap ? As we have said, few people have any distinct notion of the dangers and risks attending the production of coal, and of the enormous number of lives annually lost by accidents in the mines. Every now and then the papers record some great and awful calamity, an explosion of fire-damp on a large scale, or an irruption of water into the workings of a mine, launching at one blow some twenty or thirty men into eternity, and rendering many a hearth and home desolate. But accidents on this scale are of comparatively rare occurrence. It is the daily accidents, with their attendant deaths, one or two at a time, which make up the ghastly total. Too insignificant by themselves, they are rarely recorded in the public prints ; but in their collected whole in the Blue-book, they make a sad impression on anyone turning over its pages. The Reports of the Inspectors are little more than "chapters of accidents" in a literal sense. The acci- dents are all methodically tabulated on one uniform system, so that their number, their causes, and their consequences, as regards each particular district, may be seen at a glance, and the Reports give the details of the most prominent or noteworthy. They are divided broadly into five groups or categories, viz., explosions of fire-damp ; falls of coal from the "face," as it is termed, of the seam, or from the roof ; accidents in shafts from ropes or chains breaking, over-winding, &c. ; miscellaneous accidents underground, such as explosions of gunpowder, suffocation from gas, accidents from trams and tubs, &c. ; and acci- dents on the surface by machinery, boilers bursting, &a.
The total number of deaths from all these causes amounted last year to 1,060, the majority of which were due to separate accidents.
In the first category, explosions of fire-damp, the deaths numbered 154; in the second, falls from the " face " or roofs of mines, they numbered 456; in the third, accidents in shafts, they numbered 155; in the fourth, miscellaneous underground accidents, they numbered 217; and in the fifth, accidents on the surface, they numbered 78. It will be perceived that of all these classes of accident by far the most frequent is the second, that of falls of coal, either from the face of the seam upon which the men are at work, or from the roof of the mine. Falls from the roof are stated to have been more than usually numerous last year, owing partly to the large number of inexperienced hands employed in the collieries. It seems that it requires many years' experience to enable a man to gauge the safety of a roof, and to render a danger- ous place really secure. But apart from the question of inex- perience, many deaths might have been averted if the timbering of the working-places had been carefully watched by the persons in charge. We are glad to see that the Inspectors of Mines are pretty generally of opinion that if the provisions of the New Mining Act, which came into operation on January 1, 1873, be fairly carried out, a material reduction will be effected in the number and nature of accidents under this head ; the owner, agent, and manager being now held responsible for the security of the roof and sides of every "travelling road and working-place." Mr. Wales, however, the Inspector for South Wales, fears that so long as the colliers have to fix the timber in their own working- places there will be little or no diminution in the death-rate, as the colliers are paid on the ton of coal cut, and not according to the quantity of timber set. And indeed, whatever diminution may by care and watchfulness be effected as regards this class of acci- dents, anything like entire freedom from them cannot be hoped for. They are the normal perils of the miner's life. But as re- spects explosions of firedamp, the case is far otherwise. The number of persons killed by such explosions last year was, as stated, 154; and it is hardly too much to say that these lives might all have been saved, had only ordinary precautions been used. Because working with a naked light, in disregard of orders, is not always attended with fatal consequences, the miner seems to forget
that dangeris lurking behind, and perseveres in disobedience; prefer- ring for the sake of obtaining a little more light to run the risk of getting burned, or even killed, rather than to put up with the less amount of light and immunity from danger which the safety-lamp affords. The accidents under this head are one long record of carelessness, wilful disobedience, or bad management ; and what adds to the sadness of the matter is that the risk is not confined to the life of the one man who disobeys orders, and who causes the explosion. He jeopardises the lives of others, and too frequently involves them in his destruction. A sad illustration of this is given by Mr. Wynne. Speaking of a certain ease, he says :—" The waste or goaf was known to contain gas which every fall of roof forced into the drift in larger or smaller quantities, according to the quantity of roof that fell. There was plenty of air to carry it off, and naked lights were forbidden to be used in that part of the workings ; but the man in charge of the drift, thinking he knew better than both manager and underlooker where danger was to be apprehended, used a naked light, and caused the explosion, and only lived long enough to feel the bitter pang of not only causing his own death, but that of five others." Sometimes the masters are to blame. Mr. Wynne mentions an instance in which an unfortunate man was sent to work with a naked light in a place known to be foul, and spoken of for some days before as dangerous. The man was of course killed ; and the case admit- ting of no explanation, a summons was issued against the owner, who was fined the full penalty of £20. A perfect system of ven- tilation, and strict discipline to enforce the use of the safety-lamp, are what are required to put an end to this class of accidents. A perfect system of ventilation is of course not easy to obtain, but one great point has been gained : the masters have been awakened to a sense of the importance of ventilation. They are now aware that "life is imperilled the moment that fresh wind becomes scarce," and they are bestirring themselves actively to secure such improvement as lies in their power. Ventilating fans are being erected in considerable numbers ; in one district alone, where in 1866 there were not more than two mechanical ventilators at wcak, they have now no fewer than seventeen. As regards discipline, the Miners' Trades' Union might do much good, if their energies were directed that way. It is to be hoped that as time goes on, this will come about ; but at present, though the Union is admitted to have been useful in having established a kind of Board of Conciliation, before which questions relating to revision of wages are brought, and which has in a few cases con- sidered matters relating to safety, it has to some extent been subversive of discipline ; rules having been laid down forbidding the men to work under certain conditions. Thus, on a sudden emergency, like a fire in a pit, the Union declare that all the men shall be employed alike in extinguishing it, and heavy fines are threatened in cases where men specially suitable for this kind of work, and specially chosen for the purpose, work more than their proportionate number of "shifts." Action of this sort, on the part of the Union, is unquestionably mischievous. We must, however, look forward to the spread of education to open the eyes of the men to their true interests, and make clear to them that regulations of this order, while they may be productive of serious loss to proprietors and prejudicial to the safe working of the mines, confer no real benefit on themselves.
Upon the whole, and looking at the matter in an impartial light, we cannot but rejoice that the men whose lives are spent in pro- curing for us the comforts of light and warmth should be earning wages so much higher than any dreamt of in former generations. The first result of accession to greater riches is nearly always increased expenditure in an unwise direction. If, then, the miners have not always spent their newly-acquired wealth wisely, they cannot be harshly blamed for this. That they will not always spend so unwisely we may be quite sure. Already there are dawn- ing signs of a better spirit. The South Yorkshire miners, who 'voluntarily and rapidly raised amongst themselves a subscription mounting to nearly £3,000 for the Plimsoll Defence Fund, showed that they could use their money for generous, as well as selfish purposes ; but the fact must not be lost sight of that rude work, which coal-mining is, demands rude bodies, and that rude bodies imply rude minds, and if war cannot be made with lavender-water, neither can coal be dug with kid gloves. As long as coal-mining is the rough operation it now is, we can hardly expect such intelli- gence and culture in miners as will guide them to a thoroughly good use of their money. The best hope for such development lies in the universal adoption of machinery for coal-cutting. In process of time, we believe that this must come ; how soon it is impossible to predict ; but the sooner the better for the welfare of all concerned.
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