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Show Why Foreigners Mine so Cheaply With foreign mine production cutting into the Utah economy econ-omy via closing of local mines, an article in a recent national magazine is of particular interest. Natives who toil in South African gold mines return to their villages after a nine month labor tour with less cash than an American coal miner gets in a day, according to two articles in a recent Readers Digest article. The articles, which contrast conditions in American and South African mines, point out that in both countries, mining is highly mechanized. But in the United States, this mechanization has brought miners a higher standard with a union pay scale of $24.68 a day. In South Africa, it has enabled the eight big minging "houses" to continue working low-yield mines which would be unprofitable if the general wage scale went much above 75 cents a day. Most natives wind up with about $20 to show for nine months' work. American mining conditions are described in an interview with former President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, Work-ers, condensed in the Digest from U. S. News and World Report. In the interview, titled "More Machines, Fewer Men and a Union That's Happy About It," Mr. Lewis says that improved pay, working conditions and benefits for American miners have not increased the cost of coal appreciably to the purchaser. "In 1958, he paid only one cent more per ton wholesale at the mine than he paid in 1948," Mr. Lewis comments. On the other hand, Wolfgang Langewiesche reports in the artimle "The Great South African Mine Deal," that the entire white economy of South Africa depends on a continuous supply of chec$ native labor, lured trom jungle villages, ine mine boy (an African native is never a "man") is well fed, housed in a clean compound and given the best medical care. But he gets no cash until the company plane returns him to his village. "The mines know that their present system is dangerous. For six to nine months'labor , the Black Man gets only that $20. That plus a new suit, shoes and a hat, is the net result of going to the mines. His head tax alone will swallow it in three years. He has built up nothing in the mines, nothing at home. Meanwhile Mean-while he has seen how the White Man lives and what the gap is. How long can this last?" - |