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Show BUREA U OF MINES ISSUES BULLETIN ON MINING LA W Committee of Famous Mining Men and Lawyers Proposes Uniform Legislation in Mining-States Mining-States Embodying "Safety First" Idea. A PUBLICATION of considerable Interest In-terest to the metal mining districts of the United States has just been Issued by the bureau of mines, under un-der the title, "Rules and Regulations Regula-tions for Metal Mines. " It is to be known as bulletin 78 and the authors are W. R. Ingalls. J. Parke Channlng. James Douglas, James R. Finlay and John Hays Hammond. The commit tee was originally appointed at a meeting of the American Mining congress at Denver. Den-ver. Colo.. In Xovpmher, lH)i, and its object ob-ject was the drafting of a modern law-governing law-governing quarrying and metalliferous mining which could be recommended- to the several states for adoption, In the hope that the passage of such a uniform law by the mining states would tend to lower the number of fatal and serious accidents. When the committee took up its work. It found that Colorado, Missouri. Montana Mon-tana and New York were the only states that had enacted mining laws of hroad scope applicable to other than coal mines. California. Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mich-igan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota. Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming Wyo-ming were found to have statutes pertaining per-taining to metalliferous mining, but with few and incomplete safety provisions. This committee of the American Mining Min-ing congress din considerable work along this line and made a number of reports. In April, i?n. Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, director di-rector of the bureau of mines, Invited the committee to serve as a committee of that bureau with the idea of preparing prepar-ing a final draft of a law and this was accepted. To Promote Safety. Starting with a composite of existing laws, the committee by successive stages endeavored to work out a genera! law that would embody the best mining thought of the day, be in accord with approved modern mining practices, and yet at the same time be effective and practical in operation, and not merely a collection of rules and regulations to be disregarded or enforced at will. xThe committee in discussing Its report says: We have found that a great deal of Interest and attention among mine operators has been awakened by our advocacy of improved means for promoting pro-moting safety In mining. However, we are under no illusion that our recommendations will be immediately and generally adopted. We consider our work to be especially of educational educa-tional character rather than anything else. It will be useful in three main ways, we think, as follows: 1 As a basis for state legislation. 2 As a basis for private systems of inspection. ?! As a collection of simple rules for the guidance of everybody engaged en-gaged in mining. Since the publication of our first report several states have adopted new mining laws and amended their old ones. In. this connection our code has served some purpose; for example, exam-ple, in the drafting of the laws that now stand on the hooks of the states of Nevada and Arizona. We do not expect that any state will at once adopt all of our recommendations, especiallv those that are essentially of legal character. We offer them as what we think ought to be and hope some day will be. Benefit Small Operators. Since our first publication, furthermore, further-more, most of the mining companies of consequence have adopted inspection inspec-tion Bvsteins. or have at least framed codes of safety rules, which have been based to a large extent on our code, notably so in the case of the ClevelandChTTs Iron company. This tendency, in fact, has become one of the most important phases in the national na-tional movement for "safety first." This is the gratifying consummation that we had in mind. Unquestionably, Unquestion-ably, also, the widespread adoption of state laws providing compensation for injured workmen has helped the safety movement by making accident prevention worth while. We consider, however, that the chief usefulness of the code of rules that we have formulated Will be to small operators, who frequently engage en-gage In unsafe practices without knowing that they are unsafe or without with-out thinking about the matter at all. There is n reasonable hope that our report will be of educational value to all mining operators. The act that we have drafted may be regarded from two angles from the legal and from the technical. With respect to the latter we have had in mind the conditions and practice prac-tice of mining existing and prevailing prevail-ing in the several parts of the United States. In our treatment of the matter from the legal standpoint, in which we have had the advice of good lawyers, we have refused to clothe the inspector of mines with the optional powers that are given to him under the laws of many oT the British colonies, and, also, we have refused to convey to him the sweeping power that is given to health inspectors in some of our own states. Draft New Code. The code of mining rules that has been finally drafted by the committee commit-tee is the co-ordination of the experiences, ex-periences, opinions and suggestions of a great many men who have assisted the committee in an advisorv capacity capac-ity and as directly employed aids. The former have included many engineers actively engaged In practice, members mem-bers of professional societies, and members of the bar; the latter have Included members of the regular staff of the bureau of mines and of the personal staffs of members of the committee. The committee has sought to obtain many points of view and to summarize man.v experiences. The draft that has been prepared is not offered as the last word upon this subject. There are many phases of this subject with which the committee com-mittee has been unable to deal thoroughly. Thus the committee confesses con-fesses its Inability to formulate at the present time adequate rules covering cov-ering the important subject of ventilation ven-tilation of mines. Similarly there are many practices In open-cut mining, by steam shovels, etc., regarding which the committee has felt unable to formulate rules. We feel, however, that the rules so far as prescribed may advantageously be applied to open mining whether it be simple quarrying or the extraction of metalliferous metal-liferous mineral, as well as to underground under-ground mining. |