| Show CARBON COUNTY coal CAMPS IDEAL FOR MAN WHO LABORS J T j BY J in salt lake tribune sunday no vember 1 A it if the average dpn set out to find a model community in which to make hie his home tn a tha the state of stahl utah it is un lionly that he would begin in the coal regions ot of carbon courty so much haa has bien said and a and 4 reported end and r about the living tonal tlona tt f the wal 1 miner and Ms his family that ono who liaa had made little e or no in vesti gatlon r aull be incas inc ls 2 4 t to 0 the belief that a coal camp would be about the most unde undesirable spot imaginable yet it is a fact 8 that tha bert in n f to oal mining I 1 n g cams of carbon county there may way b be e f found oun several of I 1 eat est com from health and sociological viewpoints and taking them on the whole it is iq var vak sale at ti to venture that they are far plan a to alv live a then than the average community in the state or ory for that matter la in any state the strike of the bituminous coal miners brought that industry and the working and living conditions eur our rounding it into tho the limelight Im elight col dumns and column columns were printed con eon berning tho the aneca of tho the miners grims ces ranging from etring condl condi I 1 ions ti 0 boura hours aud and wages and alleged unfair practice practices up upon 0 n the part of the op operators orators the abou thought occurred then N what hat of these con lotions la in the state of utah wl ere coal mining is one of our large industries t conditions studied come down and see for yourself how these folks 11 ahe e 11 suggested C I 1 georgo L who haa has been at ile I 1 I 1 er in charge of a of united states troops who were to pre pro serve order and protect property in case of disturbances there which for tuna tely never took place and so it came about that I 1 was sent by the tribune to loch lock around in coal camps I 1 1 spent n t several days in carbon county g 0 lelea to the representative camps studying condition conditions the re suits of my I 1 am antis tied fied are unbiased and cold fact generally peaking speaking my impression log ie Is that if there is anyone who is en titled to be a bolshevist ila at it is the so a 0 called white collared chap Is who lives bo he boo O in salt lake take w working hi IA beat heat off in an office selling goods over the counter or performing other ordinary tanks tasks that make up the great majority of jobs perfo performed mod b by what the carton let usually bele abels it the e corn tom mon people 11 coal miners make inure more money live in bettor better houses feat lent more ani better food foot are provi 4 ed fd with as a much whole some amuse amusement nent and it t more f co 3 their mon than the men in any ot oc cirton aff lon I 1 can possibly think nf f that is I 1 mean taio the coal miners of utah because I 1 know little of condi eions in the oal coal regions of illinois or 0 of f pennsylvania or wyoming or elso where here and in this discussion I 1 am con terming myself strictly with conditions in utah for if utah manevi went on strike which chev did not because many of them do not belong to the union and because bi cairo the strike order wae was with bell hell for union men in this state the gene al aa public would na naturally as s sun aume eume 6 it was 1 clause t they hey were dass dissat at lefiad with working or ot living condl tlona in utah strike sentiment backing lacking while in carbou carbon county I 1 endeavor nd eavor ed honestly hone etly to get the sentiment of the men and certainly I 1 was mas unable to find any considerable sentiment fenti renti ment that was in favor of the strike I 1 heard few complaints as to working condi tion wages hours of labor housing cond condl Alons tiona or anything else some men bially especially foreigners had joined VIM union because they were ald that if they all joined the union and not the operators opera tore would run things I 1 got that tha from a mine emello et one who was approached on the suggett subject bin hill elf self and one who know knows the rank and filet file I 1 believe p petty etty wel well I 1 talked for an boar one evening with jfhn mclennan Me Lennan ai ow anJier manizer la in utah for the mine workers of amer lea I 1 told frankly that I 1 expected ted to arite something on conditions la in t the he aal wi minian nir camps of utah and that I 1 wanted v anted the minera miners bide side ot of the story I 1 learned from him th that 4 t there was no objection here to wages wa or li 11 og ng condl cond tinn itina that the iligir af 7 principal r apal grievance he had wa was the un wi in eon of the big utah oper operators atoru particularly arly to have haie their men vion join jol the union that woe was chi chief e com plaint his film principal grievance vante anil an d the principal grievance of the union leaders 1 at the various it seemed I 1 heard but one other complaint and that was the matter of cleck weigh men ahn a train of loaded coal cars come jut out of the mines and arrive at the tipple w where h ere the coal is dumped into t the 0 railroad cars for shipment ailcy pass over scales and are weighed A weigh mail paid by 11 company compan but furnished by and bond bon 11 ed ell with 11 y the western weighing none elation notes the weights aad and credit credits them to the miners who filled those ears cars allegations an I 1 lu haxe bave been made wade that operators olera orators tors took advantage of the miners ia in recording of weights short weighed thema bliem in other wards taw T aw provides check idere then was a real complaint and 90 1 I began to investigate I 1 found found that the state law coal min ing specifically state states that the miners may at their own expense employ check weigh men who shall sit in these t eso weighing houses and check lie the weights recorded by the limen employed by tho the cowl com any I 1 found forth further er tl that t in sev M instance instances miners minet h hal j em aloyed ehe the k weigh men kept them on the job a month or two and then let them go they aund f no serious dis in tile the weight weights and conse couse did not care to pa the ex of maintaining the system yet union or no union the tile law says the miners may have a check nian if they aut out him since state tho the law w ia in no specific on this point and since the experiments in hiring check weigh men have been abandoned by the miners themselves when they found they were not being cheated it does not seem rei to give ive much weight to this complaint I 1 feel quite ier Ler taSu talu however that agitators a gita tors use this argument with the nl miners iners endeavoring to force them to tl he e belief be ef that this is a reason for joining the union so that check weigh M men c may be generally employed it is 1 roma exi doubtful if till would be anything ing but an au additional and un necessary nece smary expense to the miner and besides if they want check weigh men they thoy can have them as 1 I 1 sail mail union or ot n no 0 union the state of utah pro 1 for that organization discouraged now as to the other argument the grievance of mclennan and the na lional organizers Admit admittedly teay the th two larema lA r remt eat operators in the carbon arbon C county alela do not encourage in fact dis courage effit affiliation aaion with the united mine workers of america there are union lon men in their mines but the per et 31 inge probably is 15 comparatively small though exact figure figures are not ob tai tain abic organization work at the properties of the utah fuel and the united n t ed states luel companies is in car ried on wit it 1 a gool deal of secrecy crecy ee and it is d difficult i even to venture a guess as to how far it has gone op cretora estimate that it might bo be JS to 20 per cenap cent possibly bly lea at some of the smaller properties the union alfill aaion has gone considerably further but speaking generally of the district it ie Is true I 1 believe belt that members of the unit united mine workers of america are not what one might term the preferential list of employee emp loyes why not I 1 because the mine opera tore torn want to deal with their own em aloye PIO es and run their own plant plants they ob object ic act very leriou aly to having their empires employed emp loyes managed by 41 walking dele gate gates I 1 who really dont don it seem to walk as much as they sit they want their employed emp loyes to be governed irit within liln their own properties and not subject to orders from indianapolis or somewhere else they believe they are entitled to run their own properties and deal with their the own men organization of emp employee loyes within a property Is not discouraged I 1 am told the he doors doers of the supe superintendent rl an and d the foremen and the ot other he r directors dire etora of properties are 0 open P IT at sit all time times either to r representatives t 11 of their employed emp loyes selee selected ted f from rom among tb ir own num i i continued on page six CARBON COUNTY CAMPS IDEAL FOR MAN WHO LABORS continued Continue ti from age inge one her ber or to 0 individual employed emp loyes who be aeve the they have hav e cause for complaint in fact facto I 1 abse observed arved that ae as a it general I 1 these ieso superintendents p and foremen foremen got around t the to properties and talked with the tile men so frea frequently en that the they are aro in pretty pretty close to touch h with LO conditions at IOU g at all I 1 th the time agitators busy in the mining campa camps it is in the same unfortunate a e nation t that hat prevails elsewhere in the ranks of organized la bor only P possibly tib os ly it is worse there b became c an se 0 of f the largo arg e for foreign ign e em jut that breeds agitators as an a dog breeds fleas the people of utah for exam pie do not believe that the rank and file fill of its it unionized citizens belle believe bellee e we ought to have a soviet government in america and consequently are dis loyal to the government of the united states yet at a recent state conven ton r radical agitators succeeded eucce eded in im so e curing an endorsement of fain the mine workers union in common with other unions has not i urged itself elf of agitator agitators Unfortunate unfortunately Ir much societies oci ties have in the ranks sue such i x mur darers and anarchists as the file outrages at centralia the other day and in the coal mining industry tt there in if a very large percentage of foreign labor among whom tho tile worst 0 of f these thes c agitators are found the operators are afrula of tho the damage that may be wrought by such oily olly tongued ind vi among iff a lot of unthinking it T they hey want a t to protect their pro property lerty from such uch dauR danger ers aud and they want sat to protect their men from front the dangers of such industrial radical ism IBM ui union ion miners in lit carbon pa rity were counseled counge counseled led by these leaders to go out if the strike order was mas issued and had it not been withheld Ith held chev undoubted undoubtedly would have gone out lor ter bhatt a bo cause they were dissatisfied with their pay ay their hours their living condi fl i 10 no simply because they had joined the union and felt they would have to go through with it 0 1 I ven ture the big majority of them were re lieveld when the strike order as it affected utah was withheld by the in anapolis di leaders conditions now let lot us have a brief glimpse at some of these living condition conditions let lot us see what the I 1 ity rolls say let us take the unbiased statistics contained in tho the re reports r 0 of f the state Indu industrial 1 corn tu mission lo 10 just to see what condition conditi ansome actually are I 1 have found no its one in the course of my investigation who denied that coa mining was a hazardous occupation I 1 confess I 1 deliberate deliberately tri tried e d to tra po aiu of the company officials s in to such statements campay for t the e sake of an argument to see whether they really were 41 boiling holling out 01 but iny my own agull study 0 of f statistics in inclines elines me to believe nevo t that ha t these nen n en exaggerated on the side of the danger rather than having tried to in minimize that phase of it k study of statistics compiled by tho the 3 stute tute in lu commission for the year ending july 1 1018 1918 gives some ver very y interesting facts in that timo time thin were a total of 1517 uon noti fatal ae accidents erdei i tore reported to the commission aror from coal min minis ca during the same pe period ir to d there wire wre non fatal acel dents reported from the metal mines of the state thee accidents range from iron mere more on oil tile fingar r 4 but lucli h as the daintiest oung brile in salt sal t lake might get an I 1 i promptly for forget g e t when nhen hubby kissed ft t to the loss log of a limb im or an eve oe in that same feriod were were re sixteen fatal accidents in lit the coal mines a as against twenty three fatal accidents in fit tho the mines during that period the i payrolls all howel ow et there were ore in the coal elial inious aul in iho metal mines in other words 30 ier ler cent of the tile employed emp loyes in fit tho tile two industries were in lit tie tl e coal coa n mines titles of the Jatal acel lents atlese 30 per lier cent in the coal 0 1 mines sustained t allied 41 1 o 0 ar cent of the tie 14 nonfatal non on aen fatal er accounts 34 per cent the T h e c coal 1 miner I 1 n s then t I 1 i e n a sustained t 19 t a I 1 t i e d 11 I 1 I 1 per e r cent more of the fatal accidents and an 4 I 1 I 1 er ur cent more of the non fatal lents than that their lorgion in abe the roal eoal il nines ines there was one non fatal me accident for every J sa men in the metal trues one ono for entry 3 45 men in the matter of fatal accidents ties was wits ono one for every very nun inta in fit the r coal oa mines and still 11 one one for every men mon in ll the metal mines these are tire facts and they prove undeniably that there is a risk brovo in i coal mining most accidents slight but to bo be fair a further examina ti tion or i of these figures should bo made I 1 it t must be bt remembered that even the tile slightest of accidents must bo be report ed accidents of such a minor charac ter as happen to johnny or willie every day lay during vacation a cation aal an I 1 earr every other day while they are in e school cheor the amo maino L at source shows that of the these ie coal mine accidents that were not fatal only eleven resulted even in partially permanent disability the great majority of the A 1203 to be ox act were mere of such a minor character as not to have incapacitate 1 the injured for seven days or the period artir which compensation was i aid there were only where iber c if the adi injured nun inta were incapacitate I 1 more than seven eleven da days S and therefore received coupon sat in lit the metal mines ji J were partially disi disabled bled in a client way 40 disabled longer than saven seven days and 2390 disabled less t ti an seven seen days tie specific injury statistic statistics for eased where there was tte lovs 11 of an eye or a limb or a finder cincer or toe too or of that norta sort gai e 17 for co il it minea mines and 40 for or metal mines a very small pe percentage the greatest number of hi injuries juris 0 ex pert tell me occur to new and i n ex men if u miner passes the first three to sit ix months mouths without an accident acci deit t he lie has a very good chance of being hate fe from anything serious ito is wise then he knows the signs that almost inevitably foretell danger in a roal coal nine an 1 there is no question quention but tha that a great many accidents am aro due to sheer o NG 0 ti be come como careless and fail V ti heed thu tho naming signs roofs offer danger I 1 ailing alling roof roofs in the |
