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Show MINE WORKERS AVERAGE ONLY $1,600 PER YEAR Fiprures compiled from official govern- . Imeni records and presented by Fuel Ad-; Ad-; ministrnlor Garfield to the Joint confer- . J ence of bituminous miners nd operntors at Washington show that the average I ii n u:i I wage paid to the mine workers throughout the I nlted States Is approximately approx-imately $1.600 or about 1400 more thfn the iveraf.v; "salary of ministers anft college professors. The data f ished by the fuel administrator adminis-trator showed that in L916 the total production pro-duction of bituminous coal was 19,385.80 tons Of the cost of production about .in per cent went for supplies and pencil I expense, while substantially 70 per cent, or slightly more than $1.50 per ton was paid to luhor. In other words, the to'.al wages, paid the mlns workers in iio amounted to about $170000.000 As then- an approximately 560;OO0 mine workers employed in the bituminous bitumin-ous fields of this country, the average annyal wage paid them was about $1,6.00, ; M:m thousands of the miners received I a great deal more than this, however, j as the average wage figure Is based on ' 'ill grades of workers, including the boy from 16 to 18 years of age who earned auoui ?-i per my as siaie picKers. I'ouplcis gTraters and trappers ThMr comparatively low earnings naturally rc ducc the average for the entire field. In the bituminous Industry, the mint employes are divided Into two classes. The pick miner, machine rutlers ai1 loaders, all termed miners, are paid by ! the ton. The moro coal they mine or loan the greater their Income. Many of these men earn between $3,000 and $L00O year. The other employes motor runners, run-ners, drivers, track layers, cagere, tlppie I mi 11 etc. affe, from the nature of their work, paid by" the das The more days they work, the greater their income. I The normal work day Is eight hours. statistics from Ihn Kanawha flcia. whirh is typical of the great majority 1 of tho fields throw considerable light on the whole subject of mine workers Wages. Recently. the payrolls of 25 mines In that district were examined :o I determine the hi lual earnings of the mine worker?. These figures, which cov' j ered a period of six months, showed that 1 be highest paid employe? the rutter, loaders and pick miners earned anywhere any-where from $6 H per day up to $19.14 per day, avoraclns? $9.13 p-c day The other lass of mine employes, the tso-callcd ds men, earned from $L25 to $7.00 per da The boys working as couplers greasers and trappers earned from S2 30 to 2.55 uer I day. it Is Interesting to note that department depart-ment of labor statistics show that miners work only 5 days ou of every 6 days ihe mines arc running and work Is offered. of-fered. They remain idle on the other dav of their own choice, in submitting bis figures to tho no-jr- ators and mine workera at the Wasning-ton Wasning-ton conference. Dr Garfield said he wished to call attention to the Importance Import-ance of recognizing the danger that exlsta In uslnc; averages In connection with a problem In which thTC is so wide a dl'-ference dl'-ference in costs, realizations and mer-pins mer-pins as exists In the bituminous coal Industry He said, therefore, that an average employed should be taken as a I baso an not as a figure applicable to any special mine or field The fuel administrator made It plain to both the operators and miners that he was apl" arinK helor them In the Interest In-terest of the consuming public, and that tho public, as the chief party In interejt In the present crisis, was not In a mood to tolerate either excessive prices or prolonged pro-longed stoppage of preduotion Com i niliK tin' i.pi-iatui.s' pioflts Dr Garfield said that the margin of 46 cents j per ton left them in 191S included profit, bill did not represent profit only, Inns-murh Inns-murh ns Interest charges, selling expense, federal taxes and certain other Items not allowed In computing costs of production, produc-tion, wore paid out of It. Consequently the charges made from time to time thai j they wore making excessive profits were ! not actually Justified by the facts. Thi-t pear; be -aid. with production costs aei-nAmc aei-nAmc about 18 cents per ton higher Gaan last ear. the profits of the opervtors would I"- ."tin further reduced, afsitg of, the operators are now making less upo i heir investments than accrues from other businesses wheic the financial hazRid are less. |