Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1902 — CONDITIONS IN THE MINES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONDITIONS IN THE MINES.

Evidence Presented to the Commission Unfolds a Dark Picture. At last the coal strike commission lias come to the important phase of its investigation which relates to the actual living and working conditions of the miners. The evidence thus Car presented unfolds the picture of the miner's daily life, and undeniably the picture is a dark one. Judging from the facts related on the witness stand, the traditional stories

as to the hardship and deprivation endured by the men who work underground have not been exaggerations. One after another, workingmen in the employ of the anthracite operators have come forward to describe n daily routine of hardship. A miner of the Marklc company, which is supposed to lie one of the best conducted of the mining corporations, told of his eviction by the company for failing to pay rent during the strike. Ilis sick wife, who was evicted with him. is dead as a result of the process and her mother, a centenarian, is dangerously ill. A \\ idow whose husband had been killed in ti e mines told how Hie witli the help of her two boys had worked thirteen years to pay off a rent bill due the company. The sons were not paid in cash, their earnings being kept by the company to apply on the debt. These are but special features of a story of hazardous work, scanty earnings and heavy overcharges for the mining supplies furnished by the employing companies. Testimony offered by the superintendents of public schools wns to the effect that nearly a third of the children in the mining region do not attend school. These plain stories of what appears to be commonplace experience in some parts of the coal fields have their value nnd they will have their weight with the commission. That body is not composed of sentimentalists and will not be likely to disregard the many industrial, economic and commercial factors involved In the management of a great industry. It will, however, be forced to’take cognizance of the plain fact ttint there is a minimum standard of living conditions and that when human beings are required to live below that standard the law of common humanity demands attention first of nil. Clearly, in tin l opinion of the'Chicago News, the limit has been passed in the case of many of the anthracite miners.

THE ASSOUAN DAM. SHOWING 5 OF THE 108 SLUICE GATES.