Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1901 — On Japanese Copper Mines. [ARTICLE]

On Japanese Copper Mines.

The total number of persons employed in various services at the Ashlo mines and furnaces Is about 10.0QO, and these with their families make Up a small city of 17,000. Of these 75 per cent have been born on the spot, as were their fathers and grandfathers, and some have never seen beyond the red hills which close in the village and mines. They are cared for by the proprietor, fed and sent to school until twelve years of age. The village has a well-equipped hospital, at which the operatives and their families are tended without charge. Ohly men are employed below ground to dig the ore, working in shifts of eight hours each, while those employed at lighter labor work shifts of twelve hours. Women are employed at the light tasks, such as sorting and washing ore by hand, most of them being the wives of the miners. The average pay per diem for those engage;! in manual labor, says a writer in Engineering, is 13 cents in silver money and a stated quantity of rice and fuel, while the miners are paid by the quantity of ore extracted. The furnace and shaft men receive from 11 to 30 cents per day and the women are paid 7 cents.