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APRIL 14, 1947 coal miners are still third or fourth- class economic citizens. The soft-coal’ miner’s average daily wage is $11.85 for nine hours. That is for a five-day week; the sixth day, if worked, calls for time- and-a-half. Since miners want to pile up cash and the operators coal, most pits have been working a six-day week. The average steelworker’s pay ‘for nine hours figures $12.44. Auto workers get $13.01. Sudden death Ww comparisons tell only @ part of the story. Working conditions in the mines—floating coal dust, water often knee deef—are dismal enough. In addition, the miner faces startling dan- gers. Big mine disasters get headlines, but scattered fatalities escape noticé out- side the mining camps. Consequently, when Old John thundered during war- time that coal digging was more danget- ous than armed service, most people thought he was only beating his gums again. He was not. In the years 1942-45 in- clusive, 5,295 men were killed’ in the mines and 259,408 more were injured. That averages a little more than one dead or injured for every two miners. Armed-forces battle casualties over roughly the same period: were a little less than one per 14 men. By entering the service a young miner thus greatly reduced ‘his chances of getting hurt. Auto workers suffer only about one- fifth as many accidents as miners, and severity figured in man hours lost is roughly one-fifteenth as great. The miner is also a-majot sufferer from occu- pational diseases. His working days are made miserable and his life shortened by lung afflictions (he calls them all asthma) and by cramps and rheumatism resulting from floor water and damp air. A medical survey of conditions in mine towns was part of the welfare pro- gram negotiated by Lewis last year in his famous “agreement” with Interior Secretary Krug. The Navy sent medical officers, enigineers and social workers throughout the mine fields. Advance re- ports indicate that conditions have im- ptoved little since 1923, when the last survey was made. -_ The demand’ for a welfare program was something new for Lewis. The only such program he ever had was a large 23 THE COMPANY STORE OFFERS A PLACE TO MEET AFTER WORK cash box which he kept near him. If someone turned up with a hard-luck story, or a moving letter from a widow ‘came in, he reached munificently into the box and hauled out a $10 bill. The survey doubtless will pay divi- dends, but cash is something Lewis un- derstands better, and he insisted on get- ting some placed at once in a welfare fund. It is still there, most of it lying ia a New York bank. Operators are required to contribute five cents for each ton of coal mined. The welfare fund will receive ‘roughly $30 million a year if production holds up. Considering the thousands of dis- abled and decrepit miners in the fields and the high accident rate, that amount will not go far. Miners hailed the agreement (which included a vacation clause worth $100 a year), but, with the cost of living shooting up, they were none too happy. Besides, they had begun to worty over the future of the coal industry. Layofts in the hard-coal “fields were commenc- ing and they wondered if only the threat of strike held up employment in the bituminous mines. The early thirties, when two working days made a good week, are fresh in memory. There is, too, the fear of increased mechanization. Strip-mining, which em- ploys great earth-moving machines and requires comparatively few men, ac- counted in 1945 for 19 percent of bitu- minous production compared with 6.4 percent in 1935. The portion of ‘under- ground output cut by machines rather than with hand picks rose from 84.2 percent in 1935 to 90.8 percent in 1945. The increase in mechanical coal loaders was greater-—from 13.5 to 56.1 percent. All together, net production per man per day went up from 4.5 to 5.78 tons in the 10-year period. Increased use of coai substitutes causes” additional worry. In 1935 coal supplied