Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 13, 1910
2805 Miners Killed in the United States During 1909
From The Labor Argus of July 7, 1910:
SLAUGHTER OF MINERS
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Nearly 3000 Wafted into Eternity in
the “Model” Mines in 1909
-Thousands Crippled.
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The Cherry Ill. Mine Disaster of November 13, 1909 killed 259 miners. —–
Washington, July 1-The statistics of coal mining casualties in the United States, compiled by the geological survey for the calendar year 1900, show an apparent falling off in fatalities during the year, but since the special bulletin on the subject states that no account is taken of the year’s greatest disaster, that, at Cherry, Ill., in November last, the facts are that 1909 was exceeded only by 1907 as one of heavy catastrophe years.
The report explains that the toll of the Cherry mine disaster is not counted in with the year’s figures because it will not be reported by the Illinois officials until the close of the fiscal year in June.
The government depends for its information in all but four states on the reports of the local officials, and although last year four more states-Georgia, Oregon, Texas and Virginia-were added to the figures through reports received from the operators, the returns are still far from complete, a situation which will be relieved, the report points out, when the newly established bureau of mines is completely organized.
Last year, leaving out the Cherry mine disaster, in which 393 miners and rescuers were burned to death or suffocated, there were 2,412 deaths from coal mine accidents, against 2,450 in 1908 and 3,125 in 1907, the most disastrous year in mining history in this country.
This disaster brings the total of fatalities in 1909 up to 2,805.
In making comparison with previous years, however, the government officials point out that in the four states not previously reporting last year’s fatalities numbered 34.
The list of injured in last year’s mining operations makes a new record, the total of 7,979 reported being an increase of 1,200 over 1908, which, in its turn, exceeded 1907 in non-fatal injuries by 1,400. Much of the increase in the lists of injured is more apparent than real, and is due, the report says, to the increased number of states included in the figures. In 1907, for instance, there were only sixteen states reporting, while in 1909 there were twenty-six.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 8, 1910
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys Part I & Part II
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