Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 16, 1900 Anthracite Coalfields of Pennsylvania – Hard Lot of Boys in the Mines
From the Duluth Labor World of November 10, 1900:
BOYS IN THE MINE ———-
HARD LOT OF THE YOUTHFUL SLATE PICKERS. ——-
Philadelphia Inquirer of September 30, 1900 —–
Miners Robbed That the Trust May Monopolize the Coalfields For All Time—At the Mercy of the Barons and Their Rake of Partners—The Public ls More Than Interested in Their Cause. ———-
D. L. Rhone, a resident of Wilkesbarre, Pa., writes as follows to the Philadelphia Times: The total number of employes of the anthracite mines in the year 1899 was 140,583, classified as follows:
In 1899 these 140,583 employes prepared for market 54,000,000 tons of coal. In 1898 it took 142,000 employes to prepare 47,000,000 tons for market, and in 1897 149,000 employes only prepared 47,000,000 tons. This shows a decrease in the number of employes of 7,000 from 1897 to 1899 inclusive and an increase of 7,000,000 tons of coal produced. The men are still going away.
The lot of the coal miner is hard indeed, and that of his laborer is still harder, while no one can uphold the lot of the little mule drivers, the runners and the slate pickers without a sigh of sympathy. The most appalling thing about the whole business is that there are 34,000 of these boys, ranging from 10 years of age upward. These 34,000 infants are confined for ten hours per day in the dark, damp mine chambers fighting, training and driving vicious mules, with no light but the greasy lamp on their caps, or for the same number of hours they are engaged in the roaring, smoking breaker, grabbing out the slate as it rattles over the iron bars.
They are not there from choice nor for wages. They are there only from duty to their parents. They earn less than $1 a day…Doubtless their lot is the hardest of any child upon earth. They are employed the year round. The day’s work at the collieries begins and ends with them. They get no chance at the schools save what society should blush to call the “night school,” which is no more appropriate for such a child than a comic show to a drowning man. The wrongs of these boys cry out vengeance, and society is bound to suffer until their condition is improved.
The condition of these 34 regiments of neglected boys is not one the grievances set forth by the miners’ union, but since this ugly fact has been presented to the public it cannot be ignored. We don’t know just now all that can be done, but we must study and learn our duty, not only as a Christian community, but as citizens of a republic. These boys must somehow get some of the training and privileges of our public schools. They are entitled to it. It belongs to them whether their parents can afford it or not and whether the stockholders of the coal corporations get any dividends or not. With some education they can be of great service to themselves and the public as skilled miners. Without it their way is dark to themselves and to all of us. This reform cannot be brought about in a day, but it should not be allowed to slumber when the labor war is over. Continued neglect will swell our criminal lists instead of increasing our roll of honored, useful citizens…..
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[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added. Note: the Great Anthracite Strike is over, and the young breakers boys in photograph above are most likely back at work in the mines of Pennsylvania.]
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