314 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION June 



General discussion of Mr. White's in creating the power that under 



paper was opened by Mr. John Mitch- proper conditions would be generated 



ell, for years, and until last January, by a single ton. 



president of the United Mine Work- Touching on the shocking loss of 



ers of America. Mr. Mitchell has life that accompanies coal mining 



long been known as an eloquent and operations in the United States, Mr. 



forcible speaker and writer upon mat- Mitchell stated that for every 100,000 



ters connected with coal, mining oper- tons of coal produced in this country 



ations, and mineral fuel supplies, and one mine worker is killed and several 



his brief paper was the statement of a are injured. Last year, he said, 2,500 



man who has during his life been in coal miners were killed and more than 



actual, close touch with all sides of 6,000 were seriously injured in the 



this most important question. coal mines of the United States ; and 



Mr. Mitchell took issue with those he stated that in the foreign coun- 

 experts who state that one-half the tries, where mining is most hazard- 

 coal of our mines is lost through ous, the proportion of those killed to 

 wasteful or unscientific mining opera- those employed in the mines is from 

 tions. He stated, however, that his fifty to seventy-five per cent less than 

 personal observation led him to be- in the United States. In conclusion 

 lieve that fully twenty-five per cent of Mr. Mitchell said : 

 the coal was so wasted beyond recov- 

 ery—through difficult physical charac- "I" ^^' }^^<^ '■"^h fo«- spoils and profits 



■^. . p r t^u r i.- we not only waste and destroy those ma- 



teristics of some of the formations, ^^^.j^j resources with which God has so 



through pillaring the workings with bountifully endowed us, but we press for- 



solid coal for the support of the roofs ward in the race, sacrificing, unnecessarily, 



of tunnels and other workings, through the lives and the comfort of our fellow 



J ^, , ^, ? . ° r beings. It seems to me that the time has 



cave-ms, and through the shunnmg ot ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ gj^o^l^ stop f^r a moment 



veins of low-grade coal. Mines oper- and think— not alone of those inanimate 



ated under any of these faulty condi- things that make for comfort and pros- 



tions, he stated, were, when worked P^fj' but also of the men and the women 



' ' . 1 -u i-u 1 and the children, whose toil and deprivation 



out, left to cave m, and thus the coal j^^^^ ^^^j^ ^^id will continue to make our 



remaining in them was permanently country and our people the most progres- 



lost sive and the most intelligent of all the na- 



He stated that large coal consum- tions and of all the peoples of the earth." 



ing corporations in America pay about ^^ ^^^ conclusion of Mr. Mitchell's 



a dollar a ton, at the mmes, for their ^^-^^^ Governor John A. Johnson, of 



coal supplies, while like corporations Minnesota, who had arisen to make a 



in other countries are forced to pay j^otion, was urged to the platform, 



from $2 to $3 per ton for their fuel ^^^ ^-^^ extemporaneous talk was lis- 



supphes. He said that, while it is vi- ^^^^^ ^^ ^-^^^ ^^^p interest, outbursts 



tally important to our industrial well ^f vigorous applause punctuating his 



being that large manufacturing con- ^^^^^^ ^^ frequent intervals, 



cerns be furnished their coal supply Governor Johnson announced that 



at a cost sufficiently low to enable j^j^ ^.^^j purpose in arising was to ask 



them to compete with manufacturers ^^^ Conference to listen to Dr. Charles 



in other countries, still, in view of the j^ y^^^ j^-g^ . i^^^ ^^e Conference was 



tremendous waste of energy that ac- ^^^ minded to let the Minnesotan off 



companies the use of cheap fuel, the without a speech after he had arisen, 



conclusion is inevitable that this very Governor Johnson said : 

 cheapness is as extravagance, and not 



an economy. Illustrating this point, "I have been very seriously impressed in 



he stated that the cheapness of fuel the few hours during which we have been 



led to improper firing and the use. of «o|='h- J^^ lZ%%„Tl tfj. f.X 



imperfect furnaces, the result being f^^^^^ ^^^^ the sun of American prosperity 



that three tons of coal are consumed has reached the zenith, and that the shad- 



