THE CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION 201 



haulage, and the coal is spouted out of the lames directly 

 into the ovens. The levelling of the coal in the ovens (a very 

 important operation) is performed by hand work ; in fact, there 

 are ver>' few mechanical appUances in use about the coke 

 yards. 



In closing, I cannot refrain from referring to the one 

 man, who, of all others, has been the great factor in the 

 building up of the Connellsville coke industry, which repre- 

 sents an investment of over $100,000,000 and furnishes direct 

 employment to 20,000 men. I have written of Mr. Mor- 

 decai Cochran as being the father of this industry', but Mr. 

 H. C. Frick, of the H. C. Frick Coke company, has been more 

 — but for the physical incongruity of the term I would say 

 that he was the mother, for it is he who has taken it into his 

 arms an infant, as it were, giving emplojTiient to but a few 

 hundred men, and nursed it j'ear after year until it grew 

 into the giant of to-day, employing over 20,000 workers — 

 workers who are a credit to any land, for the workers of the 

 Connellsville coke region are not by any means the degraded 

 class of people that misinformed persons sometimes intimate 

 they are. As a rule, a more orderly, industrious, and peace- 

 able lot of men cannot be found in any industr}\ It is true 

 there have been strikes and riots, but these never originated 

 among the great majority; neither were they countenanced 

 by thern, but came from a few would-be dictators that no 

 longer have a semblance of influence in the district. 



