

326 FRENCH MINING- INDUSTRY. 



of money to others in their employ to build on 

 land belonging to them. 



As a rule, children under 12 years of age are 

 not permitted to take any part in the work of 

 the mines, and only a very small number of 

 women are employed, about 5 per cent, on the 

 total number of workmen. These 18 com- 

 panies have formed, at their own cost, 25 

 schools and 18 asylums, the first charges on 

 which amounted to $142,500 ; they have also 

 contributed the sum of $40,000 for the erection 

 of chapels or churches for their employes. 



In the schools and asylums, instruction is 

 given to 6,259 children, and they spend an- 

 nually, for this work, $16,500. During the 

 past year they sent, besides, 6,789 children to 

 the communal schools, for which they paid 

 $13,500. These 13,048 children have received 

 gratuitous instruction at a cost of $30,000, of 

 which a part only is defrayed by the com- 

 panies, the rest being paid out of the general 

 relief funds which they have instituted. 



Several of the owners have established sur- 

 geries, orphan homes, libraries, musical so- 

 cieties, etc., of which they provide all the 

 funds ; they subscribe funds, moreover, toward 

 the establishment of a school for master miners. 



The proportion of the workmen in these 

 mining towns who can read and write is, de- 

 ducting children below 10 years of age, only 

 50 per cent, among the men, and a little over 

 33 per cent, among the women. These results 

 show how much still remains to be done to 

 instruct the population, and the companies 

 should be encouraged in their efforts, and the 

 sacrifices they have undertaken in this direc- 

 tion. 



All the mining companies except that of An- 

 zin have established relief funds, by an oblig- 

 atory charge upon the wages of 3 per cent., a 

 contribution on the part of the masters of 1 per 

 cent, on the same salaries, and the addition of 

 all the various fines which are levied. These 

 percentages, fines, and various gratuities ac- 

 corded to the employe's, amounted together for 

 the 17 companies, besides that of Anzin, to 

 $65,000 in the year. 



As to the Anzin mines, the owners give di- 

 rectly to their workmen under the form of pen- 

 sions, aid, medical assistance, instruction, etc., 

 a sum of $75,000, making a total of $140,000. 

 The relief funds furnish to all the workmen 

 medical advice and medicine ; help in money 

 and food when they are sick or injured ; pen- 

 sions to the widows of workmen killed in acci- 

 dents, and temporary relief to their children ; 

 retiring pensions to old workmen and their 

 widows and children ; and extra assistance in 

 special oases of distress. They pay the cost 

 of funerals, and assist in the instruction by the 

 payment of masters and in other ways. 



All the companies give coal gratuitously to 

 the men. Seventeen among them distributed 

 thus in 1869 about 1,900,000 bushels of coal, 

 worth $120,000, and the Anzin company gave 

 fuel to the value of $50,000. 



FRIENDS. 



Collectively, for the various objects to which 

 the companies contributed, $450,000 were spent 

 by them in 1869, or from $15 to $18 per man, 

 more than 10 per cent, on his actual salary, 

 and this sum represents from 23 to 24 per cent, 

 of the dividends distributed by the companies 

 to their shareholders. 



Such are the results obtained by an investi- 

 gation into the existing condition of the mining 

 industries in the two departments of France 

 named above. They prove in the most striking 

 manner that the employers of labor, in these 

 coal-basins at least, leave no means untried to 

 promote the comfort and well-being of their 

 employe's. 



FRIENDS. The Indian agents of the Soci- 

 ety of Friends have the care, in the Central 

 Superintendency of Indians, of the tribes of 

 the Kickapoos, Kaws, Osages, Quapaws, Pe- 

 orias, Ottawas, Wyandottes, Senecas, Sacs 

 and Foxes, Shawnees, Chippewas, andMunsees, 

 Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, Wachitas, Keechies, 

 Caddoes, lonies, Kiowas, and Comanches. The 

 total number of Indians in the superintendency 

 is 17,977. Fourteen schools are conducted 

 among them, to which are attached 16 teach- 

 ers, and which are attended by 404 pupils. 

 Eleven Sunday-schools are taught. There 

 have been contributed to the support of these 

 schools, by Friends, $3,335; by Moravian 

 churches, $150. The report of the superin- 

 tendency presents an exhibit of the quantity 

 of land under cultivation, and the value of the 

 crops raised, and of the stock owned by these 

 Indians, in comparison with the returns for 

 the- year 1868. It shows a very great advance 

 in industry and prosperity. Several boarding- 

 schools have been opened in the superinten- 

 dency. They are well attended by both boys 

 and girls. The pupils are taught, in connec- 

 tion with their literary studies, industrial 

 pursuits appropriate to their sex and condi- 

 tion. The report of the Executive Committee 

 of the Society speaks of the material advance 

 of the people, particularly in the Quapaw spe- 

 cial agency, of their growing desire for the 

 education of their children, and of their deep- 

 ening religious interest, as " encouraging signs 

 of the dawning of a better day." Material 

 advancement, and increased interest in the 

 schools and in religious instruction, are men- 

 tioned in connection with most of the other 

 special agencies. 



A school has been established at Matamoras, 

 Mexico, by members of the Society, and a con- 

 siderable work has been accomplished in the 

 distribution of Bibles and tracts. 



The operations of the Association of Friends 

 for the aid and elevation of the freedmen 

 were limited during 1872 by the lack of means. 

 The Association, however, continued to support 

 its schools in South Carolina, and kept open 

 thirteen other schools. It reports about 100 

 pupils in the schools in South Carolina, and 

 250 scholars at the other schools. The total 

 receipts of the Association for the year end- 



