These comparisons are not invalidated by the increase of the proportion of Southern and Eastern Europeans among the coal miners since 1900. The investigation of the Immigration Commission in 1900 found 64.3 per cent of Southern and Eastern Europeans among the coal miners of Pennsylvania, while the official statistics for West Virginia in 1908 showed 28.9 per cent of the same races1; and yet the average fatal accident rate per one thousand employees or per one million tons in West Virginia was much higher than in Pennsylvania.

The Immigration Commission lays great stress on the fact that the percentage of fatalities among the foreignspeaking miners in those two States is relatively higher than among the English-speaking employees. This difference, however, proves nothing without a further classification of both language groups by occupation. The distribution of the English-speaking and non-English-speaking mine workers on the scale of occupations is not uniform, and there is a wide range of variation in the degree of risk incident to each occupation. The influence of the first factor will be clear from the following. Machine runners and car loaders work side by side in the mine. The machine runner is the man who runs the mining machinery—necessarily a skilled miner; the car loader is a common laborer. And yet we find that in 1899-1908 the proportion of native white among machine runners who lost their lives in West Virginia was 80.8 per cent, while the proportion of Southern and Eastern Europeans among car loaders killed was 48.4 per cent; on the other hand, the proportion of Southern and Eastern Europeans among machine runners killed was only 6.4 per cent, while the proportion of native white among car loaders killed was 24.3 per cent. It would be absurd to infer from these figures that the Southern and Eastern Europeans were more experienced and more careful

* Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 226, Table 140; p. 228, Table 143.

Hoffman, loc cit., p. 640.

than the native white, when the truth is that there are few Southern and Eastern Europeans among the machine runners and few native white among the car loaders. Inasmuch, however, as there are several loaders to one machine runner, more loaders are killed than machine runners. The effect of these arithmetical aberrations upon the general average is to swell the ratio of Southern and Eastern Europeans to the total of fatal accidents.

The effect of the nature of the risk upon fatal accidents by lace and nativity is shown in Table 131.

TABLE 131.

NUMBER AND PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINES OF WEST VIRGINIA BY PRINCIPAL CAUSES AND NATIVITY OF PERSONS KILLED, 1899-1908, AND PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES BY NATIVITY, 1900.1

If the "relative number of fatalities among the employees of a given race or group of races" can "serve as a valuable indication of the extent to which the high death-rate in the mines is to be attributed to the employment of men by

* Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 90, Table XX., p. 646. Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 228, Table 143.

2Cats (inside and outside), motors and machinery, electrocution and falling into shafts.

Per cent

Number

Per cent

that race or group," then the following conclusions logically follow from the preceding table:

I. While the recent immigrants contribute no more than their proportionate share of fatalities from falling coal, slate, etc., the high death-rate from explosions is attributable to them. On the other hand native Americans contribute less than their quota of accidents from these causes.

2. The older immigrants from Northern and Western Europe contribute twice their share of fatalities from falls of roofs and explosions, which indicates that the employment of older immigrants is a menace to the safety of the men inside the mines.

3. The native white contribute more than their quota of fatalities from cars, motors, machinery, and contact with electric wires, whereas the Southern and Eastern Europeans contribute considerably less than their quota, which indicates that the high death-rate from those causes is attributable to the employment of men of native American stock.

4. The replacement of native Americans by Southern and Eastern European immigrants who apparently show greater aptitude for handling complicated modern machinery than native Americans, would tend to reduce the fatality rate from cars, motors, machinery, and electric shocks. On the other hand the displaced American mechanics could be employed to advantage as common laborers in the mines, which would tend to reduce the fatal accident rate from falling roofs and explosions.

The palpable absurdity of these conclusions proves that the premises from which they are deduced are untenable. The low percentage of Southern and Eastern Europeans among the sufferers from accidents due to machinery, motors, etc., merely indicates that they do not come in contact with these death-dealing agencies as often as Americans. Similarly, the lower ratio of native white among the sufferers from falling roofs and explosions is • Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 233.

attributable to the fact that a large proportion among them are employed in supervisory positions, where they are not exposed to the ordinary risks incident to working underground.

It is sought to deduce a causal connection between the increase of the fatal accident rate and the employment of recent immigrants from their ignorance of mining conditions which exposes them to greater danger. If this be so, it is an argument, not against immigration, but against the development of the coal mining industry. It is evident that if the mining industry is to grow apace with the development of the country, new men must continually be engaged. No one is born with mining experience, even in the United States, and there is no other place where mining experience can be gained except in a mine. The danger resulting from allowing inexperienced men, whether native or foreignborn, to work in a coal mine merely emphasizes the need of providing by law for the employment of a sufficient proportion of experienced miners to supervise the work of new employees. So dangerous, however, are the working conditions in American mines that, according to Mr. Hoffman, "mine experience, even of considerable length, is not necessarily a protective factor." His opinion rests upon a classification of accidents by occupation and length of experience. It appears that in every occupation the majority of those who were killed in West Virginia in 1899

Says Mr. John Laing, chief of the West Virginia Department of Mines, in a letter to the Immigration Commission: "In our large mines where in the past labor was turned loose to shoot coal, load coal, and care for themselves, we now have an officer known as 'assistant mine foreman' employed to every thirty-five men, who works in the mine and whose specific duty is to see that all coal is properly mined, that all places are timbered, that a system of ventilation is properly brought forward, etc., before a miner be permitted to do blasting of any kind."—Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 238.

"It is significant," says Mr. Hoffman, "that there should have been 43 deaths of men who had been at work from 10-14 years, 13 deaths of men with 15-19 years of mine experience and 11 deaths of men with 20 or more years' experience."—Loc. cit., p. 485.

1908 had an experience of not less than one year, and in some occupations one of more than five years, e. g., fire bosses 100 per cent; track layers 60.8 per cent; machine runners 59.5 per cent, etc. Among the miners, the most numerous and exposed class, 39.7 per cent had an experience of over five years.1

The preceding classification deals with length of experience, without regard to race or nationality. It might be argued that the Southern and Eastern Europeans are handicapped by ignorance of the English language even after years of employment in the mines and possibly swell the numbers of victims with long experience. This supposition is dismissed by the West Virginia statistics in which the accidents are classified by nativity and length of experience, as shown in Table 132:

TABLE 132.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF TOTAL ACCIDENTS TO COAL MINERS, CLASSIFIED BY NATIVITY AND LENGTH OF EXPERIENCE IN WEST VIRGINIA,

This table shows that experience of the mine workers counts for very little in fatal accidents: one half of all English-speaking mine workers had had an experience of

'Hoffman, loc. cit., Table XVII., p. 643

• Ibid., Table XIX., p. 645.