course eliminates the two years as top laborer. On the other hand, the miner coming from outside of the State of Illinois may be put to work as a practical miner at once, provided he can fulfill the requirements of the state laws by passing an examination before some miners' examining board where, among other things, he must swear that he has had two years' experience at mining coal. If he comes with a union card stating that he is a "practical miner" and passes the examination, he may secure work as a miner without additional fees or requirements. If the prospective miner is an immigrant who can not speak English and has an interpreter, neither of the two being troubled by scruples, it is possible for him to secure work as a practical miner within a week after landing in the United States, although he may never have seen a coal mine in his native land.

In general it may be said that at the start the reception of the immigrant by the labor organizations seems to be regarded by the unions as an action to be taken chiefly because of necessity. In their efforts to protect themselves against a lowering of the standards of sanitation and safety, and against the cheapening of the production of coal, however, the unions exercise a considerable Americanizing influence upon the immigrants, and regard them as objectionable only as they tend to displace American workmen.

REASONS FOR EMPLOYING IMMIGRANTS.

The primary reason for the employment of the recent immigrant in the Middle West has been the remarkable expansion of coal mining in this area during the past forty years. This expansion has brought with it a constantly increasing demand for labor at the same time that other mining sections have been bidding in the labor market for labor to develop their coal resources. In the face of this situation, the factor which has made possible the employment of immigrants in large numbers has been the increase in machine mining throughout the Middle West, and especially in Illinois. The tendency to substitute machine for hand mining is still going on, in spite of the fact that the Illinois scale of prices for machine mining places the Illinois operators at a disadvantage in comparison with operators using machines in other States. Throughout Illinois, except in the Danville district, where the differential between pick and machine mining is 10 cents per ton, the operator receives only 7 cents per ton for the use of his machine in comparison with 10 to 12 cents per ton received by the operators in Indiana and Ohio.

The significance of the use of machines is that it reduces the miner's occupation to that of an unskilled laborer, loading and cleaning up the coal after the machine. A description of this method of mining may be valuable in explaining the situation. Incidental to the following explanation it is also interesting to note that as early as 1895 the recent immigrants were used in connection with machines.

As a rule, the cheapest mining in Illinois is done by coal-cutting machines. * The disadvantages of machine mining are: First, waste of coal; second, large first cost of the plant; third, necessity of a thick seam; fourth, necessity of careful and skillful supervision. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that machine mining decreases the number of strikes, as each man is working for his own interest. There are no standing shots to delay the miner; skilled labor is necessary only in a few places; and with the machine the mine is necessarily developed more systematically and a steadier output can be relied upon.

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A machine mines from 30 to 60 tons per day, the amount depending very largely upon the thickness of the seam. As a general thing they are run in double shifts of ten hours each. In one case 15 mining machines of the best types, running double shifts, and in hard mining coal, deliver on the railroad cars 1,200 tons of lump coal in ten hours, the coal being screened over a shaking screen which takes out about 30 per cent of fine. In most machine mines the double-entry system, or room-and-pillar work, is used, one machine being used in each entry.

The great majority of the laborers in machine mines are Germans, Russians, Italians, or Hungarians; but little skilled labor is required. Usually there is one shooter and one timberman in each entry, and for these positions experienced men are necessary. Speaking generally, a machine mine can turn out the same quantity of coal as a hand mine with only about 60 per cent as many men and at about 10 cents a ton less cost. In one mine where an output of 1,200 tons is made daily with machines the whole number of men employed is 300.

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Naturally machines are most successful where mining is hard. One runner and one laborer are necessary for each machine, and in most mines one shooter and one timberman, who lays the roads, besides doing the timber work, work after each machine. These and the machine runner are the only skilled men required in a machine mine. From 4 to 8 loaders, who are laborers and not skilled men, work after a machine and are paid by the ton. The pay of machine runners varies. In some cases they are paid by the amount of coal produced and in other cases by the number of square feet undercut at the usual rate of 20 to 35 cents per ton, or 1 to 1 cents per square foot. An average day's work would be 250 to 275 square feet of undercutting. Shooters and timbermen are sometimes paid by the day, but the more general practice is to pay them on the same basis as the runner, thus making all the men mutually interested in the progress of the work. In many mines where machines are used, air drills are employed to drill the holes used in blasting the coal down, and in such cases the labor and expense are much lessened.a

The outcome of the use of machines as regards the type of operatives to be used had become, however, evident as early as the year 1888. In that year the Illinois bureau of labor statistics summed up the situation as follows:

A mining machine not only reverses the methods of work, but it equally changes the system of wages. The coal miner proper takes his own tools into the pit and undertakes to deliver from the wall of mineral before him certain tons of coal ready every morning for a certain sum per ton. He mines and drills and blasts and loads his own coal, timbers his own roof, takes care of his own tools, and is responsible mainly to himself for his personal safety and the amount of his output.

In the machine mine it takes 7 or 8 men to perform these various functions, and in the mine, as in the mill, the machine is the master and the men are its servitors; the operator and the mechanism simply directs its energies when the motive power is given to it and the coal is undercut or mined. A blaster follows with tools and explosives, loosening the mass; the loaders reduce it and shovel it into pit cars; the timbermen follow and prop the roof, which no longer has the mineral to rest upon. Laborers assist in every process, and a machinist is retained for repairs. Each one does his own certain portion of the work and no more, and doubtless does it better, as well as faster, by reason of his greater skill thus acquired. Herein lies the chief value of the machine to the mine owner. It relieves him for the most part of skilled labor and of all the restraints which that implies. It opens to him the whole labor market from which to recruit his force; it enables him to concentrate the work of the mine at given points, and it admits of the graduation of wages to specific work and payment of wages by the day.

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The results of this introduction of machinery consist not only in the greater execution of the machine, but in the subdivision of labor which it involves, and the greater per capita efficiency of the force thus secured. The gain is consequently to the employer rather than to the men. The mining machine is in fact the natural enemy of the coal miner; it destroys the value of his skill and experience, obliterates his trade, and reduces him to the rank of a common laborer or machine driver if he remains where it is. b

a The Mineral Industry, Richard P. Rothwell, 1895, pp. 188-189.

b Report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1899, p. 338. Quoted in the report of the United States Industrial Commission, vol. 15, p. 399.

The use of machines, therefore, rendered unnecessary the securing of experienced miners in large numbers and to a large extent obviated the necessity for a long or short period of apprenticeship among new employees in the industry. In other words, it was possible to employ unskilled and inexperienced labor to meet demands arising from the rapidly increasing expansion in coal mining and, under these conditions, more and more reliance was placed upon the immigrant seeking work in this country. In the mines and mining localities where hand mining still continued because of the nature of the occurrence of the coal, or because of the preference of the operating company for this method, experienced miners of native and foreign birth from other countries, other States, or the former hand-mining sections of the Middle West, were secured to meet the constantly increasing demand for labor. The inexperienced immigrant was more and more used to follow the machines where machine mining could be employed and to do the rough and unskilled work in handmining localities. a

The operation of nonunion mines in other States, especially in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, is regarded as another cause tending to increase the proportion of recent immigrants in the Middle West. The immigrants are said to realize sooner or later that they can not work and live in a satisfactory way under the conditions existing in the nonunion mines. While there, however, they have gained the experience necessary to become "practical miners" in less time than would have been necessary in order to get the needed experience in union mines. As they become dissatisfied with their conditions of employment they gradually go in search of union fields, join the unions, and secure work in union mines. The lack of a cooperative spirit between the operators and the older miners also seems to explain somewhat the increase in the number of recent immigrants at the mines. With the increased numbers of workers at the individual mines, there seems to have arisen a growing spirit of antagonism and lack of sympathy between operators and employees due partly to the fact that the personal contact between employers and employees has necessarily become more casual or has entirely disappeared as the industry expanded, and partly to the strong hold obtained by trade unionism and the effort of the unions to uphold their men in disputes with the operators. The foremen and superintendents allege that the native miners of the younger generation are much more contentious, less satisfactory workers, and much harder to treat or reason with than are the older native and British miners. The employers also argue that the immigrant is more regular and industrious.

On the other hand, it is contended by the old employees that one of the primary reasons for the employment of the recent immigrant lies in his tractability. This is largely attributed to his ignorance, but the assertion is generally made by the older miners that the immigrant is easily controlled, will work under insanitary or dangerous conditions, and will allow extra work to be imposed upon him.

a See table showing occupations of immigrants within the industry, p. 626.

These tendencies on the part of the immigrants, it is asserted, render him a more desirable employee in the eyes of the foreman or operator and lead to his employment in increasing numbers. In this connection, it is also alleged that the operator is more favorable to the employment of the immigrant than the native because the immigrant tends to accept without protest the company house, the so-called company-store system, and the general living conditions of isolated mining communities.

The immigrants are also generally said to manifest much greater perseverance in their endeavors to secure work than is shown by natives. An American who applies for work when told that there is none available lets the matter drop. On the other hand, the immigrant who is refused employment on one day goes back the next and besieges the employer until cause is shown why there is no work or a place is secured. The same general disposition marks the immigrant's efforts to secure work for his fellows. The native will go so far as to introduce his friend to the foreman, but the immigrant does not stop at this point. He pleads with the foreman and assumes responsibility for the satisfactory working qualities of his fellow countryman.

The complaint is commonly made by native miners in Illinois that the recent immigrant often secures work because of his willingness to buy jobs, or in other words, to pay a certain sum to the foremen for the privilege of working. Fraudulent methods of obtaining union cards are also charged against recent immigrants.

In Indiana there is no state law such as is in force in Illinois requiring two years' experience at mining before a man is allowed to become a "practical miner." The regulations of the United Mine Workers which obtain in Indiana are also less exacting than those prevailing in Illinois in their effect on the man who is taking up work in the mines for the first time. It would seem, therefore, at the outset, other things being equal, to be much easier for the immigrant to get work in the Indiana mines than in those of Illinois. The state law and the United Mine Workers' regulations operative in Illinois, however, have produced an effect contrary to the intentions of the framers, and instead of curtailing tend to increase the number of recent immigrant employees as compared with the number of native-born. It may be stated in conclusion that the main reason for the employment of the immigrant in the past has been the increasing demand for labor on account of the expansion of coal mining. Some form of labor was needed, and the immigrant, usually ignorant and inexperienced, constituted practically the only available supply. His employment originally, therefore, was largely the result of necessity. Other factors, as already mentioned, have also led the operator to prefer him. Moreover, it has also been true that steady, satisfactory work on the part of the immigrants, especially the Slovaks, North Italians, and Lithuanians, has also been a factor that in some measure accounts for their presence in large numbers in the coal mines.