Mr. TUOVINEN. Yes; there is an awful lot of water, sometimes very much, so that it hinders us and bothers us all day long. It makes a man wet and dirty working in the bottom.

Mr. KERR. Under what conditions is the gathering up of the broken rock, or mucking as you call it, done in the bottom of that shaft, so far as water is concerned?

Mr. TUOVINEN. We dig a hole so as to get lower in the dirt, and we have to hoist the water up with a bucket, and when we get the water low enough then we begin hoisting the dirt.

Mr. KERR. That is, you make a sump in one corner?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Yes; sump.

Mr. KERR. In cleaning out that sump, state whether or not it is necessary to work in the water.

Mr. TUOVINEN. One must avoid getting wet with that water as much as possible, because the water is salty and is very poisonous and is injurious, and we try to avoid it as much as possible.

Mr. KERR. Is there any smell which comes from that water at the bottom of the shaft?

Mr. TUOVINEN. I don't know much about the smell, the smell has never bothered me, but if you get a splatter of that water on your bare skin, it is so salty it will burn the skin.

Mr. KERR. As to whether after a blast of a round of holes powder smoke is always out of the bottom of the shaft before the next shift starts in to rig up?

Mr. TUOVINEN. The smoke is not out of the shaft when the new shift gets in, but we men stay up over on the level and wait until the compressed air goes down the pipes, and then we must blow it out. Mr. KERR. You may cross-examine.

Mr. PETERMANN. How many men worked on that gang that was sinking there?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Four men to a shift; there were two machines. Mr. PETERMANN. Who were the men working with you on your shift?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Jest before the strike those who worked with me were, first name, Dan Hirbela, Jack Rickolof, an Austrian; Gust Juntila, he was my partner.

Mr. PETERMANN. That is all.

Mr. CASEY. Supposing that one of you men down at the bottom of this shaft got injured, how would you be gotten up to the next level if you had to climb this ladder 100 or 150 feet, whatever it is?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Of course, we would have to take him up the ladder to the place where we get the cage, but first from the bottom where we worked we would have to hoist up in the bucket to the first level, and then take him up to the next level on the ladder. Mr. CASEY. What kind of a bucket is this? How big is it? Mr. TUOVINEN. It is an iron bucket about 3 and a half high.

feet across and a foot

Mr. CASEY. If a man got injured, you would have to just double him up and put him in that bucket and hoist him up; is that the way? Mr. TUOVINEN. Of course; that is the best we could make of it. Mr. CASEY. Are there no provisions made that in case of an accident you can take that bucket off and put some other kind of a bucket or cage or skip on there to put the injured man on to take him up? Mr. TUOVINEN. I have not seen any.

Mr. CASEY. Any gas in this shaft?

Mr. TUOVINEN. There is usually some gas down there, and if it were not for the air that you get from the machine you could not work down there at all.

Mr. CASEY. Is it an explosive gas?

Mr. TUOVINEN. No.

Mr. CASEY. Do you have any gas explosions in these mines?

Mr. TUOVINEN. No, no.

Mr. CASEY. Do you have any dust explosions in these mines?

Mr. TOUVINEN. No; at least at the place I worked.

Mr. CASEY. Do you have any wind explosions or air blasts in these mines?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Not in the place I worked in so far.

Mr. CASEY. That is all.

Mr. KERR. You have never worked in the Quincy mine?

Mr. TUOVINEN. No.

Mr. HOWELL. Do you have a State mine inspector?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Of course there is a mine inspector.

Mr. HOWELL. Have you ever known of the mine inspector to go through the mine while you have been working in it?

Mr. TUOVINEN. I have seen him once in a while.

Mr. HOWELL. Have you ever complained to the State mine inspector of the insanitary condition in the mines?

Mr. TUOVENIN. No; I have waited for some one else to make the complaint, because I thought there was somebody else better than I and he might make the complaint.

Mr. CASEY. Who appoints this mine inspector?

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any mine-inspection law in this case? Mr. KERR. The statute regulates that. Until two or three years ago we had no State mine inspector.

The CHAIRMAN. Haven't had any at all?

Mr. KERR. No. The labor commissioner has jurisdicion over the mines. We had a county mine inspector who until about three years ago was appointed by the board of supervisors. Since that time he has been elected by the people.

The CHAIRMAN. There is no State official whose duty it is to go over the State and inspect the mines of the State as a State official, is there?

Mr. KERR. There is not. I think we ought to put that statute into the records.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; I think we better.

Mr. KERR. My impression is that the State mine inspector, or the labor inspector rather, does inspect the coal mines to some extent. The CHAIRMAN. Does the law apply only to coal mines, or does it apply to metaliferous mines also?

Mr. KERR. No; there is a much more stringent inspection with regard to coal mines, with regard to openings, sanitary conditions, and things of that kind. My impression is that the statute makes no provision with regard to the sanitary conditions of the copper mines. The CHAIRMAN. You can put in the record whatever the Michigan statutes are on this subject.

Mr. CASEY. How many inspectors have you?

Mr. KERR. We have the mine inspector in this, Houghton County, who was elected at the last general election for two years. If my

memory serves me rightly, he has a right to appoint or has appointed three assistants.

Mr. CASEY. Have you any laws in the State of Michigan governing the regulation of the time allowed for the noonday meal? Mr. KERR. I believe not.

Mr. CASEY. You have no law governing that, providing that the employees in mines, mills, or factories shall have a certain specified time to eat their noonday meal?

Mr. KERR. I think not, Mr. Casey, but I do not want to state that positively. It is not a part of the mining act, anyway, or the mine inspector's act. The mine inspector's act deals in a general way with safety appliances and provides that the inspector may order certain repairs to be made, and that the mining companies, they ought to do that within a certain time; he can make repairs and charge it up to them.

The CHAIRMAN. Has the Federal Bureau of Mines ever sent any representative here to this part of the State? Do they exercise any advisory control over sanitary conditions or safety appliances or other regulations?

Mr. KERR. My impression is that the Federal inspecting bureau of the mining departments, or whatever it is, has at some time sent up their safety-appliance school, if you may call it so.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, first-aid-to-injury, pulmotors, and whatever they are?

Mr. KERR. I believe so; yes.

Mr. CASEY. Have you any mine-rescue stations in this State? Mr. KERR. Not that I know of.

Mr. CASEY. Have you any mine-rescue cars located near the mines? Mr. KERR. None that I know of.

Mr. HOWELL. That is not for metalliferous mines.

Mr. KERR. We have nothing in this congressional district excepting the copper district and three iron districts-one called the Gogebic Iron Range to the west, one the Menominee Range to the south and east, and the Marquette Range east of us. They are all iron ore.

Mr. CASEY. When I was questioning the witness a moment ago with reference to gas explosions, dust explosions, wind explosions, or air blasts, he said he didn't know of any, and you asked him if he ever worked in the Quincy. Am I to infer or is the committee to infer that there are explosions from gas, air, or dust occurring in the Quincy?

Mr. KERR. They have a situation there--I don't want to speak as a professor upon the matter

Mr. CASEY. Just information for the committee; that is all we want to know.

Mr. KERR. So far as I know, no one has determined the real cause. We have designated them locally here as air blasts, and when a blast occurs in that mine it shakes the country, for I think I am conservative in saying, to a distance of 10 or 15 miles.

Mr. CASEY. Has anybody ever been injured in those air blasts? Mr. KERR. I think so, but I am not-I think that will come out by some miners from the Quincy who will be on the stand.

Mr. CASEY. Very well.

Mr. KERR. They are what is designated locally as air blasts; some think they are volcanoes or earthquakes; I don't know what they are.

Mr. HOWELL. Are you a voter in this district?

Mr. TUOVINEN. Yes, I am a voter. It is 15 years ago since I have have been a citizen.

Mr. PETERMANN. On this matter of first aid and safety appliances, when the committee comes up to Calumet, we will be glad to show you the rescue station, and if you wish to take out one of the crews that have been trained in this first-aid work, we will give you an exhibition of what they can do. That car, by the way, was up herethe Federal Bureau-just about a month before the strike, and they were here for a week or two and gave the men a lot of training and had some public lectures upon the proposition.

The CHAIRMAN. That came from the Bureau of Mines, did it?

Mr. PETERMANN. Yes. They have quite a complete outfit at the Calumet mines.

Mr. KERR. That I may not be misunderstood as having misstated, the question was whether a rescue car was here. I said I knew of none. This is the first I have heard of this rescue station.

The CHAIRMAN. This Committee on Mines and Mining of the House of Representatives has considerable to do with the Bureau of Mines, and in that way has something to do with the coal mining regulations throughout the United States, and especially in securing appropriations of money for them. We know that there are quite large appropriations made each year and we would naturally like to know whether any of that money is being used in this country, for the benefit of the coal miners or other miners, in this State.

Mr. REES. My impression is that they have been here more than once; I think they have been here two or three times.

OLLI RAAPIKKA was called as a witness, and having been duly sworn, on examination, testified as follows, through the interpreter: Mr. KERR. Where do you live?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. Wolverine.

Mr. KERR. You are a married man with a family, and how many years married?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. A wife and seven children.

Mr. KERR. You work in Wolverine?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. Yes; there last.

Mr. KERR. For how great a distance in the shaft have you trammed?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. I have never trammed at the Wolverine. I have been a miner there.

Mr. KERR. At any other mine?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. When I first came into the country I trammed at the Tamarack, but I am not sure as to the length of the level that we had to push, but it was at least a thousand feet.

Mr. KERR. How far in from the shaft did the crosscut run to the vein ?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. They said that the crosscut was more than 2,000 feet. I worked on the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twentyninth levels.

Mr. KERR. What were some of the lowest wages you ever received for a month's work, by the month—I mean a full month?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. For tramming or mining?

Mr. KERR. Mining.

Mr. RAAPIKKA. At North Kearsarge one time I had $12 and some odd cents.

Mr. KERR. Have you had any other small pays for a full month's work?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. Yes; there are a great many of them-$30 and $40 pay days.

Mr. HOWELL. What is the smallest pay you ever had as a trammer, for a full month's work?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. In 1903, when I trammed, they had a regular day's pay of $2.30 for trammers, I think.

Mr. KERR. You may cross-examine.

Cross-examination by Mr. PETERMANN:

Mr. PETERMANN. Was that when you started to work at the Tamarack, in 1903?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. Yes; I came here from the old country at that time. Mr. PETERMANN. And this crosscut you speak of, did you push a tramcar through the crosscut?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. No; not through the crosscut.

Mr. PETERMANN. How was it pushed or pulled through the crosscut?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. We pushed along the vein, and the engine pulled them through the crosscut.

Mr. PETERMANN. Now, did the engine also pull them part way through the level of the vein?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. No; not there; nowhere where I worked.
Mr. PETERMANN. How long did you work at the Tamarack!
Mr. RAAPIKKA. A little over two months.

Mr. PETERMANN. What mine did you go to then?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. To the Wolverine.

Mr. PETERMANN. How long did you work there?
Mr. RAAPIKKA. A little more than a year.

Mr. PETERMANN. Tramming?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. I was company accountant; sometimes trammed. Mr. PETERMANN. Well, company account miner?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. No: laborer.

Mr. PETERMANN. When did you first start in as a miner?
Mr. RAAPIKKA. In 1904, when I first began as a miner.

Mr. PETERMANN. Where was that?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. North Kearsarge.

Mr. PETERMANN. How long did you work at the North Kearsarge! Mr. RAAPIKKA. I was there three different times, as far as I can remember. I was there more than a year the first time.

Mr. PETERMANN. What other mines have you worked at besides those three?

Mr. RAAPIKKA. I have not worked in any mines except those three.

Mr. PETERMANN. Did you work right up to the time the strike started?

I

Mr. RAAPIKKA. There was another one, too-South Kearsarge. I worked at the Wolverine just at the beginning of the strike.