between miners and operators, an order of suspension was issued, affecting approximately 168,000 workers. The principal demands of the mine workers were a 20 per cent wage increase, recognition of the union, and an eight-hour day. The willingness of both sides to settle difficulties marked a new era in adjusting industrial disputes. Conferences between both parties resulted in a compromise which was ultimately accepted by the workers in conference assembled. The gains of the miners consisted in: Establishment of an eight-hour day. Increase of 10 per cent in wages. This increase must be considered together with the abolition of the sliding scale. It actually amounts to a 51⁄2 per cent increase. Establishment of a grievance committtee in each mining district. Minimum wage of $3.50 per day for miners, and $2.75 for day laborers. Limited union recognition. The New York Herald of May 19, 1912, estimates the cost of the suspension as follows: Loss in wages to men... . $14,875,000 9,450,000 4,375,000 16,625,000 430,000 1,400,000 $47,155,000 The recent coal strike and suspensions in the United States, England, Germany and France resulted in what was perhaps the most complete embargo on a necessity of life. Never, except perhaps in the potato famine of 1845, and the Lancashire cotton dearth of 1776, has the supply of a necessary commodity been so universally affected. Award Hown ما PREVENTIVE WORK IN MINES (Dayton Journal.) EVIDENCE that the managers of the coal mines in this country are waking up to some sense of their duty in the matter of lessening casualties is furnished in a recent publication of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Co., containing an address by Superintendent C. E. Tobey. It presents the results of a recently inaugurated campaign of education among the employés of that company as to preventive methods and the effort to perfect a system of humane relief. We are told that in coal mining, hazardous at best, from 65 to 80 per cent of the fatalities are due to carelessness or ignorance on the part of the men themselves. The fact that 11,500 of the 18,500 mines employed in the Lackawanna mines are foreigners, few of whom understand English, makes it easy to believe this. Mr. Tobey tells us that it was necessary to educate them before they could understand the company rules. One wonders why the rules could not have been printed in Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Lithuanian and Italian. Many of them were found to be "suspicious of the bosses' efforts in their behalf," making it necessary to study carefully methods of reaching them. Extension schools have been established under the direction of the miners' institutes organized and fostered by the Y. M. C. A. Blackboards and charts are used and the Dr. Robert's system followed in teaching English to foreigners. The dangers of careless mining are illustrated by magic lantern slides from actual photographs, showing some 30 of the more common kind of accidents. These exhibitions were a success from the start, drawing crowds of men, women and children, "who enjoyed them as they would a nickelodeon show," and at the same time were instructed in ways and means of selfprotection. These photographs, numbering about 200 and showing the right and the wrong ways in timbering and blast firing, have been printed in a book with simple lessons to be used in the extension schools for foreigners and distributed among the miners. By new rules adopted in the matter of reporting and repairing bad roofs, the deaths caused by the falling in of roof chambers in the faces of workingmen was reduced from 11 in 1910, to 3 in 1911. Records showed that 45 per cent of the fatal accidents were from this cause. Another new rule "which was thought at first would work a hardship of the miner and a reduction in the output, but which really worked out to the advantage of all," forbids a miner returning to a missed hole. It had been the custom for a man to light his squib and retreat to a place of safety. If the shot did not go off promptly, he concluded that the light had gone out and returned to the face just in time to receive the delayed shot. Now the miner is obliged to "take his dinner pail and go home for the balance of the day," his pay being docked accordingly. Mr. Tobey tells us that this rule is evaded more or less by some reckless dare-devils; "but they not only run the risk of being blown to kingdom come, but also of immediate discharge from the service if found out." Passing by the obvious reflection as to the cruelty of inflicting this additional penalty on the poor miner blown to kingdom come, it is consoling to be informed that these precautions and others for the prevention of premature blasts, resulted in the killing of 15 persons less in 1911 than were killed in 1910, although there was an increase of 370,000 tons in the coal production, or at the rate of "170,000 tons of coal produced for every man killed, as against 123,000 tons in the previous year." For prompt and adequate relief in case of accident, teams of boys have been drilled in first aid methods, including the artificial inducing of respiration and antiseptic handling of wounds, while a fully equipped hospital car is kept in readiness at points distant from the Moses Taylor hospital at Wilkes Barre. THE GRADUATED-TAX PROTECTIONISTS. By W. V. MARSHALL. THE object of a "protective tariff" should be not only to prevent foreign manufacturers from destroying our home industries by underselling them in the home market, but also to protect the consumers from the arbitrary increase in the prices that would ensue after the foreign manufacturers had monopolized the home market. It is true the protective tariff does accomplish both these objects, but the second is negatived in that the consumer, although he is protected from a foreign monopolist, is left at the mercy of a home monopolist that the very system has created. It is this inconsistency in the theory of the protective tariff that the Graduated-Tax Protectionists propose to remedy. What is a Graduated-Tax Protectionist? He is one who believes in protecting the consumer as well as the home industries, and in protecting the consumer from both the foreign monopolists and the Interests at home. He believes this can be accomplished in part by the protective tariff, but that the tariff, to prevent its defeating its own ends, must be supplemented by some form of protective internal tax. He believes that such a supplementary tax is to be found in the Graduated Property Tax, which is based upon the theory that the rate of taxation should increase with the value of the property. The following table explains the plan: |