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Superintendent CALLOWAY. If you will just ask him how many years he has been working in coal mines I think he will answer you. Senator GOODING. Well, tell us that.

Mr. HERRICK. A number of years.

Senator GOODING. I thought he said he had formerly been a farmer. Then he said something about being a farmer for two months and afterwards coming to the mines.

Mr. HERRICK. I have been in the mines a number of years.

(Thereupon the committee continued on down the porch of the bunk house until they reached the end. Entering a room, larger than the bunk rooms, and with a couple of tables and several benches and a stove in it, they found three men. Some one said it was a sort of a rest room or card room. Two of the men were interrogated without securing their names, so they are termed Miner No. 1 and Miner No. 2:)

STATEMENT OF MINER NO. 1

Senator WHEELER. What is your name?

MINER NO. 1. (The only sound heard was a grunt.)
Senator WHEELER. Do you work in the mines here?
MINER NO. 1. Yeh.

Senator WHEELER. Did you ever work in a mine before?
MINER No. 1. Yeh.

Senator WHEELER. For what company?

MINER NO. 1. Export Coal Co.

Senator WHEELER. Did you formerly belong to the union?

MINER NO. 1. Nope; no union mine.

Senator WHEELER. And how about you?

MINER NO. 2. No, sir.

Senator WHEELER. Do you mean you never belonged to the union? MINER NO. 2. No; never.

Senator WHEELER. How many tons of coal a day do you get out? MINER NO. 2. I do pick work.

Senator WHEELER. How many tons a day do you get out?

MINER NO. 2. Oh, sometimes 10 and then 11 and 12, and other times 6 and 3.

Senator WHEELER. What is your average per month?

MINER NO. 2. Last pay day I got 77 tons for two weeks.

Senator WHEELER. After you paid for your bunk and your board, how much did you have left in your pay check?

MINER NO. 2. $30.

Senator WHEELER. How many of the miners average that?
MINER NO. 2. Don't know.

Senator WHEELER. I imagine you are pretty good miner.

MINER NO. 2. I works hard enough.

Senator WHEELER. How many hours a day do you work?

MINER NO. 2. From six in the morning to half past three.
Senator WHEELER. Have you a family?

MINER NO. 2. No; single.

Senator WHEELER. And are you single, too?

MINER NO. 1. Yep.

Senator WHEELER. And are you single?

MINER No. 3. Yes, sir.

SENATOR WHEELER. After you have paid your board you say you

have about $30 left?

MINER NO. 2. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. That is what your pay check showed?

MINER NO. 2. Yes, sir; for two weeks.

Senator WHEELER. How much did you earn during the last two weeks?

MINER NO. 1. Nothing.

Senator WHEELER. How much did you get in money?

MINER NO. 2. Him aint worked for three months already; sick. Senator WHEELER. How much did you get on your last pay check? MINER No. 3. I just started. I got started first then.

Senator WHEELER. You got your first pay day when?

MINER NO. 3. Last Saturday.

Senator WHEELER. How much have you got coming to you now? MINER NO. 3. I don't know. I reckon five or six dollars.

Senator WHEELER. That is, after your board is paid and is taken out of your pay you have about five or six dollars left?

MINER NO. 3. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. How many tons do you mine?

MINER NO. 3. I machine coal. I believe I have got about 45 tons. Senator WHEELER. What do you get for pick work?

MINER NO. 3. Eighty-five cents a ton.

Senator WHEELER. And for machine work what do you get?

MINER NO. 3. Sixty-five cents a ton.

Senator WHEELER. Who keeps track of the amount of tonnage that you produce? Do you figure it out yourself?

MINER NO. 3. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. The company gives you a slip and tells you how much you make?

MINER No. 3. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. And you have to buy all of your tools?
MINER No. 3. Everything, yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. How much will your tools cost you a month? MINER NO. 3. They just cost us one time. When I start out to work I buy tools. Then we have them for a year.

Senator WHEELER. That is what I am trying to get at.

MINER No. 3. Yes; but we have to buy powder and caps.

Senator WHEELER. And you pay for the powder and caps that you use in mining coal?

MINER NO. 3. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. How much does it cost you for caps?

MINER NO. 3. About 7 cents for caps, and we use them three or four months.

Senator WHEELER. How much do you pay for board a week?
MINER No. 3. Ten dollars.

Senator WHEELER. Where did you come from?

MINER NO. 3. From West Virginia, from Logan County.

Senator WHEELER. How many negroes are there working here in

the mines?

MINER NO. 3. I never counted them.

Senator WHEELER. Are there lots of them?

MINER NO. 3. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. There are more blacks than whites?

MINER NO. 3. No; more whites.

Senator WHEELER. Where are the negroes mostly from?
MINER NO. 3. I don't know.

Senator WHEELER. Where do they live?

MINER NO. 3. In a camp here somewhere.

Senator WHEELER. Are they mostly single or married?

MINER NO. 3. I don't know. Some are married and some are single.

Senator WHEELER. Are the most of the negroes experienced miners?

MINER NO. 3. Not very much experience in the case of the negroes.

Senator WHEELER. All right.

(Thereupon, the subcommittee left the rest room or community room or card room, whatever it was termed, and were shown the dining rooms, being a room for the whites on one side of the kitchen and a room for the blacks on the other side of the kitchen. The superintendent showed to the committee that the tables in the colored dining room were set for 72 persons, and that the tables in the white dining room were set for 196 whites. Thereupon the subcommittee visited the colored bunk houses, and there were some negro miners on the porch. Approaching a party of four negro miners, the following occurred:)

STATEMENT OF NEGRO MINER NO. 1

Senator WHEELER. Do you boys work in the mines?
MINER NO. 1. I has been here since 1st October.

Senator WHEELER. What is your average earning here?

MINER NO. 1. What you means?

Senator WHEELER. Well, tell us what you earn here.

MINER NO. 1. Does you mean what I gits?

Senator WHEELER. Tell us what you earn gross first and then

what you get as the balance.

MINER NO. 1. I averages around $80 in two weeks.

Senator WHEELER. That is your average?

MINER NO. 1. Yes, sir; and I makes more sometimes.

Senator WHEELER. What comes out for board?

MINER NO. 1. They takes out $21.15 and $22.85 when I was boarding.

Senator WHEELER. That is, you mean that about $40 comes out of your $80?

MINER NO. 1. No; I means $20 comes out of $80.

Senator WHEELER. And that leaves you $60 for two weeks' work? MINER NO. 1. Yes, sir.

Senator WHEELER. Has that been your average?

MINER NO. 1. Well, it has been a little better than that, but that is the average.

Senator WHEELER. Where are you from?

MINER No. 1. Ohio.

Senator WHEELER. Did you work in coal mines in Ohio?

MINER NO. 1. No, sir; I works in coal mines in Kentucky seven

and a half years.

Senator WHEELER. What were you doing in Ohio?

MINER NO. 1. I works in the steel mills.

Senator WHEELER. How is your work on an average as compared with the men generally in the mines?

MINER NO. I. As far as my part of it is concerned I have had it pretty good.

Senator WHEELER. Has yours been better than the average?
MINER No. 1. Not any the best.

Senator GOODING. Are there any questions that any members of the committee want to ask these other men?

Senator WAGNER. I would like to ask some of the others some questions.

STATEMENT OF RALPH JOHNSON

Senator WAGNER. How long have you been here?
RALPH JOHNSON. Gwine on four weeks.

Senator WAGNER. Where did you come from?

RALPH JOHNSON. Pittsburgh.

Senator WAGNER. Have you worked in mines before?

RALPH JOHNSON. Sure; more than 14 years, in Kentucky and other places.

Senator WAGNER. How much have you earned in four weeks? RALPH JOHNSON. I averages about $5 a day.

Senator WAGNER. Do you get paid by the day?

RALPH JOHNSON. No, sir, but that's the average.

Senator WAGNER. When do you get paid-every two weeks?

RALPH JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator WAGNER. How much actual cash money do you get?
RALPH JOHNSON. I ain't been paid yet.

Senator WAGNER. Why not?

RALPH JOHNSON. It is coming to me this Saturday.

Senator WAGNER. Your first two weeks will come this Saturday? RALPH JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator WAGNER. How much will you get in actual money?

RALPH JOHNSON. I is to get a statement this evenin' for two weeks, and they holds out you know.

Senator WAGNER. Then, in order for you to get paid, you have to work four weeks?

RALPH JOHNSON. You have to work two weeks before you get any pay.

Senator WAGNER. They hold out the first two weeks?

RALPH JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator WAGNER. Have you no idea as to how much you are going to get?

RALPH JOHNSON. Oh, I knows about what it is. It is around $35 somewhere that I make.

Senator WAGNER. For two weeks?

RALPH JOHNSON. Yes, sir..

Senator WAGNER How much do they take out for your board? RALPH JOHNSON. Something like $21 and $22, and I don't know which it is. It is about $10 a week. You know in one two weeks it is 13 days and some two weeks it is 12 days.

Senator WAGNER. How much do you have to pay for tools?

RALPH JOHNSON. Tools run all the way from $7 to $8.50. Depends on what you get. If you get supplies it is about $8.50.

Senator WAGNER. Do you live in these barracks here?

RALPH JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Senator WAGNER. How many men sleep in this room besides yourself?

RALPH JOHNSON. There are 32 what stays where I is, in that car over yonder.

Senator WAGNER. Thirty-two sleep in one place, do you mean? RALPH JOHNSON. We is in those railroad cars over yonder on the track. If a man makes one place he can get in those cars, and the next pay you have to move around.

Senator GOODING. You have about $35 for yourself, after you pay all expenses, for two weeks' work?

RALPH JOHNSON. No, sir; that includes it all together, $35. Senator GOODING. Then do you have to pay your expenses out of that for board and lodging and tools? If so, how much does that leave yourself for your two weeks' work?

RALPH JOHNSON. Oh, $10 or $15.

Senator GOODING. That is what we are trying to get at. We want to know what you make. Do you work every day?

RALPH JOHNSON. No; I was taken sick and aint worked since Sunday.

Senator GOODING. Let us ask this next man.

STATEMENT OF JESSE DANIELS

Senator GOODING. What is your name?

JESSE DANIELS. My name is Jesse Daniels.

Senator GOODING. How long have you beep here?

JESSE DANIELS. Four months.

Senator GOODING. You are a miner?

JESSE DANIELS. Yes, sir.

Senator GOODING. How long have you been mining?

JESSE DANIELS. Three years.

Senator GOODING. How much money did you get on your last pay day?

JESSE DANIELS. $5.85.

Senator GOODING. How much did you get the pay-day before that? JESSE DANIELS. Nothing. That is, I didn't clear nothing. Senator GOODING. You did not clear anything for yourself?

JESSE DANIELS. No, sir.

Senator GOODING. How much have you cleared on an average since you have been here?

JESSE DANIELS. $13.65.

Senator GOODING. For how long?

JESSE DANIELS. For two weeks.

Senator GOODING. Was that the average, or was that the highest amount?

JESSE DANIELS. That was the highest.

Senator GOODING. $13 was the highest amount you got?

JESSE DANIELS. Excusing the board.

Senator GOODING. I didn't understand that.

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