and represents a destruction of national wealth of the highest potential value in the form of trained human energy.

The causes of accidents by occupation in detail are given in Table III of the appendix. Of the 2,660 fatal accidents 229, or 8.6 per cent, were due to falls of coal and 906, or 34.1 per cent, to falls of roof, rock, or slate. When these two causes are combined, it appears that nearly one-half the entire number of fatalities were the result of a single group of clearly defined causes and conditions. The facts are summarized in the table below, which is self-explanatory and requires no extended consideration:

CAUSES OF FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINING IN THE UNITED STATES, 1908.

The length of mining experience, using that term as inclusive of any employment in connection with mining operations, is not specifically returned in most of the official reports, but only for West Virginia and Tennessee. The information is, therefore, limited to 588 fatal accidents occurring during 1908 in the two States named, and the facts are set forth in convenient form in the table below, while details for individual occupations are given in Table IV of the appendix:

FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINING IN WEST VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE, BY DURATION OF MINE EXPERIENCE, 1908.

According to the foregoing table there were 33 deaths out of the 588, or 5.6 per cent, of men who had been less than 3 months at work. The number of men killed with less than 1 year of mine experience was 112, or 19.1 per cent of the total, which it is safe to assume is rather out of proportion to the corresponding number employed. It is significant that there should have been 43 deaths of men who had been at work from 10 to 14 years, and 13 deaths of men with from 15 to 19 years of mine experience, and 11 deaths of men with 20 or more years' experience. It is therefore clearly proven that mine experience, even of considerable length, is not necessarily a protective factor, although it is quite probable that in proportion to the number employed the fatality rate is relatively less among men with long experience than among those with short experience. The difference naturally results from successful adaptation to conditions of life involving unusual hazards and fatal consequences of negligence not common to these who work under conditions with which they are more or less familiar. It is a matter of regret that the duration of mine experience should not be stated in the returns of the mine inspector- of other States than West Virginia and Tennessee.

The social aspects of coal-mining fatalities are emphasized in the conjugal condition of the persons killed and the number of children left fatherless. The returns are not entirely explicit or conclusive, for it is not clear whether the widowed are included among the single or the married, nor whether the children were of a dependent age or not. In the case of many miners of mature age it is obvious that the children are no longer dependent upon the family, and it would, therefore, be a hazardous guess to estimate the resulting social burden involved in the support of all the children reported in the official returns. It would be of material value if the ages of the children were required to be stated, for it would then be possible to calculate the social burden implied in their support. According to German data the average age of children made dependent through coalmining casualties was 8 years, so that the average duration of their dependence to an age of complete self-support may be placed at 10 years. There is, unfortunately, no corresponding information for this country. According to the official returns as given in detail in Table V of the appendix, there were 1,233 wives made widows and 2.421 children were made fatherless. If allowance is made for defective returns, it is quite probable that the actual number of wives made widows through coal-mining accident fatalities was not less than 1,300, and that the number of orphans or fatherless children was not less than 2,500 during the year 1908. Of this number it is safe to assume that 2.000 were under 15 years of age, in view of the fact that the average age of miners killed was about 32 years. There are no data by which it is possible to calculate the social de

pendence resulting from coal-mining accidents, but it is self-evident that in probably the large majority of cases the wives made widows were compelled to seek their own support, mostly in an humble capacity, while the support of the children was partly at least shared by others, to their own social or economic disadvantage. A fixed family income, be it what it may, can not be suddenly terminated without serious social and economic consequences, and it is a safe inference that in many cases these consequences are deplorable from the moral, physical, and economic points of view.

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF FATAL ACCIDENTS IN ILLINOIS, 1904 TO 1908.

Even the most complete tabular analysis of coal-mining accidents can not possibly disclose the many and varied circumstances under which such accidents take place. The brief descriptive accounts of fatalities which are usually included in the annual reports of mine inspectors rarely do more than emphasize the general features of such occurrences. No complete account of fatal mine accidents in North America in any one year has been rendered, although the utility of such an analysis can not be questioned. For the present purpose it has only been possible to make such an analysis of the deaths occurring in the coal mines of Illinois during the 5 years ending with June 30, 1908. It has been customary for a number of years to include in the coal statistics of that State, as published by the bureau of labor statistics, a reasonably full account of each death, and in the following discussion the facts are presented in exactly the same form as they have been officially made public, except that the occupations, or causes, have been grouped and that only the more significant and suggestive cases are dealt with in detail. It would, manifestly, serve no practical purpose to give separately all of the many deaths due to fall of coal or slate, etc., most of which are reported in identical language, and rarely with a full account of the surrounding circumstances. There is, indeed, much that is suggestive of neglect to inquire into all the facts and conditions, more or less contributing to the e numerous occurrences, which are disposed of with the simple official statement that John Smith, miner, age 40, married, was killed instantly by falling rock." Considering that casualties of this kind constituted 47.1 per cent of the coal-mining fatalities in the State of Illinois during 1908, it would seem a matter of the utmost importance that all the facts having a direct or remote bearing upon the occurrence should be inquired into and given in full in the annual report.

During the 5 years ending with June 30, 1908, there occurred in the State of Illinois 859 fatal accidents in coal mining, distributed by principal causes, as follows:

FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINING IN ILLINOIS, BY CAUSES, FOR THE PERIOD 1904 TO 1908.

The deaths have been classified primarily with reference to the causes responsible for their occurrence, but these do not always correspond, it would seem, to the final classification adopted by the labor bureau, which may have been based upon a more complete knowledge, as is indicated in the brief summary account to which such a report must necessarily be limited. The accounts vary in value, chiefly according to the several mining districts, and while they are admirable in concise presentation of essential facts in some cases, they are woefully lacking in material detail in others. The facts as set forth in the illustrative cases cited throw much light upon the causes as well as the economic and social aspects of coal-mining casualties, including the problem of individual or corporation responsibility and the related ones of employers' liability, workmen's compensation, community responsibility, and social dependence.

FATAL ACCIDENTS TO MINERS.

During the 5 years ending with 1908, according to the annual reports of the mine inspector of Illinois, there were 859 fatal accidents, of which 518, or 60.3 per cent, were deaths of miners. The descriptive returns of industrial casualties do not exactly conform to this number, but quite possibly the number reported in the statistical tables was increased by subsequent returns aside from the accidents described in more or less detail. Out of 423 fatal accidents to miners described in detail, 246, or 58.2 per cent, were due to fall of rock, clod, or slate, and of these the following are more or less typical of the conditions under which these accidents take place in the coalmining industry of the State of Illinois.

FATAL ACCIDENTS TO MINERS DUE TO GENERAL CAUSES.

December 31, 1904. John Wendel, miner, aged 24 years, single, was severely injured by a fall of rock on his roadway, 45 feet from the face of his working place in the No. 5 mine of the Braceville Coal Company, Braceville, Grundy County. Deceased had quit work about 3 o'clock p. m., and was going out when a large rock fell on him. He was conveyed to his home, where he died about 6 o'clock the same day.

August 31, 1905. Frank Hellstrom, miner, aged 42 years, married, was killed instantly by falling roof at the face of his working place in the Coal Valley Mining Company's shaft No. 2, Sherrard, Mercer County. Deceased was working alone in the mine and was in the act of mining out the heel of a shot when a large mass of the roof fell from between mud slips in the roof, crushing him through the body, with the result as stated. The rock that fell on him would weigh about 1 tons. He leaves a widow and 6 children.

November 1, 1905. Konstantine Andreyewski, miner, aged 55 years, employed at the Gallatin Coal Company's mine, Nashville, was killed by falling rock at the face of his room while loading a car of coal. He leaves a widow and 6 children. All the children except one can provide for themselves.

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November 2, 1905. George Moss, miner, aged 26 years, married, had his spine broken in the Spangler & Jones mine, Danville, Vermilion County. piece of rock had slipped through between two bars; the bars not being properly propped were spread apart, letting the rock fall on him. He died in St. Elizabeth Hospital, Danville, November 24, 1905, leaving a widow and 2 children.

March 28, 1908. Charles Condon, miner, aged 38 years, married, employed at the mine of the Willis Coal and Mining Company, Percy. Deceased was loading coal in a cross cut when a piece of white top slate broke loose, falling and crushing him. The slate was next to the last cross bar. The fall was caused by a slip running on the rib, which did not show until after the fall had occurred. He leaves a widow and 6 children.

Accidents of this character are apparently the direct result of dangers inherent in the industry, which it will always be more or less difficult to guard against, but it is self-evident that in most, if not all, of these cases, no special precautions were adopted to protect the men against the inherent risk in the employment, as well as against their own carelessness, indifference, ignorance, or foolhardiness. No such precautions as are in general use in the Courrières mines of France, as the most effective safeguards against fall of roof, are in use in the mines of Illinois, although there would seem to be no valid reason against their adoption. (")

The next group, of eight fatalities, furnishes definite evidence of a deliberate disregard of warnings or orders on the part of the miners, but it must be taken into consideration that the miners themselves could not be heard in their own defense, and since the warnings or orders were not in written form and preserved as a matter of proof and record, it is at least an open question as to how far the men were really aware of the actual risk or danger inherent in the work which was required to be done and which they were not prevented from

"For a full disenssion of the method employed by the Courrières Coal Mining Company to bring about a reduction in the fatalities due to fall of roof, see Mines and Quarries: General Report and Statistics for 1899, Pt. II. Home Office, London, 1900,