A MOST DANGEROUS PROFESSION!

A MOST DANGEROUS PROFESSION! (Frazer Chronicle)

They sit in an almost laying position and are transported to their respective work areas, or they ride in a cage down an 18x18 foot hole in the ground to their work stations. Others ride in giant earth type movers hundreds of feet into a huge open pit, their equipment 40 or 50 foot in height and the machine's fuel tanks as big as a modern bathroom.

What are these men doing, are they crazy, who the hell would want to take a 7000 foot ride into the side of a hill, who would want to take a trip down an open elevator, where the only protection between a fall of hundreds of feet to certain death is chain-link fencing? Those men in the huge earth moving equipment are only 10 or 15 feet from a  sure death fall. What in hell are they doing?

First and foremost, most are earning a decent living, have good medical coverage and a pension plan for their retirement. Second.....they have to be crazy, why else would anybody go into the blackness that is underground, or the dangers connected working in a pit as deep as 1500 feet.

Actually these men, and some women are miners in the 21st century and are intent on bringing whatever mineral that they are mining to the surface in amounts that help to pay their "mostly" top notch wages.

Coal, copper, gold, silver, salt, iron ore and other precious metals and elements that help to fuel the world's industry's as well as power it's economy, to keep us eliminated, cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Along the way there have been some horrific disasters that have shuck the industry, devastated survivors and shocked nations. There have been many reasons for these accidents and loss of life, but almost exclusively, mine companies have remained untouched, and unbelievably unattached.

Mine companies have done some great things financially for the communities that they do business in. From schools, to hospitals, to health clinics, to meeting halls, to parks, mining companies have paved their operational streets with money, money so that they can be "held harmless," harmless in whatever might happen, be it injury, environmental carnage, or death. Money heals all wounds, and the mining industry is famous for having the money to heal many wounds.

Talking only about the United States now, there have been hundreds of either local or state safety acts as well as  several national "mine acts." These "acts" were brought about only after a catastrophic disaster that usually took dozens of lives.

The first  national mine act came in 1910 when the Bureau of Mines was established, but with no authority to check mining safety, or to levy fines. The Bureau act of 1910 came after a particularly tough 10 year period when more then 5000 miners lost their lives in a hundreds of disasters. I am not talking about "small death counts," unless you call 362 deaths "chump change."

As I mentioned, "between 1900 and 1909, more then 5000 miners lost their lives." The 1st decade of the 20th century kicked off with the loss of 200 miners in a coal mine disaster at the Winter Quarters mine in Scofield Utah, followed by 384 total in 8 accidents, 233 in 1903, 266 in 1904, 331 during 1905 which were the result of 17 disasters.

In 1907 1012 deaths were reported which involved 19 disasters and included the grand daddy of all mine disasters, 362 deaths in the coal mine in Monogah, West Virginia. 239 lost their lives the same year at the Darr coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania. The Cherry coal mine  disaster which took 239 lives in Cherry, Illinois finally forced the United States Congress to establish the Bureau of Mines, basically because of public outcry and pressure. 

Through the years the federal government would enact further safety rules, but the Bureau of Mines would evolve into more of a research institute then a governing and protection body over the mining industry. To this day, the mining industry in the United States remains more of a self governed body, rather then one governed by government.

Fines can be can be disputed, mining companies lag in their payments, and the guidelines for fines is often a joke when one compares them to the profits that are made. Mining supervisors, company owners and other officials are often left out of the equation when an accident occurs.

Mine companies around the world are intricately linked together by a single bond, promise, whenever a disaster occurs, the company says one thing, "we promise" to make working conditions better, see how much we paid the victims. Ask the 33 Chilean miners who remained in a copper mine for more then 2 months  how conditions are, .....oh wait.....most are now unemployed, guess they can't answer that question with any veracity.