Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Bulletin of the Department of Labor, Vol. 13: November, 1897
Nevertheless, they are steady workers and are looked upon by the Operators as a valuable addition to theminin g population. A few' years ago it could be said that the English, welsh; gerlnan, and Irish still did the skilled work about the mines, but each year this is becoming less true. The Poles are rapidly passing from the position. Of laborers to that of miners. It is interesting to note one of the processes by which they have become miners. An english miner working upon a breast finds, from a change in the dip or for other reasons, that he can not make his usual wages and he asks for an advance. This not being: granted he leaves the place. Formerly, in the days of the Working men's Benevolent Association, no one would be allowed to work the breast. Now it is given to a Pole, and by harder work and longer hours he is able to make fair wages. In like manner miners working on contl act and employing other miners at day wages often prefer the Poles because they are willing to do more work than a white miner. No doubt the preference often shown by the operators for such laborers is likewise due to this cause and to their readiness to work where other mine1s Will not. The operators say that but for the willingness of these people to do suchrwork many places would have to be aban doued long before all the workable coal has been taken out. -it is not to be supposed, on the other hand, that the Poles systematically underbid the other workmen. They like high wages and are quite ready to join labor organizations which have higher wages as their aim. Like other Catholics at present they ale kept from such organizations, however, to a very great extent by the agitation over the American Protective Association, which has done so much to disturb the work of the labor unions at the mines and elsewhere.
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