BOOK REVIEWS

THE ANTHRACITE COAL INDUSTRY. By Peter Roberts, Ph.D. With an Introduction by W. G. Sumner, LL.D. Cloth; 261 pages. Price, $3.00. The Macmillan Company, New York and London.

The coal industry is one of the most difficult to understand, and most difficult of equitable adjustment, of any industry in the country. This is thoroughly illustrated by the controversy through the late strike. There seems to have been a fairness in, or at least some basis for, the position each party took in the conflict. While the operators were clearly obstinate and dictatorial, they made certain statements regarding the impracticability of uniformity of prices and other conditions which seemed to be ignored by the union. The request of the union was for a certain price per ton, and for an equivalent price per day for day hands. The operators denied the feasibility of this, and refused to deal with the union because the nature of the business is such that wages and prices must be adjusted at each colliery, with and for the men of that colliery.

Notwithstanding that the press gave columns every day of so-called information on the subject, the public is literally in the dark regarding the facts pertaining to the case. In the book under consideration, which was written just before the strike controversy began, Mr. Roberts gives these conditions in great detail. The facts here presented throw more light on the situation than all the newspaper articles that have appeared since the controversy first began. The book is not a plea for the miners' union, nor against it; it is not a plea for any standard of wages or hours, but a manifestly careful statement of the facts, inspired by the true scientific spirit. In the chapter on "Employees and Wages," Mr. Roberts throws a flood of light on the conditions which naturally led to the conflict and are sure to lead to more strikes unless an altogether new basis

of treatment is adopted. He does not suggest this, but it is obvious from the nature of things. The marked difference in the conditions of mining at different mines is so great and varied that any given standard of piece-work price seems impossible. In some veins and under some conditions the miner by a few hours work a day can earn from $75 to $125 a month, while in other veins and under other conditions, by working ten hours a day, he can scarcely earn $6 a week.

The character of the miners is an important element in the problem. In many sections these miners are Poles, Little Russians, Hungarians, Magyars, Lithuanians, Slovacks, Bohemians, Italians and Swiss. They are largely brought from Europe under special inducements, in order to secure cheaper labor. The importation of these laborers by the corporations began in 1872-3, but the "floodtide," as it were, began in 1877, the immediate object having been to defeat the laborers in their demands for increased wages. Some idea of the character of the population in the anthracite coal regions may be gathered from the following statement, on pages 104 and 105:

"There is to-day in the anthracite coal fields a population of nearly 100,000 Sclavs. Statistics taken of 150 shafts in 1897, employing 59,823 persons, showed 23,402 native born, 13.521 native citizens and 22,860 aliens. In three shafts in Lackawanna county, over 75 per cent. of the employees are Sclavs. Under the Delaware and Hudson Company, 40 per cent. of the mining force is of this class. Under the Reading from 20 to 25 per cent. of the force underground are Sclavs. In 1898, out of 294 miners' certificates issued in the fourth district, 183, or 62.24 per cent., were given to this class of laborers. In stripping mining in the fifth district, not a single English-speaking employee, except the foreman, is engaged. In three shafts in Schuylkill county, operated by individuals, the force underground was over 70 per cent. Sclav. If we leave out the breaker boys, who form about 13 per cent. of the anthracite employees, and count only laborers over 16 years of age, from 25 to 30 per cent. of the employees in the anthracite coal fields are Sclavs, or between 30,000 and 35,000 in all. They are not uniformly distributed. In the Lykens and Panther creek valleys very few are to be found, while in Shenandoah and Nanticoke they are largely in the majority. Scores of collieries to-day cannot work when the Sclavs

observe a religious holiday. Anthracite mining cannot at present get along without the Sclav."

According to Mr. Roberts, there has been no appreciable reduction in wages, but the real income of the laborers has been lessened by bearing down the different kinds of allowances for various kinds of exceptional work, such as opening chambers, the use of powder, and other things. Of this he gives extended examples. On page 116 le says:

"Operators say that prices have been uniform for the last 20 years. This is true as far as the price paid for the car of coal is concerned, but it is not true of the allowances given the miner for accessory work in mining; and when the tributaries are cut off, the stream perceptibly diminishes. The price per car was left intact, but foremen in almost every locality in the coal fields cut down prices for work the miner must do in order to carry on the work of mining. One man who brought upon himself the wrath of the workmen, which well-nigh cost him his life, did the following: 75 cents a slab was paid for manway, he took it off; 50 cents a yard was paid for a stratum of slate which came down with the coal, he took that off; $7.84 was paid for opening chambers, he told the men they must open them for nothing; laborers who got $2.00 a day were cut down to $1.93; and this man did a very unusual thing, he cut the foreman's wages from $100 a month to $75. There was a strike last summer on the Hazelton mountain because an allowance of $2.64 paid the men for opening chutes was taken off. Under another company $1.50 was paid for standing a set of timber; this is reduced to 50 cents. In a shaft 75 cents was paid for standing props; now it is 50 cents, and double timber is reduced from $2.50 to $1.90. In another shaft the allowance for standing timber was reduced from $1.50 to 60 cents. Companies were wont to grant allowances for water coming into the chamber; to-day this is not given in many collieries. Allowance was given for sulphur streaks which appear in the coal, making it much harder to blast it and increasing the wear and tear of the tools; it is not given to-day. An allowance of 50 cents a yard was given to miners who had to use safety lamps; to-day such a thing is not known."

The data presented on this phase of the subject gives a different aspect to the whole question. In truth, the nominal wages of the miners seem to have no appreciable relation to the real wages. So numerous and variable are the items of incidental expense that even the average gives no

correct idea. For instance, Mr. Roberts gives a table showing the steady increase of powder required to mine a ton of coal. In the Upper Lehigh, in 1871, one keg of powder sufficed to mine 102 tons of coal. In Lackawanna, in 1895, a keg only sufficed to mine 30 tons. So about three times as much powder is required now as thirty years ago.

The irregular employment is another feature here brought out. The following table for the number of days worked per month, in 1899, shows that the average for the year was a little over half; in February it was 12 3-4 days, and in October (the highest) 20 1-4. This table will give some idea of the difference between the real and nominal wages:

In this work Mr. Roberts has really made an important contribution to the discussion of the coal industry. He attempts to give no solution of the difficulty; he presents no scheme for industrial harmony, or equitable adjustment of the difficulties; but he does present a large volume of carefully prepared data which cannot safely be ignored by any student of the subject. The more one becomes acquainted with the nature of the industry, the character of the laborers, and the multitude of methods adopted to take advantage, each of the other, the clearer it becomes that a new basis of agreement and relations between miners and operators will be necessary before permanent, peaceful conditions can be established.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE MEN OF HIS TIME. Robert H. Browne, M. D. In two volumes. Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye. New York: Eaton & Mains.

When Miss Tarbell's "Early Life of Abraham Lincoln," was published it seemed as though, with all which had been published before, her book gave us all we were likely to get about Lincoln, up to the time when he went to Washington. But we were mistaken. A work in two volumes, of nearly 1300 12mo. pages, has been published, which makes invaluable additions to our stock of information.

The question of course arises: Who is Robert II. Browne, M. D., that he should be able to tell us anything about Abraham Lincoln, especially at this late day? In the last month of 1829 a young Scotchman, Nimmo Browne, canny and deft of hand, came to New York city. Eleven years later, having lost his all in the failure of a bank, he went to St. Louis. "He was an active, energetic man of business; a man of skill, an engineer, an artist of no mean pretension; and an educated man and scholar," He was "a builder of cupolas, columns and façades," and so had work to do on buildings in St. Louis, and before long in Springfield, Ill. Thus he came to make the acquaintance of Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, and to become the intimate chosen friend of both.

When Nimmo Browne went over the Alleghenies in 1840 he took with him a wife and two children, one a lad of five years, who has become the author of the volumes we are considering. In this family both Lincoln and Douglas were intimate, Douglas the more so because he was of Scotch origin. Both unbosomed themselves there without reserve. As the boy grew up to manhood he entered more and more into this intimacy, though so much younger, and shared in the confidences involved. Hence it has come that he has given the inside view of Mr. Lincoln's life as no other person has.

Take chapter xxxiv, in Vol. II, as the most striking case in point. In it the writer seems to have set wide open