N&W and Virginian in 1909--Jobs, etc.

[NW Mailing List]

I can't answer the question of when did any industry become more safety conscious, but I can from a coal mining perspective in West Virginia

First, you can't judge the safety consciousness of the work place of the 1900s by later standards.  You were dealing with a different mind set, educational level, mechnaical environment, supervisory level and sobriety level.  You were also dealing with a different concept on the value of life as shootings and knifings were not uncommon into the late 1920s.  A company could establish safety rules, but that didn't mean that workers would follow them.  Or the state could define rules and that didn't mean the company would folllow them.  Mnay of the early mine inspector reports included the number of peope taken to court for the violation of rules and what the fines were for the infraction.

In the coal mines the danger of not following the rules was recognized but the accident rate wasn't necessarily lowered until the state demanded adequate supervisory personnel to ensure the rules were followed.  Without going to look it up it was around the 1910 era that the state of West Virginia passed laws to say that mines had to be inspected by a fire boss before work started for the day or that a miner had to pass a written test before they could be promoted to a supervisory position.  Many companies began publishing work rules in multiple languages so immigrants could read the work place rules based on the assumption that everyone could read.  Laws were also passed to define the span of control for supervisory personnel to ensure that laborers were properly supervised in the work place.  Regardless of the rules you can read accident reports that note individual A did X which was against the publihsed rules and 67 miners perished

United States Coal & Coke operating in Gary Hollow published a whole set of rules around 1910 for supervisors that gave them bonues for a safe work place and demerits that could lead to dismissal for an unsafe work place.  I think bonuses were awarded on a monthly and quarterly basis.  The company also increased the number of supervisors to ensure work places in the miners were visited 2 or 3 times per shift.  The issue from a company perspective was really how mine safety affected production.  The result of the safety efforts in the mines of Gary Hollow is that company had only one major (more than 5 killed) accident in its 85 year history of operation and that was before the safety rules were developed.  This was an operation that employed over 4.000 miners at one time and operated 17 different mines just in Gary Hollow.  

On the other hand one of the large mine explosions around 1912 occurred after the mine owner had been repeatly warned by the mine inspector  to clean up the mine and the owner did not.

In my book "Coalwood" we covered every fatal accident in the Coalwood mines as to cause.  One of the more memorable ones is the miner who was killed because he decided to slide down the elevator cable to quickly reach the bottom of the shaft which of course was against the rules.  Unforunately the elevator cable had just been greased and the miner reached the shaft bottom much quicker than he intended. The official accident report noted he had been repeatly warned not to enter the mine in this manner.    

Alex Schust






----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: 'NW Mailing List' 
  Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 11:45 PM
  Subject: RE: N&W and Virginian in 1909--Jobs, etc.


  It's really hard to believe all of the accidents that happened to railway employees in the early 1900's. I know that the N&W went on to win awards for safety, does anybody know when the N&W began to become more safety conscious and what were the driving reasons? Thanks.



  Mike Weeks

  Charlotte NC



  -----Original Message-----
  From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
  Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 7:59 PM
  To: 3VGN Ry Yahoo Group; 2N&W Mailing List
  Subject: N&W and Virginian in 1909--Jobs, etc.



  Bluefield Daily Telegraph
  April 1, 1909



  IN CITY AND COALFIELD

  ------

  Yard Master at Princeton

       Frank Shaffer, of this city, left yesterday for Princeton, where he will be yardmaster for the Virginian Railway.

  ------

  Get Jobs on Virginian

      Harve McCoy and Ferd [sic] Melcher left yesterday for Princeton, where they have secured positions with the Virginian Railway.

  ------

  Both Legs Cut Off

      Kyle Wheeler, brakeman on the Norfolk and Western work train which operates between Roanoke and Radford, had both legs cut off at Walton yesterday.  He was taken to the Radford hospital.  His condition is said to be serious.

  ------

  [I suspect that the Bluefielders who found employment with the Virginian were N&W employees who saw greener grass on the other side of the fence for whatever reason.]



  Gordon Hamilton



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