Fraternity-Testvériség, 1952 (30. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1952-05-01 / 5. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 5 standards in the country’s disaster-ridden coal mines. The action was spurred by the explosion last December 21 at West Frankfort, Illinois, in which 119 miners were killed. The accident would not have occurred if the Federal mine safety code had been complied with. The bill, sponsored by Senator Matthew M. Neely, Democrat of West Virginia, would require mine operators to comply with the code, which heretofore has been applied on a voluntary basis. A violator would be subject to a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. The Federal Bureau of Mines would administer the new law under supervision of the Secretary of Interior, who could close a mine for non- compliance. The Labor and Public Welfare Committee, in reporting the measure to the Senate, charged that mine operators “flout and ignore” the Federal code. It called this “a national disgrace and an industrial calamity.” The average mine violates nineteen Federal standards. The violations include inadequate and hazardous ventilation systems, dangerous use of explosives, faulty electrical equipment, failure to remove or neutralize combustible coal dust “and other practices which constitute a veritable cata-. logue of lethal recklessness.” The committee noted that 21,554 persons had been killed in coal mine accidents from January 1, 1933 to January 1, 1952. * * * A LITTLE SURVEY. Aside from Cincinnati, strong spots in Ohio include Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Lorain-Elyria. Employment at Columbus is at a new all-time peak, 8% above a year ago. Much of the increase is due to hiring at North American Aviation, which now has 15,000 on its payroll and plans to increase it still further. Canton, Dayton and Youngstown are also strong, but employment has fallen off in recent months. In Canton and Dayton, employment is still above year-ago levels, but in Youngstown it’s considerably below. Akron is doing considerably better than it was a year ago. Pittsburgh is the strongest spot in western Pennsylvania. Weakest is the Uniontown-Con- nellsville area, which has been on the distress- areas list for a long time. Employment there now is at the lowest point since 1949. The greatest contrast is between two neighboring sections — the depressed hard-coal area around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and the booming steel-mill area on both sides of the river around Trenton, N. J. The steel mill itself will be in partial production by July. However, the big demand for workers is not in the mill, but in satellite industries and service trades. On the Pennsylvania side, the state Department of Commerce estimates, nearly 18,000 new workers will be needed in the area by September. Of these, half will be needed in non-manufacturing employment, which includes retail stores and service trades. In the anthracite area, employment is running behind a year ago. Coal production itself is down 10%, and most mines are now on three- or four-day work weeks. The badly depressed textile and apparel industries, which are major manufacturing mainstays of the area, also hold it down. Near Wilkes-Barre, several lace mills plan to close down entirely for lack of business. The whole anthracite area has been designated a distress labor-surplus area. Employment in and around Philadelphia is holding just about steady. In southern New Jersey, the strongest spots are Trenton and neighboring Burlington County. Weakest is Atlantic City, which has been on the distress-areas list all winter. Winter is the off season for tourists there, of course; that’s the major reason. And the fact that more than half of the Atlantic City area’s industrial workers are in textiles hasn’t helped. But conditions in Atlantic City should start picking up sharply soon. * * * “ORGANIZED LABOR TODAY is concerned with much more than wages and working conditions. Today organized labor speaks for the best interests of a great number of our citizens. “It has played a great part in securing such advances as social security, minimum wage and hour laws, and assistance to the needy and unemployed. These advances have benefited our whole economy and strengthened the foundations of our free enterprise system. “Today organized labor has added responsibilities in strengthening the bonds of democracy between the workers in this country and the workers in other lands, and in resisting the international conspiracy of communism.” (Pres. Truman.)
