Coal-mine explosions generated contentious public debate. Newspapers not only covered these disasters, but they also played a crucial role in ensuing arguments on two crucial points: Who bore responsibility for these tragedies? And how could such accidents be prevented in the future? In these selections, editors from two Colorado newspapers entered the fray. The Denver Republican was a mouthpiece for Colorado’s Republican Party, which was generally pro-business. The Fort Collins Courier, which catered to readers in and around one of Colorado’s most productive agricultural area, took a more radical take.
Excerpt from “The Waste of Human Lives,” Denver Republican, November 10, 1910
The fact that two great coal-mine disasters with heavy loss of life have occurred in this state within a few weeks is forcing public attention to an evil which demands a remedy.
Coal production is necessary, but that the waste of human lives which attends it in this country is not necessary is demonstrated by the fact that proportionately from three to four times as many lives are sacrificed every year in American coal mines than in those of Europe. It is not due to more complicated or more difficult conditions in this country; for in the mines of Belgium, for instance, coal production is carried on under conditions far more precarious than those with which operators have to contend in most of the mines in the United States.
Recently a commission of experts from Europe made an investigation of the coal-mining districts of the United States with a view of ascertaining what could be done to prevent accidents causing loss of life, and the result left no doubt that the remedy lies in the hands of the men and the companies engaged in coal production.
This commission was sent out under the auspices of the government in Washington. But while thus and in similar ways the federal government may supply the public with information and suggest better methods which might be employed to prevent accidents, it rests with the states to enact the requisite laws and with their officials to enforce all enactments of [a] protective kind.
The most potent agency for the correction of evils of a public character is publicity, and through it the development of an enlightened public sentiment. When public opinion is aroused, there is little need of official activity. The laws enforce themselves when a strong public sentiment is behind them. But wise legislation may in turn awaken a corrective sentiment in regard any matter affecting the welfare of human beings.
This suggests that great good would result from the enactment and strict enforcement of a statute requiring all coal mining companies to publish monthly reports of accidents occurring in their mines, the circumstances under which they occur, the number of persons killed, and the number wounded with a statement of the character of the injuries suffered. Were a report of this kind published every month, the mining companies would thereby be stimulated to guard against conditions which might compel them to disclose, not alone great disasters which in themselves command publicity, but a long list of smaller accidents which would throw light upon the character of the management.
The legislature at its next session can do nothing better than to enact a law requiring publicity of this kind. It would put Colorado in the fore-front of states which both make provision for the protection of human lives and appreciate that the hazard of every industry should be reduced to the minimum.
Source: “The Waste of Human Lives,” Denver Republican, November 10, 1910.
Excerpt from Fort Collins (CO) Weekly Courier, February 10, 1910
It is exceedingly strange and almost incomprehensible in this day and age of the world how such a catastrophe as that at Primero, which snuffed out nearly one hundred valuable lives in the twinkling of an eye, could have occurred, after all the experience coal mine operators have had in the past. There must have been neglect of proper precaution or gross carelessness on the part of somebody, otherwise the explosion could not have occurred. Unless some means can be provided by which the lives of coal miners can be reasonably secure against such horrible accidents, it were better to close the mines down and thus prevent the wanton destruction of human life. Somebody is to blame for the explosion in the Primero mine and somebody should be made to answer for the fault. Coal mining is a hazardous occupation under the best of conditions, and the operators who fail or neglect to provide every possible safeguard for the protection of their employes [sic] are guilty of a frightful crime and should be punished with death.
Source: Editorial, Fort Collins (CO) Weekly Courier, February 10, 1910.
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