“While
loading coal one day, my cousin Jake Kehler and I felt strangely
tired. We had just decided to finish loading this car and then
take a rest when the foreman suddenly appeared and at the top
of his voice ordered us to “Get out of here!” When we suggested
that we would finish loading this car first, he continued, “Never
mind that car. Pick up your lunch kit and get out, you have no
oxygen.” Once safely in his room, he explained that a cave-in
had blocked the passageway that fed oxygen to the area where we
worked. He then severely reprimanded those experienced miners
who were working in that area, for leaving without warning these
inexperienced men about the danger. Otherwise we might have suspected
that when our carbide lamps would not burn properly and we felt
tired, that something must be wrong. The carbide lamps were later
replaced with electric lights operating with a rechargeable 8
volt battery.”
“One
day the foreman gave us a well deserved lecture about some mistake
that we had made. The cutting machine operator, feeling that his
pride had been hurt, found some poor excuse to stay away from
work. When the foreman found out that he was not there, he asked
if I would like to take over the job. I did not want to create
hard feelings so I declined the offer. The foremen seemed to favor
the Mennonite men, probably because the union men went strictly
by the book and refused to go an inch beyond what the union required
of them while the Mennonites would pitch in and do whatever needed
to be done.”
“After
the coal in the wall had been cut, a small charge of blasting
powder was used to bring the coal down. This left an area of the
ceiling exposed and it was usually shored up to prevent it from
falling down. One day a patch of ceiling looked a bit risky and
it was suggested that it might be better to prop it up. But the
head of our group insisted that we keep on loading. The next morning
we found that the ceiling had come down piling up rubble right
up to the machine.”
“A
workman shunting a loading car accidentally fell off and was crushed
to death. A foreman immediately called a halt to any further work
that day.”
“As
mentioned before, we were frozen to our jobs there. We got our
release in the fall of 1946, but we had no jobs waiting for us
if we went home, so we stayed on through the winter of 1946 and
left for home in the spring of 1947.” [ASM, 53-54]
