Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the production of sugar will be greatly increased within a few years. As to the mineral wealth of the island, gold, sulphur, coal, and petroleum are found there in considerable quantities, the yearly output of gold being about 1,000,000 yen at the present time. All in all, Dr. Goto draws a very favorable picture of Formosan resources, and seems to fully justify his assertion that this dependency, far from being a financial burden to the home government, is really a valuable invest

ment.

THE TRANSVAAL MINES.

INCE the close of hostilities in South Africa,

SINCE attention is again concentrated on the min. ing possibilities of the Rand. The Engineering Magazine for July opens with an article by the famous mining expert, Mr. John Hays Hammond. After giving a general summary of the beginnings and development of the mines, he reviews the probable benefit of the change of government for mine owners. The amount of ore mined in 1887 was 23,000 ounces; in 1898, 4,295,609 ounces, valued at £15,141,376.

THE WATER SUPPLY.

One of the chief difficulties to be contended with is the poor supply of water, which at present is obtained by local storage of rain water,—not a very satisfactory arrangement. Within twenty or twenty-five miles of Johannesburg there are, however, other sources of water supply which will probably be utilized. Of the maps prepared Mr. Hammond says:

Great attention is given to the preparation of maps of the underground workings, geological sections, and plans upon which assays are plotted. In these respects the Rand practice is far ahead of that of any other country with which I am familiar."

AMERICANS FOR RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS.

The labor question is always a difficult one. Mr. Hammond says:

Reference has already been made to the labor question, in statistics of the relative number of whites and blacks employed. The white workmen are predominantly British, though many of the important members of technical staffs are Americans; the mine and mill foremen are usually either Americans, or British subjects who have had mining experience in America. This labor is generally below the American standard, but is rapidly improving. Manual workers on the surface and all miners except those running machine drills, are blacks, and the quality of the black labor is very poor, especially on first arriving at the mines."

TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES.

Mr. Hammond looks for a reduction in the present excessive railway rates. He says:

Generally speaking, the cost of the principal machinery, erected on the ground, will be two and one-half times its home cost. In respect of labor, cost of dynamite, and charges for railway transport, marked improvement is confidently to be expected from the change of governmental conditions."

LAWS AND MONOPOLIES.

Mr. Hammond speaks well of the Transvaal laws :

[ocr errors]

The mining laws of the Transvaal are most excellent in character, and while the claims cover every square foot of land for an area of nearly 40 miles long by from 2 to 3 miles wide, there have been practically no conflicts over extra-lateral rights.

"Notwithstanding the change in the political status of the Transvaal which will follow the recently concluded peace and final establishment of British rule, it may be confidently assumed that the main features of the mining law of the South African Republic will be retained, and certain oppressive features of monopolies, etc., bearing with special weight on the mining industry, will be abolished. The dynamite monopoly was one that bore most heavily on the mining industry: and, according to the reports of the state mining engineer, explosives, including fuse and detonators, amounted to nearly 10 per cent. of the total working costs of the mines.

A FEW FORECASTS.

"It is estimated that for every mile in length along the course of the reefs, down to a vertical depth of 1,000 feet for the dip of the reefs, gold to the value of about £10,000,000 will be extracted. This is a conservative estimate,—at least as applied to the central section of the Rand. If we assume these conditions to obtain to a depth of 6,000 feet vertically, we have the enormous sum of £60,000,000 for each mile in length. It is not unreasonable to suppose that these conditions will be maintained along most of the cen tral section, say, for a distance of ten miles,-in which case we would have an auriferous area, within practicable mining depths, containing upward of £600,000,000 value of gold."

If," says Mr. Hammond, I were called upon to express my opinion, I would estimate the future duration of profitable operations on a large scale in the district at less, rather than more, than twenty-five years. I believe that, as the result of economic reforms, there will be an ultimate saving of 6s. per ton of ore treated

[blocks in formation]

The next

Professor Heilprin was the first man to ascend the volcano after the great catastrophe. On May 31, he went up the crater to an altitude of about 4,000 feet. He found that the old crater had not been blown out, as was reported. day Professor Heilprin made another ascent to the same crater, accompanied by Messrs. Kennan, Jaccaci, and the artist George Varian, who contributes the pictures which illustrate this article. The party arrived at an elevation of 4,025 feet. They found the temperature to be, two or three inches below the surface, 124° to 130°, and at a somewhat greater depth 162°. Puffs of steam were issuing from a number of vents, and from beneath great bowlder masses, whose heated surfaces were scarred with sulphur blotches.

THE VIEW INTO THE CRATER.

"We waited patiently for a lifting of the clouds, and it came at last. A sudden gust cleared the summit, and sunlight illuminated the near horizon. We dashed to the line above which welled out the huge steam cloud of the volcano, and in a few instants stood upon the rim of the giant rift in whose interior the world was being re-made in miniature.

We were four feet, perhaps less, from a point whence a plummet could be dropped into the seething furnace. Momentary flashes of light. permitted us to peer deep into the tempest-tossed caldron, but at no time could we see its floor, for over it rolled the vapors that rose out to mountain heights. Opposite us, at a distance of perhaps 200 feet or more, across the thin steam vapor, trembled the walls of the other face of the crater. Halfway between rose the central core of the burned-out cinder masses, topped by enormous white rocks, whose brilliant incandescence flashed out the beacon lights which were observed from the sea some days after the fatal 8th, and even at our later day illumined the night-crown of the volcano with a glow of fire. From the interior came deep rumbling detonations, the clinking of falling and sliding cinders, the hissing of the emerging steam, and other

sounds which were too feebly defined to be described. We felt no inconvenience from either

gas or steam.

"We found that we were standing on an overhang, and therefore dared not tarry beyond the time needed to make observations. I attempted to locate the axis of the vent as nearly as the direction of its largely obscured walls and the position of the basin of Lac des Palmistes permitted. I found it to be N.-S., slightly S. W. The magnetic needle, which the day before showed a marked deflection, was nearly normal. The form of the crater is that of a caldron, pitching steeply downward toward the Caribbean, and opening in a direction a little west of the line to St. Pierre. At no time could we positively ascertain the extreme boundaries. Its length must have been 500 feet; it may have been much There can be no question that at the downward side of the crater the rift traverses the position of the narrow rift known as the Fente, or the Terre Fendue, which had been a feature of the mountain since the eruption of 1851, and perhaps existed long before that event.

more.

"Any statement regarding the depth of the crater must for the time remain conjectural. I should say that it could hardly be less than from 200 to 250 feet; it might be very much more."

WHAT CAUSED THE ERUPTION OF MAY 8?

Professor Heilprin says that the death-dealing eruption of May 8 was from the lower crater. He proves that the description of the catastrophe which spoke of moving sheets of flame were erroneous. Instead, there was a luminous, or incandescent, cloud which may easily in that terrible time have given the impression of flame.

This glowing cloud, Professor Heilprin says, was composed of one of the heavier carbonic gases brought under pressure to a condition of extreme incandescence and whose liberation in contact with the oxygen in the atmosphere, assisted by electric discharges, wrought this explosion, or series of explosions, that developed the catastrophe."

The great cloud of incandescent vapor undoubtedly produced a tornado, and Professor Heilprin found evidence of storm paths lying across the city's ruins. He also considers it certain that electric explosions had their share in the phenomena.

THE ORIGIN OF THE CARBONIC

GAS.

To the inquiry as to what was the source of this carbon gas,-to my mind the main factor of the catastrophe, -the geologist points to those vast bituminous deposits, like those of Venezuela and the island of Trinidad, which lie but little out

of the line of the connected series of volcanoes, of which the Soufrière of St. Vincent and Pelée of Martinique are a part. He also points to the limestone deposits, with their enormous masses of locked-up carbon, forming the foundation upon which these same volcanoes are implanted, which indicate a source of energy far greater than was required for the catastrophe of Pelée. Though no one could have foretold the cataclysm long in advance of its coming, the episode, except in its magnitude and terrible consequences, is no sur prise to the geologist, who knows this region to be in an area of extreme weakness in the earth's crust. This region of terrestrial instability in cludes the greater part of the Caribbean and Gulf basins, and defines in its eastern contour the line of disappearance and breakage of the South American Andes, whose sunken crest is the pediment of the lesser Antilles. What great dis. turbances, if any, have taken place in the sea bottom as the result of the recent occurrences is a question that will take time to determine; but there is evidence already that some change has taken place west of Martinique, between the depth of 1,500 and 2,000 fathoms.

The erup

tions of Colima in Mexico, the earthquakes that so recently destroyed the towns of Chilpancingo in Mexico and Quetzaltenango in Guatemala, the minor disturbances in Nicaragua, are but phases of the phenomena which culminated so disastrously in the explosions of the Soufrière of St. Vincent and Mont Pelée of Martinique."

WHAT CAUSED THE DEATHS AT ST. PIERRE ?

FORTUNATELY for the cause of science,

several unusually competent investigators were able to visit Martinique and St. Vincent before the volcanic eruptions of May had ceased, and their observations have already been reported in detail. The full report of the representatives of the National Geographic Society appears in the July number of the National Geographic Magazine. This report, which was prepared by Dr. Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey, is interesting not only as a presentation of facts regarding the great catastrophe, but also for the theories that it suggests to account for the enormous fatality at St. Pierre.

Dr. Hill states two such theories, one or the other of which may ultimately be adopted:

1. The heat-blast theory. This hypothesis assumed that the lapilli, gases, and steam of the ejected cloud were sufficiently hot to have inflamed the city and destroyed the people by singeing, suffocation, and asphyxiation. It does not account for the forces exerted radially and horizontally, nor the flame.

"2. The aërial-explosion theory. The explosion of gases within the erupted cloud after their projection into the air would account for all the phenomena observed.

"The aerial explosion, if it occurred, was most probably a combustible gas, but science is still unable to state its nature. The discussion of explosive gases involves a line of scientific specialization which the writer does not possess; but as sudden and mysterious as was the great secret, it has left its traces and clues which the detectives of science will follow up. Metal surfaces of objects in the ruins will be examined and analyzed for traces of sulphur and chlorides. The deposits from the numerous steaming fumaroles are already within the chemical laboratory. Even the ash and rocks of the island will be submitted to minute investigation.

"And then there were those frightful lightning bolts! What of them and their igniting power?"

THOUSANDS KILLED BY STEAM AND DUST.

Prof. Israel C. Russell, another geologist who represented the Geographic Society in Martinique, says regarding the nature of the blast which swept over St. Pierre from Mont Pelée :

My

"It has been stated in the newspapers that the inhabitants of St. Pierre were asphyxiated by noxious gases or killed by a gas explosion. own observations and the best interpretation I can place upon the testimony of surviving wit nesses favors the opinion that the general cause of death was a blast of steam charged with hot dust. Gases, probably in part inflammable, were no doubt present, as the odor of sulphurous acid was perceptible at the time of my visit; but the part that such gases played was seemingly secondary. In order to be able to judge of the conditions where everything was destroyed, it is necessary to learn what took place on the outskirts. of the storm. The people on the borders of the devastated area who escaped were in some instances injured, and the injuries were inflicted by hot dust, which on touching the skin adhered and burned. These burns resemble scalds, and destroyed only the epidermis. In several such instances the hair on the burned portions was not destroyed, and where the bodies of the sufferers were protected by even light clothing they were uninjured.

Had the dust which struck the injured people been somewhat hotter, their clothing would have been ignited; and if they had inhaled the hot dust, death would have been almost instantaneous. The condition of the dead in St. Pierre favors the conclusion that this deduction shows what took place there. While the inhalation of

effort in the struggles common to all union labor; in using its influence in securing the use of union label goods and in behalf of certain kinds of strikes, and in urging union labor every where to refuse to purchase goods manufactured or sold by unfair' concerns. Every month a long list of these 'unfair' houses appears in the American Federationist under the heading, We Don't Patronize.' Not infrequently it is able to prevent ill-advised strikes. The federation has been instrumental in securing the passage of many laws which have greatly improved the condition of American workmen. A bare list of them is evidence enough of the remarkable rise in standards during the last twenty-five years of wages, comfort, and independence among the workers of the country."

Mr. Baker thinks that the old method of the strike is more and more looked upon as a thing to be avoided if possible, -as a last resort, an appeal to brute force when diplomacy fails. He thinks this feeling among workmen is due to the fact that employers have generally come to recognize the union as a sober business reality.

[blocks in formation]

4. Sanitary inspection of workshops, mines, and homes.

5. Liability of employers for injury to health, body, and life.

6. The abolition of the contract system in all public works.

7. The abolition of the sweating system.

8. The municipal ownership of street cars, waterworks, and gas and electric plants for the distribution of heat, light, and power.

9. The nationalization of telegraphs, telephones, railways, and mines.

10. The abolition of the monopoly system of land-holding and the substitution therefor of the title of occupancy only.

11. Direct legislation and the principle of referendum in all legislation.

12. The abolition of the monopoly privilege of issuing money and substituting therefor a system of direct issuance to and by the people.

IN

ARBITRATION AS A PREVENTIVE OF STRIKES. N view of the increasing importance of the part played by the labor unions in all recent differences between employer and employee in this country, there has been much discussion of the proposition for compulsory arbitration as a means of preventing, or at least greatly reduc ing, the number of costly and prolonged strikes. The problem is restated in an article by Mr. John Handiboe, contributed to the July number of the North American Review. Mr. Handiboe lays much stress on the point that labor unions have come to stay and must be taken into all the calculations of industrial enterprise. He decries the mistaken policy of many employers in refusing to treat with employees as a body of united workmen, and in declaring their determination to consider these men only as individuals. Referring to the history of labor disturbances in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, this writer names as one source of irritation and disturb ance the continued refusals of the operators to meet the miners in joint conference as to wage scales or grievances, and to submit to arbitration matters in dispute.

If, however, labor unions are to be recognized and treated with as legitimate organizations, Mr. Handiboe lays down the proposition that all unions, whether local, state, or national, should be incorporated. This should be done in order that the two parties to labor disputes should be on an equal footing, the common ground being equal responsibility for violation of contracts. "At present," says Mr. Handiboe, labor unions can abrogate a contract, real or implied, at a moment's warning, without the least fear of consequential punishment of any kind; and there is nothing to prevent employers doing likewise. There must be created a responsibility for the performance of wage or work contracts as a basis for the elimination of all deterrents that now prevent cure of the strike evil. For this purpose, there should be a binding contract entered into by employer and employee, and he who violates it should be held accountable under the law. Such contract cannot be made, however, unless employers recognize the labor union, which many of them now refuse to do,—and unless labor unions become incorporated, a step to which they have no inclination."

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION AND PERSONAL RIGHTS.

Mr. Handiboe's argument for compulsory arbitration is based not on the predilections of either capital or labor, but on the interests of the great public, which is indeed the chief sufferer when a strike occurs. In his view the capitalist who has nothing to arbitrate" is equally at fault with

the labor leader, who opposes compulsory arbitration from a fear that it might deprive him of some of his present power in the union, and the highest good of the community demands that both parties be brought to some kind of settlement. To the objection that a law designed for the adjustment of labor disputes would be unconstitutional because it would invade the rights and privileges of the individual and take out of his hands the prerogative of controlling his own business, Mr. Handiboe replies that theoretically the objection is true, but practically it is not true. "For the good of the community, laws are enacted and enforced which deprive men of thorough freedom of action and regulate even the degree of personal liberty which they may enjoy. In his own home he must comport himself in such manner that he shall not annoy his neighbors. He must send his children to school whether he wants to or not. He must build his house, his factory, or his theater as the law specifies. He cannot dress as he may elect, although he boasts that the contrary is the case. The employer should not be permitted to endanger the peace of any community by an appeal to the opinions of Mr. Bounderby; and the employee should be prevented from putting into practice the teachings of the ranting demagogue. A compulsory arbitration law need not regulate the wages paid by any man to any other man. But it would provide for the hearing and determination of a wage dispute, when the parties to that dispute are not inclined to end the matter for themselves.

[ocr errors]

HOW THE PUBLIC INTEREST WOULD BE FURTHERED.

After referring to the compulsory arbitration law which has now been in successful operation in New Zealand for several years, Mr. Handiboe concludes his article as follows:

Unions having been incorporated, a system of contracts provided, and a compulsory arbitration law enacted, the plans for preventing strikes could be said to be well advanced. Such a law need not be invoked in all cases, but only when all other efforts toward the settlement of a dispute shall have been exhausted. The employer and his employee should endeavor to adjust matters at issue between them without the interference of anybody else,-walking delegate, union official, or other functionary.

And it is

obvious that, with a compulsory arbitration law enacted, such adjustments would be reached with growing frequency. In no case should a 'sympathy' strike, or a strike in a whole labor district where only a local grievance is to be determined, be permitted under a law of compulsory arbitration. Unless the dispute of itself spread beyond a local area, the district officers of a

union should not be called upon to conduct negotiations or direct the actions of the working men. The smaller the area of disaffection shall be, the greater will be the probability of a peaceful settlement. But if, as is now too frequently the case, neither side is inclined to give ear to the other, the preeminence of the public should be demonstrated. Then compulsory arbitration should be invoked and enforced, and recalcitrants should be punished for violation of the orders of the board. With the unions, as well as the employers, incorporated, this could be done. With compulsory arbitration operative, we should have closer relations between capital and labor; fewer disturbances of business; the elimination of private armies; less marching and intimidation; less rioting and bloodshed; less financial loss to the community; fewer strikes ; and the placing of real public welfare above supposititious private right."

THO

A NEW FORM OF PROFIT-SHARING. HOSE economists who are working out plans for the partnership of capital and labor in industrial enterprises are seeking a broader basis than the mere distribution in cash of a percentage of the profits among wage-earners. A carefully thought-out project of industrial partnership is presented in the current number of Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, by Mr. Alexander Purves, treasurer of Hampton Institute. Mr. Purves has taken account of the various objections that have been raised to ordinary profit-sharing,-as. for example, the well-grounded fear that wage-earners would often make an unwise use of profits thus distributed, and the result of his studies on the subject is a carefully-matured plan by which he believes that the interests of both capitalists and wage-earners will be conserved, while the services of the employees will increase in value in direct ratio with the rewards of their industry.

REGULAR DIVIDENDS AND WAGES PAID FIRST.

Briefly, Mr. Purves' proposition may be stated as follows: A binding agreement will provide for the payment of the regular standard of cash wages to all employees of the concern, including the officials and the management, and will also name a definite amount which shall be determined to be a just and fair annual return to capital for its simple use; this amount, however, will not exceed, say, 60 per cent. of the average established net earnings. The agreed amount to be paid annually (in quarterly or half-yearly installments) as a cumulative dividend on the common stock of the corporation; it is to be especially understood that

« AnteriorContinuar »