tinuity in proportion as funds for such experiments may be made available. The bureau should own these grounds to safeguard the large expenditure already made in developing the mine and in equipping it with expensive appliances. MINE-RESCUE STATIONS AND CARS. Among the smaller special needs in connection with buildings for the work of the bureau at different places are the following: 1. The extension of the mine-rescue station at Birmingham, Ala., at an estimated cost of $3,000. This extension is needed to provide suitable facilities for giving training in the use of mine-rescue apparatus, first-aid, and fire-fighting methods in the presence of smoke and poisonous gases. 2. The acquiring of title to the building at McAlester, Okla., that the Bureau of Mines has been occupying during the past three years as a mine-rescue station. This building was erected by private subscription and has been offered to the Government for $5,500, which is not more than one-half its original cost. It is a substantial brick structure, and is needed there by the Government, not only as a headquarters for mine-rescue work but also as a headquarters for the inspection of the Indian coal leases under the supervision of the Government in that region. 3. The construction of a shed, estimated to cost not exceeding $3,600, for housing the mine-rescue car stationed at Evansville, Ind., when at its headquarters there. The land for this site has been donated by the city of Evansville, and a side track upon the land has already been constructed. The bureau is also in urgent need of additional equipment and other facilities. During the last year it has been able to add little new equipment, and a considerable part of the equipment now in use has been in service for a number of years and is in serious need of repairs or is out of date. This is true as regards both fuel investigations and mine-accident investigations. Furthermore, not only has the mine-rescue work of the bureau had to be curtailed during the year from lack of adequate supplies and of equipment that men could safely use, but the training and demonstration work of the mine-rescue cars and stations has been hampered and the number of miners trained has been much reduced from lack of a sufficient supply of rescue outfits and material. The fact that all available equipment must be used in ordinary training work makes it impossible to keep an adequate supply of this equipment in proper condition for the more dangerous emergency work at mine disasters. A large part of the rescue equipment owned by the Bureau of Mines has already been used so much in training work that it can not now be safely used for rescue work in mines containing poisonous gases. There is serious need of new equipment for all the rescue cars and stations. It is estimated that this equipment will cost not less than $30,000. NEED OF EXTENDING MINE-RESCUE AND FIRST-AID WORK. In addition to the new equipment described above that is needed for the mine-rescue cars, an increase in the personnel and in the supplies for each of these cars has been shown to be necessary by the experience of the past year. Each mine-rescue car should be accompanied by a mining engineer, who, besides directing the force of the bureau at mine disasters and fires and arranging the general program of training work, would give illustrated lectures and demonstrations to the miners concerning safety problems, and would also make careful examinations of each mine and report to the mine owner and to the Director of the Bureau of Mines as to the safety and waste conditions and the possible improvements to be effected. There should also be with each car a surgeon, who would carefully examine each miner who presented himself to be trained in mine-rescue and first-aid methods, with a view to determining whether or not the miner's physical condition is such as to make it proper for him to take this training; who would give the miners the necessary training in first-aid practice; who would deliver illustrated lectures to the whole body of miners in any camp concerning ordinary health and sanitary conditions about the mines; and who would advise with the mine managers concerning the possible improvement of such conditions. With this increase in the personnel and the necessary increase in supplies for training a larger number of men, the cost of cperating each mine-rescue car in its training and educational work throughout the year would be as follows: Estimated cost of operating a mine-rescue car. Repairs of car and repairs and repair parts for equipment_. New equipment and miscellaneous expenditures for labor--- $3,000 2, 400 1, 800 720 900 1, 440 1, 200 4, 440 600 16, 500 Each mine-rescue car equipped in this way would be able to train in a year more than twice the number of miners that any car has heretofore been able to train, and the value of its general educational work would be increased in even greater proportion. There is need also that four of the existing mine-rescue stations be abandoned and be replaced by four additional mine-rescue cars. Each of these cars should be of steel, or at least have steel underframes, and each should be adequately equipped with supplies and apparatus and have a personnel similar to that outlined above. The cost of operating each of these cars would be much greater than the cost of maintaining a mine-rescue station, but any one car would be far more effective in carrying forward the rescue and recovery, training, and educational work of the bureau than all four of the mine-rescue stations recommended for abandonment. The carrying out of this plan would give the bureau 12 wellequipped and well-manned mine-rescue cars available for operation throughout the entire year. This would mean that, allowing for holidays and the time necessary for car repairs, the actual training and demonstration work for each car would be continued throughout about 11 months of the year. With a training period of 10 days for each car at each mining camp visited, and with an average of 600 miners in each camp, the carrying out of this plan would mean that the 12 cars would reach, with lectures and demonstrations, about 240,000 miners during one year, and that at each camp visited enough miners would be trained in mine-rescue and first-aid methods to serve as a nucleus for actual mine-rescue and first-aid work. There are in our mining industry approximately 1,000,000 men who work underground, and more than 1,300,000 who labor in connection with the various metallurgical and other mineral industries above ground. The 12 fully equipped mine-rescue cars, operated on a schedule such as that outlined above, would reach the million men who labor underground in the United States once in four years' time. The experience of the past few years has shown that this method of disseminating information among miners and of procuring their cooperation in effective mine-safety work, while slow, is more effective than any other possible system. Its advantages over publications will be especially appreciated by those who understand that a majority of these miners are foreign born and ordinarily read little or no English printed matter. But the demand for printed matter follows the visits of the cars. The cost of operating the 12 mine-rescue cars for a year would be approximately $200,000. The cost of purchasing and equipping 4 additional cars, which, with the 8 already owned by the bureau, make up this total of 12 cars, would be about $40,000. On the accompany Each mine-rescue car equipped in this way would be able to train in a year more than twice the number of miners that any car has heretofore been able to train, and the value of its general educational work would be increased in even greater proportion. There is need also that four of the existing mine-rescue stations be abandoned and be replaced by four additional mine-rescue cars. Each of these cars should be of steel, or at least have steel underframes, and each should be adequately equipped with supplies and apparatus and have a personnel similar to that outlined above. The cost of operating each of these cars would be much greater than the cost of maintaining a mine-rescue station, but any one car would be far more effective in carrying forward the rescue and recovery, training, and educational work of the bureau than all four of the mine-rescue stations recommended for abandonment. The carrying out of this plan would give the bureau 12 wellequipped and well-manned mine-rescue cars available for operation throughout the entire year. This would mean that, allowing for holidays and the time necessary for car repairs, the actual training and demonstration work for each car would be continued throughout about 11 months of the year. With a training period of 10 days for each car at each mining camp visited, and with an average of 600 miners in each camp, the carrying out of this plan would mean that the 12 cars would reach, with lectures and demonstrations, about 240,000 miners during one year, and that at each camp visited enough miners would be trained in mine-rescue and first-aid methods to serve as a nucleus for actual mine-rescue and first-aid work. There are in our mining industry approximately 1,000,000 men who work underground, and more than 1,300,000 who labor in connection with the various metallurgical and other mineral industries above ground. The 12 fully equipped mine-rescue cars, operated on a schedule such as that outlined above, would reach the million men who labor underground in the United States once in four years' time. The experience of the past few years has shown that this method of disseminating information among miners and of procuring their cooperation in effective mine-safety work, while slow, is more effective than any other possible system. Its advantages over publications will be especially appreciated by those who understand that a majority of these miners are foreign born and ordinarily read little or no English printed matter. But the demand for printed matter follows the visits of the cars. The cost of operating the 12 mine-rescue cars for a year would be approximately $200,000. The cost of purchasing and equipping 4 additional cars, which, with the 8 already owned by the bureau, make up this total of 12 cars, would be about $40,000. On the accompany |