Mr. Ankeny, a former director of the Bureau of Mines, has made the statement publicly that passage of bills would not be expected to reduce the accident rate. Therefore, how can we, in logic or in good conscience, say that we are going to pass…a bill to improve the safety record, when two previous directors of the Bureau of Mines said that passage of laws would not reduce the accident rate?
Mr. Forbes, a former director of the Bureau of Mines has gone on record as saying that accidents are problems of human failure and that if the Bureau and industry are going to correct these accidents that they have to be attacked through the medium of correction within the human mind, and the human body, and the man has to be made to act safely.
[This bill is] “galloping socialism in one of its purest forms. [It is] “founded on sensationalism and irresponsibility, nurtured on emotionalism and passed…with total disregard of proven medical facts.
There are on an average 1,000 men who lose their lives in the coal mines annually. Ninety percent of the men lose their lives in the ordinary accidents, accidents in which the individual plays an important role usually. The other 10 percent lose their lives as a result of what we call mine disasters. Those disasters are preventable. They are almost in every case not caused by some action of the individual workman.
Now, if there is a real purpose to be accomplished by what you ask here from a safety standpoint, then you have my vote. But if the only purpose is to set up something that you say is going to be another police force, like they had in Germany and Russia, to inspect other policemen…then I say we are wasting our time.
In recent years the accident record in the bituminous coal industry has continued to improve. The bituminous coal industry is to be congratulated on its accomplishments to date; given the opportunity, it will make further progress. This is a matter of constant education and not one that requires arbitrary legislation.
[The bill will] Not strike at the fundamental cause of accidents, which in the main is the carelessness on the part of men, cured only by education.
Unwise because it is an unnecessary extension of Federal power and would seem to be a step toward the deprecation of State sovereignty. I am one who still believes in the American system of Government the States have important functions and that State sovereignty is a fundamental and inherent principal of the American democracy.
Federal policing of coal-mine operations, is wrong in principal; and if, as we believe it, it is certainly contrary to the spirit of our form of government and probably contrary to the letter of our constitution.
Legislation cannot remedy the evils which result from the perversity of human nature.
