Federal Mine Safety Act of 1910 created the Bureau of Mines. Industry advocates, led by West Virginia ex-Governor Aretas Brooks Fleming, put forward a plan for a government research bureau to study mines and make scientific recommendations to the operators. When Congress established the United States Bureau of Mines in 1910 its mission was clear: conduct research to better understand the processes at work within America’s mines, and use that research to ramp up productivity levels. Cutting down on the industry’s accidents and disasters came in a distant second. The Bureau had no inspection powers to enforce its mandate and it employees did not have, in the words of the legislation, “any right or authority in connection with the inspection or supervision of mines.”  All it could do was suggest, and industry was free to ignore the advice at their discretion. The Bureau of Mines wasn’t granted inspection power until for another thirty years.