North Carolina has had only three serious mine disasters in her history. Two occurred over a quarter of a century ago, at the Cumnock mine, later known as the Eagle mine and now the Ramsey mine about a mile from the Carolina Coal Company mine at Coal Glen. The disaster this past week however, in itself, was appalling enough, more than 50 miners, most of them heads of families, being wiped out.
The cause is not known. We venture to say it will never be known. Further, it is doubtful that all the mine apparatus in the world could have saved those who may have survived the three of the explosions only to succumb to black damp, the dread aftereffect of mine accidents.
However, the lack of equipment for rescue work, even were it possible to achieve anything, strikes us as strange indeed. North Carolina apparently needs some mine safety regulations.
Just what shape mine laws should take can be determined through the proper engineers and experts. Perhaps auxiliary air shafts would have saved some of the 50 men. Certainly gas masks and other equipment are desirable. It is possible that the first explosion was caused by gas and the following two by coal dust ignited by resultant fire. A modern method of spraying rock dust through mine workings, mixing it with coal dust, eliminates the danger from dust explosions and generally improves the conditions of the tunnels.
There ARE methods of reducing mine accidents to a minimum and of coping with them when they do occur. The legislature of North Carolina’s first duty at its next session, is to look into this situation.
From the editorial page of The Durham Sun, Sunday morning, May 31, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84020732/1925-05-31/ed-1/seq-4/#words=MAY+31%2C+1925
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