The statement is also made that "a minute examination of the pay rolls discloses the fact that 16 or 17 days' work a month constitutes a high average and that many engaged in the mines _decline_ (the italics are mine) to labor more than 12 or 14 days."
There are two sides to this. The "unwillingness" of the miners to work more than a certain number of days a month is proved to the satisfaction of the commission by an "examination of the pay roll." As a matter of fact in most instances the reason the men do not work more days in a month is due to the system of "crowding" which prevails all over the non-union districts of West Virginia. This is one of the things the miner complains about most bitterly. It is worked in this way: An operation has, say a capacity of 200 men. On the pay roll of that operation may be anywhere from 300 to 400 men. All these men cannot work in the mine at one time, but the company always wants to have plenty of men on hand. So the men are allowed to make but little more than half time. The advantage to the operators is that the more men they have the more cottages they will rent, the more mouths there will be to feed from the company stores, and the more money collected for physicians' fees, insurance and other things for which the miners have to pay. It is absolutely true that the men do not work more than from 12 to 17 days a month, but the pay roll will never tell you the real reason. The men want to work, but they are not permitted to do so.
As to the cabins being above the average--they may be. I went into some of them. I would want a more comfortable stable for my horses. The greater number of the cabins contain four rooms each and are absolutely without any sanitary or other arrangements for the convenience of the occupants. Some few are larger and some are smaller but the four room cabin is the type. They are nearly all alike, built of rough lumber and roofed with a composition roofing such as is bought by the roll. The rental is on the basis of $1.50 per room per month. A four room cabin costs $6 a month, a six room cabin costs $8 or $9. But take the average four room cabin at $6, the yearly rate is $72. That is interest at 6 per cent on $1,200. The labor cost on these houses was not more than $40 each on the average. Including the land on which the houses stand they did not cost the companies more than $300 each. Six per cent on $300 is $18.