[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 33 (Thursday, February 28, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            INTRODUCTION OF NATIONAL MINER'S DAY RESOLUTION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 28, 2008

  Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, an old mining song contains the powerful, 
but truthful verse:

     A miner's life is like a sailor, aboard a ship to cross the 
           waves,
     Every day his life's in danger, still he ventures, being 
           brave,
     Unlike you or me, a miner goes to work every day, knowing 
           that he is placing his life in grave danger.

  A miner goes underground and works with thousands of tons of dirt and 
rock above him. He works every day knowing that he is surrounded by 
dangerous, potentially fatal gases. He works in conditions that many of 
us would never want to have to endure, that many of us cannot even 
imagine.
  I come from a coal mining State, where hardworking, God-fearing 
miners and their families have helped to forge a proud history and a 
culture guided by American values.
  Every minute a miner is at work, he knows that he is a spark or a 
slip of a tool away from eternity. He knows that with a spark or slip 
of a tool, he will not return home that night and never see his family 
again.
  Every minute a miner is at work, he faces gas explosions, equipment 
failure, roof falls, and fires. Still, as the song says, he ``ventures 
being brave.'' He must.
  Fatality rates in our Nation's coal fields once resembled the 
casualty lists from the battlefields when our Nation was at war.
  December 1907 is remembered in the coal fields as ``bloody 
December.'' On December 1, a gas explosion killed all 34 men in a mine 
in Fayette City, Pennsylvania. Five days later, 362 miners perished in 
the Monongah disaster in West Virginia--the worst industrial accident 
in American history. Ten days later, an explosion in Yolande, Alabama, 
killed 57 men. On December 19, Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, an explosion 
killed 239 miners.
  Laws, safety inspections, and better, safer equipment, thank God, 
have helped to reduce the casualty rates among our Nation's miners. But 
the tragedies in 2006 at Sago and Aracoma in West Virginia reminded 
Americans that mining is a dangerous profession. That, ``every day his 
life's in danger, still he ventures, being brave.''
  While facing these enormous dangers, these hard-working, patriotic 
Americans have continued to produce the raw materials that fueled the 
Industrial Revolution, the energy that heated our homes, and the 
resources that ensured our security. Today, miners continue to produce 
for the betterment of all Americans.
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to join my colleague from West Virginia, 
Alan Mollohan, in offering this resolution that supports the goals and 
ideals of a National Miner's Day to celebrate and honor the 
contributions that miners have made to America throughout our history.
  It is a simple, yet very important way a grateful Nation can 
acknowledge these men and women who have done so much for us, and will 
continue to do even more throughout our future.

                          ____________________