Every mining town has a monument of the sort illustrated here. They commemorate the men who lost their lives in service to the industry. There are no comprehensive, accurate records of the men who were killed in the mines, but since the keeping of records in 1869, upwards of 5,000 men have lost their lives in violent explosions, falls of rock or other underground accidents. The Cumberland and Pictou coal fields were the most dangerous in terms of the occurrence of major disasters in which more than a dozen men were killed at one time, but the day to day accidents that took one or a few lives were common everywhere. Miners' Memorial Day, held each year on July 11th, serves as a reminder of all those who lost their lives underground. On Cape Breton it is more commonly referred to as Davis Day, named after miner William Davis who was killed in the violent confrontation that took place during the 1925 strike.
One of the key demands of the miners' union in all of its dealings with management was an acceptable compensation scheme for the families of miners killed or maimed in the mines. In this area of workers' benefits coal miners were at the forefront of the Canadian industrial community and they achieved some degree of protection even before the United Mine Workers made it a central feature of their campaign in the 1920s. Traditionally the coal companies attributed mining accidents to the carelessness of the men who, in turn, argued that the companies' negligent attitude towards safety regulations was the source of the problem. Eventually committees representing both miners and employers were established to examine conditions in the mines and to provide a forum for discussion of any situation which the miners felt merited attention. The monuments seen here are in Stellarton (left) and Glace Bay (right).
