The primary industry of Pennsylvania in the 1860s was coal mining.
The number of mine workers peaked in 1870 at around fifty-three thousand, compared with twenty-five thousand in 1860. Of these thousands,
one-third were Irish immigrants. (See Irish Immigration.)
The Irish were targets of discrimination and prejudice during those
days, both in the United States and elsewhere. Many Americans disliked
the Irish because of their Catholic roots and because they were the least
educated of all the immigrant groups in general. In addition, unlike
other foreign workers in the coal mines, the Irish did not accept unfair
treatment as just another part of the job. Instead, they fought back when
anyone tried to take advantage of them. They did not hesitate to speak
out in their own defense because they knew no one else would speak for
them.
Some of the biggest mines in the coal regions were British-owned.
The English stockholders appointed white, American Protestants (nonCatholic Christians) to run these mines. These white Protestants, in
turn, hired Welsh and English miners who worked on a contract basis,
meaning they were paid per ton of coal mined. The more coal mined,
the higher the wage. These contract miners hired laborers to do the hardest work. Most of the laborers were Irish, and they were paid only a fraction of what the contract miners received.
Mine bosses were usually Welsh, though some were English. When
a top mining job opened up, these supervisors usually filled it with another Welshman or Englishman. The Irish laborers, who worked harder
yet received lower pay, constantly saw others being promoted while they
remained in the lowest positions. Normally, a worker can go to a boss to
complain of unfair treatment, but in this case, those Irishmen who complained were blacklisted—that is, their names were put on a “do not
hire” list that was shared among all mines throughout the coal region,
and they could not get jobs at all. They had no way to change policy and
procedures.
No life of leisure
The life of a miner was one of intense hardship. Some men began working the mines at the age of eight. Before electricity was commonly available, their work in mines 1,200 feet below the ground was in total
darkness except for the tiny flame on the front of their helmets. Mine
shafts were so cold that miners’ fingers would crack and bleed daily.
Miners faced great danger every day. The lamp on a miner’s cap was
fueled with fish or whale oil, and its light was poor and dangerous. Mines were filled with the earth’s natural gases, and many gas explosions
were ignited by the flame from a miner’s cap. Mines were damp and
filled with carbon dioxide, gas, dust, and smoke. Miners in general did
not live long lives. Many died of black lung, a disease that results from
breathing coal dust. For the most part, the younger the man was when
he began working the mines as a boy, the younger he was when he died.
Perhaps the biggest injustice of all was the miner’s wage. The average
laborer earned less than twenty-five cents an hour until 1913, when his
wage was raised to an even quarter an hour. With this money, he had to
buy all his own mining tools and supplies, including lamp oil, clothing,
gloves, and picks. There was little left to buy his family food and other
necessities. To make matters worse, wages at some mines were paid in
scrip that was redeemable only at mine-owned company stores, where
prices for basic goods were higher than at regular general stores and
shops. These miners earned less money than laborers in many other industries, and they were forced to pay higher prices for everyday items.
The anthracite coal strikes of 1900 and 1902
Anthracite (hard) coal mining was much more treacherous and difficult
than bituminous (soft) coal mining. Anthracite coal lies deeper beneath
the earth’s surface, and it was harder to pick out of the mines. Between
thirty-two thousand and thirty-five thousand men died in Pennsylvania
anthracite coal mines between 1870 (when these statistics were first
recorded) and the early twentieth century. John Mitchell (1870–1919)
was a bituminous coal miner from Illinois when he was elected in 1898
as president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), a labor
union. Labor unions are formally organized associations of workers that
advance members’ views on wages, work hours, and labor conditions.
Mitchell had taken part in a successful coal strike in 1897 that resulted
in better wages and working conditions for the miners.
As president of the UMWA, in 1900 Mitchell tried to negotiate with
anthracite coal mine operators in Pennsylvania for a settlement similar to
the bituminous coal miners’ settlement three years before. The mine operators refused to negotiate, so Mitchell called for a strike on September
17. Eighty percent of all anthracite coal miners joined in the strike. It did
not last long. On October 29, 1900, the strike ended in victory for the
miners, who received a 10 percent wage increase, their first in twenty years. Still, mine operators refused to recognize the UMWA as their employees’ representative.
By 1902, the UMWA was ready to order another strike. The 10-percent wage increase granted in 1900 was only a temporary solution to the
grievances of the miners. Work conditions were still poor and dangerous,
and the days were still long. The UMWA still was not officially recognized by mine operators.
On May 12, 1902, anthracite coal miners walked off the job; the
strike had officially begun. This bold move had far-reaching effects.
Anthracite coal was used for fuelling trains, running factories, and heating homes and businesses. The strike may have been limited to
Pennsylvania, but the entire nation would feel the consequences.
Newspaper coverage of the strike fed Americans’ fears of a coal shortage for the coming winter. Cartoonists and journalists focused on the
power struggle between mine management and laborers. October arrived, and it was apparent that the strikers were not going to give up;
drastic measures had to be taken.
On October 3, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; served
1901–9) called union leaders and mine operators to a meeting at the
White House. UMWA president Mitchell agreed to negotiate, but the
mine operators refused. Weeks passed and no progress was made on either side. Americans needed coal to survive the coming winter and keep
their factories and trains running. Roosevelt made history by becoming
the first president to get involved in the arbitration of a labor dispute. He
threatened to have the U.S. Army seize the coal mines and operate them
until the owners agreed to negotiate. Mine management did not want
this to happen, so they backed down and agreed to arbitration (discussion with the laborers). Roosevelt appointed financier J. P. Morgan
(1837–1913) to head a commission to arbitrate the dispute. On October
23, after 164 days of striking, miners returned to work. They received a
10 percent increase in wages and a reduction in the number of hours
worked each day. To their disappointment, their union still was not recognized as their representative, and the issues of hazardous working conditions and child labor were not addressed.
The strike was a major turning point in history because it was the
first time the federal government had tried to settle a strike rather than
break it. Although it would be another decade before labor reform truly
took hold, the laborers finally felt they were beginning to be heard.
The Ludlow massacre
Unfortunately, the 1902 coal strike was not the last. In September 1913,
more than ten thousand coal miners went on strike in Ludlow, Colorado.
Led by the UMWA, the workers demanded, among other things, union
recognition, a wage increase, enforcement of the 8-hour-day law as well
as state mining laws, and the right to choose where they shopped and
lived.
The leading mine operator was the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company,
owned by John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937). Rockefeller had the miners and their families evicted from company housing and used the
National Guard to keep the mines operating.
Without shelter, the mining families set up tents in the Colorado
hills and continued striking throughout the winter. Conditions were harsh and food was scarce. But Rockefeller showed no sign of changing
his mind; there would be no arbitration.
April 20, 1914, was Easter on the calendar of the Greek Orthodox
Church, and the Greek immigrants among the miners were celebrating.
Despite the strike, the mood around the tent camp that morning was festive. At 10 AM, however, Colorado troops surrounded the camp and
opened fire on the miners’ tent colony, which had been set up on public
property. Company guards, strikebreakers (people hired to replace striking workers), private detectives, and soldiers had planned the attack.
They brought with them an armored car mounted with a machine gun
called the Death Special. As bullets sprayed the colony, tents caught on
fire. Later, investigations revealed that kerosene had been poured on the
tents.
By days’ end, twenty people, including two women and eleven children, were dead. Three strikers were taken prisoner and executed.
Hundreds of miners were arrested and blacklisted in the coal industry.
None of the attackers was ever punished. John D. Rockefeller Jr.
(1874–1960), who by this time was in charge of the mine, denied the
massacre ever occurred and publicly stated that no women or children
had died in what he described as a fight started by the miners. He spent
the next decade trying to repair the damage done to the Rockefeller
name by the Ludlow massacre. He gradually came to acknowledge the
atrocity of the massacre, and through his efforts to right the wrongs that
had been done, Rockefeller increased his family’s social awareness. The
Rockefellers eventually became one of the most philanthropic (generous,
through charitable donations) families in the United States.