Coal Mining

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 (non-Catholic 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.