Read Online High Mountains Rising by Richard A. Straw - Free Book Online
Authors: Richard A. Straw
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the minersâ pay, and others were life-threatening. Just how hazardous is revealed by the tens of thousands of miners who have lost their lives in Appalachian coalmines: more than 21,000 in West Virginia alone since 1883. Most died singly in roof falls, but it was explosions that attracted the press and captured the nationâs imagination.
Unalterably hostile to unions, southern Appalachian operators evicted and blacklisted miners who joined the United Mine Workers of America and launched a concerted campaign to destroy the organization through the use of court injunctions and company guards. Periodically, the effort to establish a union exploded into what have become known as the âmine warsâ because of the scale of violence involved. Perhaps the most legendary of these mine wars occurred in the Paint and Cabin Creek (West Virginia) war of 1912â13, the Mingo (West Virginia) war between 1919 and 1921, and the March on Logan County and Battle for Blair Mountain, which also occurred between 1919 and 1921. The Harlan County (Kentucky) mine war waged off and on between 1931 and 1937. In all of these protracted conflicts, the coal companies prevailed because the local, state, and federal governments intervened on the companyâs side to break organized labor. 33
Ironically, relief for union organizers did not appear until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Franklin Rooseveltâs New Deal initiated many reforms in an effort to jolt the nationâs economy out of the Depression. Among them was the Wagner Act of 1935, which granted workers the legal right to organize into labor unions. Almost overnight the Appalachian coalfields became organized, although union organizers encountered fierce resistance in some sections. The coal industry burgeoned during World War II, and just as demand began to slacken in the postwar era, another New Deal projectrekindled the demand for Appalachian coal. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which constructed hydroelectric dams on the Tennessee River in the 1930s to generate electrical power for rural economic development, began constructing coal-powered generating plants in the late 1940s, a policy shift that required the agency to purchase mass quantities of inexpensive coal. On one hand the new policy encouraged coal production, but on the other it emphasized lower mining costs. Small truck mines by the thousands sprang up throughout the Appalachian coalfields, strip-mined coal emerged as a major source of supply, and established companies were pressured to mechanize their mines in order to compete. 34
The expansion of the coal industry in southern Appalachia peaked in the early 1950s with the employment of approximately 246,000 employees; if the Appalachian counties of Ohio and Pennsylvania are included, the number grows to nearly 500,000. The boom in mine employment that marked the first half of the twentieth century abruptly reversed itself in the last half of the century. In the 1950s, the widespread adoption of the continuous miner, a machine that consolidated all the basic steps of mining into a single machine process, precipitated a 31 percent decline in the number of Appalachian miners between 1950 and 1960, from 197,162 to 136,230. 35 But the worst was yet to come. In the 1970s, the industry embraced automation by adopting the computer-operated long-wall mining system, and the downward spiral of coalmine employment in southern Appalachia continued unabated through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1998, only 46,175 Appalachian coalminers still plied their trade, less than one-quarter of those employed when mechanization began in the 1950s. Moreover, the U.S. Bureau of the Census predicted in 2000 that coalmine employment would decline another 32 percent by 2008. At the same time, coal production is higher than ever. 36
Although the coal industry has provided high-paying jobs for thousands, the restructuring of the coal industry toward high-technology and low-cost
Unalterably hostile to unions, southern Appalachian operators evicted and blacklisted miners who joined the United Mine Workers of America and launched a concerted campaign to destroy the organization through the use of court injunctions and company guards. Periodically, the effort to establish a union exploded into what have become known as the âmine warsâ because of the scale of violence involved. Perhaps the most legendary of these mine wars occurred in the Paint and Cabin Creek (West Virginia) war of 1912â13, the Mingo (West Virginia) war between 1919 and 1921, and the March on Logan County and Battle for Blair Mountain, which also occurred between 1919 and 1921. The Harlan County (Kentucky) mine war waged off and on between 1931 and 1937. In all of these protracted conflicts, the coal companies prevailed because the local, state, and federal governments intervened on the companyâs side to break organized labor. 33
Ironically, relief for union organizers did not appear until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Franklin Rooseveltâs New Deal initiated many reforms in an effort to jolt the nationâs economy out of the Depression. Among them was the Wagner Act of 1935, which granted workers the legal right to organize into labor unions. Almost overnight the Appalachian coalfields became organized, although union organizers encountered fierce resistance in some sections. The coal industry burgeoned during World War II, and just as demand began to slacken in the postwar era, another New Deal projectrekindled the demand for Appalachian coal. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which constructed hydroelectric dams on the Tennessee River in the 1930s to generate electrical power for rural economic development, began constructing coal-powered generating plants in the late 1940s, a policy shift that required the agency to purchase mass quantities of inexpensive coal. On one hand the new policy encouraged coal production, but on the other it emphasized lower mining costs. Small truck mines by the thousands sprang up throughout the Appalachian coalfields, strip-mined coal emerged as a major source of supply, and established companies were pressured to mechanize their mines in order to compete. 34
The expansion of the coal industry in southern Appalachia peaked in the early 1950s with the employment of approximately 246,000 employees; if the Appalachian counties of Ohio and Pennsylvania are included, the number grows to nearly 500,000. The boom in mine employment that marked the first half of the twentieth century abruptly reversed itself in the last half of the century. In the 1950s, the widespread adoption of the continuous miner, a machine that consolidated all the basic steps of mining into a single machine process, precipitated a 31 percent decline in the number of Appalachian miners between 1950 and 1960, from 197,162 to 136,230. 35 But the worst was yet to come. In the 1970s, the industry embraced automation by adopting the computer-operated long-wall mining system, and the downward spiral of coalmine employment in southern Appalachia continued unabated through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1998, only 46,175 Appalachian coalminers still plied their trade, less than one-quarter of those employed when mechanization began in the 1950s. Moreover, the U.S. Bureau of the Census predicted in 2000 that coalmine employment would decline another 32 percent by 2008. At the same time, coal production is higher than ever. 36
Although the coal industry has provided high-paying jobs for thousands, the restructuring of the coal industry toward high-technology and low-cost
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