CHAPTER XLI

THE COAL STRIKE OF 1902.-THE ADVENT OF THE UNITED MINEWORKERS OF AMERICA

Organization Necessary in the Anthracite Region. Difficulty of the Problem. The United Mine Workers of America. Its Predecessors, 1861-1890. Its History, 1890 1900. The Strike of 1897. Rapid Growth. The Mineworkers not exclusively a Bituminous Organization. Necessity of a National Organization. Successful Strikes. Inter-State Agreements in the West. Confidence in the Organization. The Work of the Organizers. Appeals from the Anthracite Region. Demands of the Men. The Strike of 1900. The Surrender of the Operators. After the Strike.

A

S late as 1899 the idea of organizing the anthracite miners of Pennsylvania was scouted by all but a few of the leaders of the United Mine Workers. The difficulties in the way of such organization appeared insurmountable. The differences in race, religion, and ideals of the twenty nationalities in the region, the variations in the standard of living, the mutual distrust among the races, and the former failures of attempts to formı permanent unions, all conspired to make the men distrustful of the new movement. Among the three districts of the anthracite region, the Lackawanna, Lehigh, and Schuylkill, keen jealousy existed, and conditions. varied to such an extent as to render it difficult to formulate the grievances in a series of general demands. The market was glutted with coal, and the region was glutted with men. The operators were united in a bitter and uncompromising hostility towards any form of organization among the miners, and the pioneers in the movement were threatened with the possibility of a blacklist. Many miners grown old in the anthracite fields shook their heads and gloomily predicted that organization would never secure a foothold in the anthracite region. Within a year all this had changed, and the anthracite miners had won the greatest victory ever secured in the seventy-five years of mining in that region.

The experience of the fifty preceding years seemed to justify the pessimism of the workers who had spent their entire lives and whose fathers before them had toiled from boyhood in the anthracite mines. To form unions of mine workers in the past, many efforts had been made; but either through internal jealousies or by the hostility of the operators, each attempt was doomed to failure. As early as 1849 a union of mine workers was organized in the anthracite region by an Englishman named John Bates, but this as well as several other organizations of a local character speedily collapsed. In 1861 an organization called the American Miners' Association was established in Illinois and gradually extended to the eastern states, but following the unsuccessful strikes of 1867 or 1868, the association collapsed. In 1869 a union, known as the Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent. Association, was formed in the anthracite region under the leadership of John Siney. This organization grew rapidly, and notwithstanding the intense antagonism of the operators, maintained its existence until the year 1875, when a general strike was inaugurated, which practically closed every mine in the region; but, owing to the opposition of the mine owners and to internal dissensions and racial and religious prejudices, the strike failed, and the organization was destroyed.

In

During the period in which the Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association was attempting to ameliorate conditions in the anthracite region, the Miners' National Association flourished in the bituminous fields. the year 1874 its membership exceeded 20,000, but this union, like the others which had preceded it, disintegrated and shortly disappeared. Following the dissolution of these organizations, came the Knights of Labor, which spread rapidly through both the bituminous and anthracite regions, and for a time exerted considerable influence in improving the conditions of life and labor of the workmen employed in the coal industry. The same forces, however, which had destroyed other organizations were put into operation against the Knights of Labor, and its membership declined as quickly as it had grown. By 1885 its power for good in the mining fields.

had passed, and in that year the Miners' National Progressive Union was formed. This organization was more successful in the bituminous fields. than any of its predecessors. Through it, joint conferences and trade agreements with the operators were established in West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; but owing to constant friction with what remained of the Knights of Labor, its efforts were hampered and its influence neutralized. By 1890 its membership had dwindled away, and it became patent that the thorough and successful organization of the mineworkers depended upon the consolidation of the Progressive Union and Assembly No. 135 of the Knights of Labor, which claimed jurisdiction over the men employed in the coal mines. Accordingly, in 1890, the Miners' National Progressive Union and District Assembly No. 135, Knights of Labor, amalgamated, forming the United Mine Workers of America.

For several years thereafter this union gradually extended its influence and organized a considerable number of both anthracite and bituminous men. In 1894 a general strike was inaugurated in the bituminous fields, which resulted in only partial success, and at its close membership rapidly declined in both the anthracite and bituminous regions. The spring of 1897 found the total number of members of the United Mine Workers of America reduced to less than 9,000, there being practically nothing left of the organization in the anthracite field, and the bituminous men again sought relief from their hard and grinding conditions in a general strike. After a stubbornly fought contest a compromise settlement was made which, while giving the miners only a slight advance, lent an impetus to the organization, and from that time on membership speedily increased in all the bituminous coal-producing states. In the following year joint conferences and trade agreements between operators and miners were reëstablished and comparative peace and prosperity assured.

But during all this time the conditions of the anthracite men were growing steadily worse. Every effort to organize them or to ameliorate their condition having met with failure, it seemed that the anthracite

workers had abandoned hope. Organizers were assigned to that district, but wherever they went they were told that there was no use wasting either time or money, as membership in the union would be followed by dismissal and the blacklist and that, therefore, the anthracite men could not be organized. Thousands of them declared that while they would not join the union and jeopardize their chances of retaining their work, they would participate in a strike if they were given assurance that such a movement could be made general.

Early in 1900 an increased force of organizers was stationed in that region, and while they were unable to form any considerable number of local unions, they were successful in reviving hope, allaying fear, and preparing the mineworkers for the struggle that seemed inevitable. In the month of July the time seemed propitious for a decisive movement. Mutterings of discontent were heard on every hand, especially among the mineworkers of the Lackawanna and Lehigh districts, and the sentiment in favor of a strike became quite general. In view of these circumstances a convention was called to meet about the middle of July in the city of Hazleton, for the purpose of deciding upon a definite policy for the future guidance of the anthracite mineworkers. Many delegates in this convention favored an immediate strike, but better counsel prevailed, and drastic measures were not then resorted to. On the contrary, the officers of the union were directed to invite the operators to meet representatives of the mineworkers in joint conference in the month of August, in order that a scale of wages might be formulated which would be satisfactory to all parties in interest. The operators, ignoring this invitation, failed to attend the August convention; whereupon the representatives of the mineworkers drafted a series of demands covering wages and conditions of employment, and decided to strike for their enforcement unless they were acceded to within ten days. The mine owners still continued to ignore the representatives of their employees and refused to make any concessions. Consequently, a strike was dcclared, to take place on September 17th.

Although the membership of the union at this time was less than 8,000,

the organization represented so clearly and so unmistakably the attitude of the overwhelming majority of the mineworkers that from 80,000 to 100,000 men and boys quit work on the first day of the strike, and with each succeeding day the number increased until, at the close of two weeks, fully 90% of the 144,000 employees were idle. The strike, which lasted through the month of September and the greater part of October, aroused intense public interest. The sympathy of the press and the people became enlisted on the side of the mineworkers as soon as it was realized under what terrible conditions they were compelled to toil.

The operators, as in 1902, repelled all overtures for a settlement of the strike and protested that the vast majority of the strikers were prevented from remaining at, or returning to, work by the turbulence and violence of a small minority. They tried in vain to explain why they should charge miners $2.75 for a keg of powder which they (the companies) purchased for 90 cents. They endeavored to convince the public that “pluck-me ̈ stores, company doctors, and exorbitant house rents were necessary adjuncts to the successful operation of coal mines; that they were really a benefit to the mineworkers and were conducted in their interest. But the public was not deceived, and sympathy for the strikers and indignation against the companies were expressed on every hand. As the strike progressed, as the supply of coal diminished, as winter approached and the demand for fuel increased, press and public became provoked at the unreasonable and unyielding attitude of the operators. A circumstance which proved of incalculable assistance to the mineworkers was the fact that a Presidential election was to take place on November 5th. Senator Hanna, Chairman of the National Republican Committee, had endeavored to avert the strike; during its progress he had made repcated efforts to bring about an amicable settlement, and on the 3rd of October the operators offered an increase of 10% in the wages paid prior to the strike. The operators did not make this proposition directly to the mineworkers, but notice of it was posted in conspicuous places about the mines. The proposal of the operators was unacceptable for the reason that no promise or guarantee was given