Lewis versus Howat: An Analysis of Labor Rhetoric, Education, and Class Privilege in Early Twentieth Century Mining Politics

Annotation 3

CENTRALIA MINE DISASTER: On 25 March 1947, an explosion at the Centralia Coal Company in Centralia, Illinois, killed 111 miners. Following the disaster, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, called a two-week national memorial work stoppage on 400,000 soft-coal miners. A year earlier, against the opposition of coal operators, the Interior Department had issued a complete and strict Federal Mine Code, which strengthened regulations governing the use of explosives and machinery and set new standards for ventilation and dust control in mining operations.

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