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

United Mine Workers of America Unions

This map contains the locations of all of the coal mine unions mentioned in the Hearl Maxwell Collection. Please note that the union locations marked on the map represent but a very small proportion of the total. The map shows five unions in Kansas and one in Illinois, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. Pittsburg, Kansas and Springfield, Illinois do not have specific numbers attached to them, because the Provisional District offices were located there. This is one reason why Pittsburg was so well-known in the mining field and why prominent men, such as John L. Lewis and Alexander Howat, knew people in the town. Annfred, West Virginia is marked on the map, because the local union miners there, requested supplies from the union in Pittsburg. It also important to note that it was an assistant director at the University of West Virginia that created a manual over ventilation in coal mines.

Henryetta, Oklahoma is marked on the map, because the Local Union 2397, located in Mulberry, Kansas, donated money to the families of the miners during one their strikes.

The towns in Kansas are marked, because they all belonged to the same district, District 14, and the officials or members of each local union were constantly communicating with one another. This makes sense, because the mines in this area were so close together that an incident, or perceived incident, at one mine could end up affecting the mines around it. Hearl Maxwell lived in Mulberry and worked as an officer in Mulberry’s union and in District 14 to improve the conditions of his local union. He was involved in the politics of the United Mine Workers of America, because he worked in Pittsburg during the time that Howat was there. He wrote critics of reviews had a few correspondences with Lewis about Howat’s actions and publications.

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