This page was created by Blake Hatton.
The Colorado Supply Store in Colorado Fuel & Iron's Mining Camps
Scrip System
Despite trying to balance working time with the demand for coal, mining companies throughout Southern Colorado sometimes lacked cash to pay their miners when payday came around. Miners were paid once a month in the early days of the company and in lieu of actual currency mining companies offered scrip, a form of company issued credit. It was with this credit that purchases could be made in the company owned stores. Employees needing advances on earnings could make purchases at the store, or, for a 5% charge, could receive scrip to purchase groceries or goods for their home. On payday, the balance due the store was subtracted and any unspent balance was given to the worker in scrip. In order to obtain cash, the employee could work with a broker to sell their scrip for cash for a 15-25% fee. In 1906, a bi-monthly pay system was introduced to CF&I which lessened much of the demand for advanced pay.Although the use of scrip in mining camps is heavily criticized (particularly the image of the company store as a vehicle of corporate oppression reaping profits and keeping the miners in a form of indentured servitude), some historians have supported the town system stating that the mining areas of Southern Colorado were generally remote and lightly populated, so it had few existing stores and employees needed to shop at the company store as there were no other alternatives. In addition, most mining towns were too small to support a profitable store, so independent stores were reluctant to move into an area. If an independent store was unwilling to assume these risks, it was left to the mining company to establish and operate a store. About half of CF&I’s mining camps were “open” towns which allowed outside businesses to operate within the town, including general merchandise stores.
According to noted historian and author H. Lee Scamehorn, critics claimed that CF&I and the Colorado Supply Company used their own system of money to compel employees to trade in company stores which prevented local merchants from serving miners and steelworkers. CF&I management reiterated in its company publications that employees asked for cash advances only between paydays and that the profits reaped through purchases made with scrip were minimal for the store to continue to be self-sustaining. The use of scrip by the Colorado Supply Company was discontinued in December 1912 but was brought back for a short time during the years of the Great Depression and the massive layoffs that followed.
