What is the United Mine Workers of America?
District 14 was one particular branch of the United Mine Workers of America that operated in Southeastern Kansas, specifically Crawford, Cherokee, and Bourbon counties. Beginning in the 1880s and 1890s but continuing at least through the 1930s, this area drew people from the east coast and even from Europe, with local businesses even advertising in foreign languages to attract enough employees to meet the demand for coal and minerals from this area ("Mining's Legacy"). It was in this high labor-demand market and the dangerous conditions of mine working that District 14 of the UMWA was attempting to gain the best possible working conditions for its membership. While the high demand for labor allowed unionization some extra power, the workers needed the extra protection due to the physically exhausting work over long days and the dangerous conditions that were naturally a result of mining but also a result of employers' desires to attain the highest possible production rates.
One set of files that displays some of the duties that this organization performed is the Hearl Maxwell Collection, hosted by Pittsburg State's Axe Library Special Collections. These files contain election information, financial information, bulletins, circulars, and correspondences from various members and officers of District 14 of the UMWA. The earliest pieces are from 1911, but most of the collection focuses on the '20s and '30s. A more in-depth description of the collection can be found here, and the content of the collection can be viewed here. This collection will be used in this Scalar book to illustrate the duties of a union by examining specific documents and correspondence from a branch of a union that was operating in a high-need environment.