Bulletin, 1925, June 25th, from Alexander Howat to members of District 14 of the United Mine Workers of America
1 2016-04-26T10:46:55-07:00 Jennifer Katzer c3846a5de27f6c938df2d2f8dec5cd07e2a0aed1 9408 2 Howat stating why UMWA under the leadership of John Lewis is problematic and why major reform is needed plain 2016-05-03T09:35:20-07:00 Jennifer Katzer c3846a5de27f6c938df2d2f8dec5cd07e2a0aed1This page has annotations:
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Poverty Reduction
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One of the ways in which union leaders helped to alleviate the financial woes of their members was to set up relief accounts. Within the Hearl Maxwell Collection, there are numerous letters from the various local union mining camps thanking the head office, District 14, for assistance in their difficult times. Help came in the in amounts as little as $7, but every dollar helped families get food or clothing. It is worth remembering that this money was collected and disbursed by members and union officials during a difficult economic time for coal miners.
In one particular case from the summer of 1925, UMWA Local 2397, of which Hearl Maxwell was an officer, they gave aid to a local in Henryetta, OK in the amount of $146.50. The very next week, Local 2397 had to ask for assistance from District 14 headquarters. This initial request was denied, due to other locals being in much more dire circumstances, but just a few months later, Local 2397 received aid in the amount of $75.
Over the time period that the Hearl Maxwell Collection covers, mention of the union dropped while mention of poverty and families rose.
Poverty reduction was a prominent issue for union miners in the 1920s. While the economic conditions made it difficult to control the financial woes, the UMWA leadership and its members did everything in their power, including sharing their last dime, to ensure that no one person or family went without in their times of need. That is why the miners of Southeast Kansas believed so fiercely in the brotherhood of unionship and why they fought so hard for reforms. -
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"Us" vs "Them"
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The relationship between unions and employers could be described at best as contentious and at worst openly hostile. Take the case of the Battle of Blair Mountain, in West Virginia. In late-summer of 1921, 10,000 striking coal miners engaged in warfare with thousands of police officers and strikebreakers (Patel). The battle was a victory for the coal company and had a detrimental effect on union membership in several states, including in Southeast Kansas. While this incident - the largest armed confrontation in American labor history – is unique, the mentality of “us vs. them” was pervasive in union-employer relations.
Judith Hoover recounts what was involved for any miner who wished to work for the Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (WV) in the 1920s:
This type of behavior by owners of coal companies is what drove men such as Alexander Howat to fight so fiercely for the rights of coal miners both in SEK and nationwide.One had to sign a contract that not only included questions about one’s age, weight, height, color, and scars or deformities, but also required an oath about the “rightness” of nonunion shops. First, the applicant had to agree that he was “not now a member of the United Mine Workers of America, the IWW, or any other organization of mine workers, and will not, during his employment, join or affiliate with any such labor organization.” Then the applicant had to agree that he was willing to sign because he “believed the preservation of the right of individual contract, free from interference or regulation by others, and payment in proportion to service rendered, to be in my interest, to the best interest of the public and of all industry.” Finally, the applicant had to agree that the company could “make deductions on pay roll for Medical Attention, Hospital and Burial Fund.” No amounts were listed for any of these deductions; the employee simply had to trust the company to decide on a reasonable fee (36-7).
Not only were mining unions pitted against mine owners, there were divisive factions within the United Mine Workers of America. Alexander Howat stood in opposition against John Lewis due to disagreements regarding the rights of mine workers.
Sources:
Hoover. Judith D. “‘Miners Starve, Idle or Working’: Working-Class Rhetoric of the Early Twentieth Century.” In Who Says: Working-Class Rhetoric, Class Consciousness, and Community. Ed. William DeGenaro. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007. 32-46.
Patel, Samir S. “Mountaintop Rescue.” Archeology 65.1 (Jan/Feb 2012). Web – archeology.org. 27 April 2016.
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Miners Starve, Idle, or Working
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The mechanization of the coal industry – which proliferated in the 1920s – led to an increase of a readily-available supply of coal but a falling demand. This forced the closure of mines nationwide, as it was cheaper for companies to simply close a mine and let the equipment sit idle rather than work partial crews on a limited work schedule. As a result of a greater dependence on machinery to perform the duties of miners, union membership suffered and work in the industry dried up. Frustrated and desperate, the United Mine Workers​ launched a large-scale, though unsuccessful, strike in 1919. The failure of this strike and the economic depression of 1920-21 had a significant negative effect on membership in unions, particularly in coal mine unions, throughout the rest of the decade (Smiley).
According to Gene Smiley, the coal industry was considered “sick,” in the 1920s. Income declined and bankruptcies increased, and strikes were frequent. Out-of-work miners, ignorant of alternatives outside their home regions, tended to remain in their local area. Poverty was pervasive in coal-mining communities, such as the ones in Southeast Kansas. As Smiley states, “The majority of miners lived in squalid and unsanitary houses, and the incidence of accidents and diseases was high.”
Conditions did not improve for miners, even when they were able to find work. Coal companies did their best to rob the miners of pay by falsifying cart weights and by greatly inflating prices in the company store: where most, if not all, mining families had to purchase their goods. Albert DiVincenzo states:
These predatory practices were not unique to DiVincenzo’s situation. Actions such as lying about cart weights and overcharging for goods are what led the miners to constantly strike. Underpaid in work, not paid on strike, coal miners of the early twentieth century lived in near starvation in either case.The coal company employed their own man to weigh the coal cars and the miners had no choice but to take his word that the weight was correct. The irony of this is that the mine cars the miners used were built to hold 2200 to 2500 pounds or more of coal. But the person employed by Keystone Coal Company made damn sure that regardless how much coal was in those mine cars, they would never weigh over 1100 to 1200 pounds. The first day the union weighman weighted the coal cars with the company man, these same cars that were loaded with the same amount of coal as the day before weighting 1100 to 1200 pounds now weighted 2200 to 2500 pounds. The miners were paid $.22 a ton.
Sources:
Smiley, Gene. “The U.S. Economy in the 1920s.” eh.net. Economic History Services. Web. 27 April 2016.
DiVincenzo, Albert D. “Growing Up in a Coal Mining Town, Mooween, PA, during the Great Depression.” patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com. The 20th Century Society of Western Pennsylvania. 2008. Web. 28 April 2016.