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• 1 media/amazon army.jpg 2016-04-14T11:29:04-07:00 The Amazon Army 11 image_header 2016-05-21T13:59:14-07:00 Feminism in the 1920’s was booming in America. It reached into almost every walk of life, and every socio-economic class. The coal mines of Southeast Kansas was no exception. While women were rallying for the fight to vote and fair labor standards, the mining women were getting their say as well. On December 12, 1921, a group of fed up women who were wives, sisters, mothers and friends of the coal miners took the mines to task for using “scab” employment to keep their mines open during strikes. These women effectively shut down the mines for three days and brought mining to a standstill at over 60 mines. They were known as “The Amazon Army”
• 1 media/Us vs. Them.jpg 2016-04-27T14:07:16-07:00 "Us" vs "Them" 10 image_header 2016-05-21T12:48:56-07:00 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:

   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).

  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.
   
  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.