9781422285534

41 Chapter Four: The Coal Industry

Along with from other industries, such as cotton and textiles, construction, and railroads, they organized labor stoppages or strikes. In 1897, in Lattimer, Pennsylvania, 19 miners were killed and at least 39 were wounded during a union march. In May 1902, anthracite miners in Pennsylvania began a strike. As it dragged on, the economic effects were so severe that in October, President Theodore Roosevelt summoned the employers and workers to Washington, DC. This strike was the first time the US government became directly involved in helping to settle a labor dispute. Problems continued, however, with more mining strikes and deaths. In 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, the National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards killed more than 20 men, women, and children when they set fire to a tented village of striking miner families. In Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1923, miners went on strike in support of steelworkers. The disputes continued for three years, with much violence, and thousands of Canadian troops were sent to control the situation. In 1925, a miner named William Davis was shot dead, leading to the William Davis Miners’ Memorial Day on June 11 each year. Coal industry strikes continued into the 1970s and 1980s, though they were much reduced in number. Because of this troubled history, coal

US Coal Production, 2013 State

Million Tons (Metric Tons) of Coal

Percent of Total US Production

Wyoming

388 (350) 113 (102)

40 11

West Virginia

Kentucky

79 (71) 54 (49) 52 (47) 42 (38) 42 (38) 39 (36) 28 (25) 25 (23)

8 6 5 4 4 4 3 3

Pennsylvania

Illinois Texas

Montana

Indiana

North Dakota

Ohio