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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)
40
West Virginia
113 (102)
11
Kentucky
79 (71)
8
Pennsylvania
54 (49)
6
Illinois
52 (47)
5
Texas
42 (38)
4
Montana
42 (38)
4
Indiana
39 (36)
4
North Dakota
28 (25)
3
Ohio
25 (23)
3