TABLE V.-RELATIVE PRICES OF COMMODITIES, 1890 TO 1903-Concluded. [Average price for 1890-1899-100. For a more detailed description of the articles see Table I.]

THE UNION MOVEMENT AMONG COAL-MINE WORKERS.(@)

By FRANK JULIAN WARNE, PH. D.

The first attempt to organize the coal-mine workers of the United States into a national union was made in 1861. It had its origin among a small group of miners who had emigrated from Great Britain to the Belleville district of Illinois. Prominent among these miners were Thomas Lloyd and Daniel Weaver, both Englishmen, who had been schooled in English labor unions and who had brought with them the ideas inculcated by that training. The object of the organization, as explained in an address to the miners of the United States issued by Weaver, was for "mutual protection, and improvement and education."

In response to this appeal, representatives of coal miners in Missouri and Illinois met in St. Louis in January, 1861, and organized the American Miners' Association, with Lloyd as president and Weaver as secretary. One of the principal objects of this association was to secure better mining laws in the different coal-producing States. The accomplishment of this object was materially aided by the "Avondale horror," which occurred in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania in September of that year. The shocking death of 109 mine employees aroused widespread public sympathy with the miners' movement, of which the leaders in the organization took advantage. They succeeded in securing from the constitutional convention of Illinois, then in session, the insertion in the new constitution of a provision requiring the legislature to enact general mining laws for the safety of all persons working in the coal mines of the State. Such laws were later enacted by the legislature. The association also conducted a successful contest for mine inspection in Ohio. These successes brought to the organization a rapid growth in membership, and it spread within a short time over all the more important coalproducing States, becoming strongest in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Maryland. It included among its members only bituminous coalmine workers. The total annual output of soft coal in 1861 was

aThe principal sources of information employed in preparing this article were official documents, files of the United Mine Workers' Journal, in particular the writings of Andrew Roy, files of other newspapers, and interviews with officers of the United Mine Workers and with operators and miners in both anthracite and bituminous coal regions.

estimated at 6,500,000 tons, and the total number of coal-mine workers in the entire country did not much exceed 30,000.

It was natural for the movement to lapse during the civil war, when much more momentous events demanded attention, and not unnatural that it should be affected by the disintegrating forces then at work. Strikes in nearly all the coal fields accompanied the general fall in prices following that great struggle, and these added to the already growing hostility of the public against labor organizations of all kinds. The open air meetings of the striking miners, which were not always peaceable and orderly, were denounced as lawless mobs, and the leaders were bitterly persecuted. Popular indignation was easily aroused at this time, and there was evidence of internal dissensions among the miners. These conditions were employed to sweep the association out of existence, and to all outward appearances the American Miners' Association now became a thing of the past.

The movement, however, simply assumed another form in the Miners and Laborers' Benevolent Association, which by 1870 had become conspicuous in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This association had spread from the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, where it was at first known as the Workingmen's Benevolent Association. Under the leadership of John Siney, the anthracite mine workers had been led successfully through several strikes and had succeeded in building up a strong union. They had maintained wages during falling markets, even against the organized opposition of the operators, and had established cooperative stores; they owned and managed several influential newspapers, and exerted a strong influence in politics, having been so successful as to secure from the Pennsylvania legislature the first mine-inspection law passed in this country, which, however, did not apply to the bituminous region of that State. Such success for the hard-coal miner, while the soft-coal mine employee was in a most unenviable condition, naturally drew attention to its cause, and in consequence the name and work of John Siney became of national importance, as it was mainly through his leadership that the anthracite mine worker enjoyed his high estate.

The extension of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association into the soft-coal producing States at first took the form of independent organizations among the men who had been identified with the American Miners' Association. In 1873 John Siney was led to attempt the union of all these branches under a national organization, and in response to his call, issued to the mine workers of the United States, a meeting was held at Youngstown, Ohio, in October of that year. Representatives were present from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and one or two other States. In his call Siney stated three objects of the meeting as being: (1) A consolidation of the entire body of miners of the United States for the purpose of self-protection;

(2) to afford pecuniary and moral support to such districts as may be forced to the alternative of a strike; and (3) for a thorough discussion of grievances and the passage of such laws in the several States as the safety and welfare of the mine workers demand.

The Youngstown meeting gave birth to the Miners' National Association, composed of soft-coal miners, with John Siney as its president, he having resigned his leadership of the anthracite mine workers to undertake the greater task. The constitution of the new organization provided for arbitration, conciliation, and cooperation, and for independent action in district affairs. No strike was to be begun until every other possible means of settlement had been exhausted, and before a strike should be entered upon a complete statement of the issues involved was to be made to the president of the organization and his consent to the proposed action secured. Provision was also made for an executive board, composed of one member from each State represented in the organization, to advise and assist the national officers. Headquarters of the association were established at Cleveland, Ohio.

Within two years the association had spread over all the central conl producing States, and had an estimated membership of nearly 35,000. There is no question that it was powerful and influential. It contemplated, among other things, the undertaking of cooperative coal mining on an extensive scale, and for this purpose a large tract of coal land was purchased in Tennessee. Even while at the height of its power the causes that led to its downfall are easily discernible. The panic of 1873 had been followed by a period of industrial depression which became most acute in its effect upon the coal trade in 1875. Glutted coal markets forced many of the mines to work on half time. Prices were falling. With less work to do and less pay for that which they did, the miners engaged in strike after strike to prevent reductions in wages. Now came the first fair test of the arbitration principle enunciated by the organization. It proved a dismal failure. This was at the close of 1874. It followed a notification from the operators in the Tuscarawas Valley (Ohio) of a reduction in the price of mining from 90 to 70 cents a ton and corresponding reductions in wages for other mino labor. An arbitration board was organized, according to the provision in the constitution of the Miners' National Association, with three miners and three operators as members, one of the operators being the late Senator Marcus A. Hanna. Judge Andrews, of Cleveland, was umpire. The decision was against the miners, the price of mining being fixed at 71 cents a ton. At first the employees continued at work, but soon petitioned their executive board to be released from the award, which was done. They then made a demand for an advance of 9 cents a ton in the mining rate. This was granted by the operators after a short suspension. To add to the deplorable situation the miners Iacked confidence in their leaders at a time when confidence was most

needed. In consequence the experience of the American Miners' Association under somewhat similar circumstances was repeated, the Miners' National Association declined, internal dissensions weakened it, and finally, at the close of 1875, it was lost sight of.

In the meantime there had come into existence an association which was destined to preserve the germ of organization among the coal miners until they were again ready and able to undertake the task of uniting in one national body. This was the Knights of Labor, which Uriah S. Stephens had launched in 1870. Christopher Evans, now statistician for the United Mine Workers of America, is given credit for being the first to introduce this organization among the coal miners, having organized the first miners' assembly at New Straitsville, Ohio. At the beginning the growth of the Knights of Labor among the coalmine workers was slow, but following 1879, when the force of the 1873 panic had about spent itself, it was much more rapid. The miners' branch was known as Trades Assembly No. 135, Knights of Labor, and had a district master workman at its head. Soon the assemblies were in a prosperous condition, due to the improved industrial situation, not a few of them owning the halls in which their meetings were held. Many of these halls contained small libraries, and the meetings gave opportunities for debates and general discussions of labor problems. As such, they proved valuable training schools from which have come a number of present-day labor leaders.

This period of prosperity found the Ohio miners under a strong State organization, with John McBride at their head. The miners of the Pittsburg district of Pennsylvania were also well organized, under the leadership of David R. Jones, a graduate of Mount Union College (Ohio), who had left the mines when 18 years of age to take up the study of law. He was in absolute control, there being no other officers. His salary was made up of monthly dues of five cents from each member. The efforts of these leaders at this time were directed toward securing higher wages for the mine workers to accompany rising prices, the strikes of this period nearly all being for increased wages. But there were other troublesome questions which the mine employees of the several States desired settled. Finally an interstate convention was held at Pittsburg in March, 1880, and the mine. employees demanded of the operators payment by weight for all merchantable coal, an eight-hour work day, and the abolishment of the "pluck-me" store system. If these concessions were not granted by August of that year there was to be a general strike of soft-coal miners. In the meantime the mine employees of the Tuscarawas Valley in Ohio, who had gone out on strike against the continuance of the screen system of payment for coal mined, offered resistance to the importation of Negro laborers to take their places, which resulted in the State militia being called into the field under arms and finally