Coal Strike of 1902
1
Coal Strike of 1902
Coal Strike of 1902
Coal miners in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1900.
Other names
Anthracite Coal Strike
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
Date
1902
The Coal Strike of 1902, also known as the Anthracite Coal Strike[1][2], was a strike by the United Mine Workers
of America in the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners were on strike asking for higher wages,
shorter workdays and the recognition of their union. The strike threatened to shut down the winter fuel supply to all
major cities (homes and apartments were heated with anthracite or "hard" coal because it had higher heat value and
less smoke than "soft" or bituminous coal). President Theodore Roosevelt became involved and set up a fact-finding
commission that suspended the strike. The strike never resumed, as the miners received more pay for fewer hours;
the owners got a higher price for coal, and did not recognize the trade union as a bargaining agent. It was the first
labor episode in which the federal government intervened as a neutral arbitrator.
The 1899 and 1900 strikes
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) had won a sweeping victory in the 1897 strike by the soft-coal
(bituminous coal) miners in the Midwest, winning significant wage increases and growing from 10,000 to 115,000
members. A number of small strikes took place in the anthracite district from 1899 to 1901, by which the labor union
gained experience and unionized more workers. The 1899 strike in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, demonstrated that the
unions could win a strike directed against a subsidiary of one of the large railroads.[3] It hoped to make similar gains
in 1900, but found the operators, who had established an oligopoly through concentration of ownership after drastic
fluctuations in the market for anthracite, to be far more determined opponents than it had anticipated. The owners
refused to meet or to arbitrate with the union; the union struck on September 17, 1900, with results that surprised
even the union, as miners of all different nationalities walked out in support of the union.
Republican Senator Mark Hanna, himself an owner of bituminous coal mines (not involved in the strike) sought to
resolve the strike, coming less than two months before the presidential election. He worked through the National
Civic Federation which brought labor and capital together. Relying on J. P. Morgan to convey his message to the
industry that a strike would hurt the reelection of Republican William McKinley, Hanna was able to convince the
owners to concede a wage increase and grievance procedure to the strikers. The industry refused, on the other hand,
to formally recognize the UMWA as the representative of the workers. The union declared victory and dropped its
demand for union recognition.[4]
Coal Strike of 1902
2
The Anthracite Coal Strike
The issues that led to the strike of 1900 were just as pressing in
1902: the union wanted recognition and a degree of control over
the industry. The industry, still smarting from its concessions in
1900, opposed any federal role. The 150,000 miners wanted their
weekly pay envelope. Tens of millions of city dwellers needed
coal to heat their homes.
John Mitchell, President of the UMWA, proposed mediation
through the National Civic Federation, then a body of relatively
progressive employers committed to collective as a means of
resolving labor disputes. In the alternative, Mitchell proposed that
Miner strikes the owner; 1902 Judge cartoon
a committee of eminent clergymen report on conditions in the
coalfields. George Baer, President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, one of the leading employers in the
industry, brushed aside both proposals dismissively:
"Anthracite mining is a business, and not a religious, sentimental, or academic proposition.... I could not if I
would delegate this business management to even so highly a respectable body as the Civic Federation, nor
can I call to my aid . . . the eminent prelates you have named."[5]
On May 12, 1902, the miners went out on strike. The maintenance employees, who had much steadier jobs and did
not face the special dangers of underground work, walked out on June 2. The union had the support of roughly
eighty percent of the workers in this area, or more than 100,000 strikers. Some 30,000 left the region, many headed
for Midwestern bituminous mines; 10,000 returned to Europe. The strike soon produced threats of violence between
the strikers on one side and strikebreakers, the Pennsylvania National Guard, local police and hired detective
agencies on the other.[6]
Federal intervention
On June 8 President Theodore Roosevelt asked his Commissioner
of Labor, Carroll D. Wright, to investigate the strike. Wright
investigated and proposed reforms that acknowledged each side's
position, recommending a nine hour day on an experimental basis
and limited collective bargaining. Roosevelt chose not to release
the report, for fear of appearing to side with the union.
The owners, for their part, refused to negotiate with the union. As
George Baer wrote when urged to make concessions to the strikers
and their union, the "rights and interests of the laboring man will
be protected and cared for—not by the labor agitators, but by the
Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the
control of the property interests of the country."[7] The union used
this letter to sway public opinion behind the strike.
Commission appointed by Roosevelt to resolve the
dispute, photographed by William H. Rau
Roosevelt wanted to intervene, but he was told by his Attorney
General, Philander Knox, that he had no authority to do so. Mark Hanna and many others in the Republican Party
were
likewise
concerned
about
the
political
implications
if
the
strike
dragged
on
Coal Strike of 1902
3
into winter, when the need for anthracite was greatest. As
Roosevelt told Hanna, "A coal famine in the winter is an ugly
thing and I fear we shall see terrible suffering and grave
disaster."[8]
Roosevelt therefore convened a conference of representatives of
government, labor, and management on October 3, 1902. The
union considered the mere holding of a meeting to be tantamount
to union recognition and took a conciliatory tone. The owners told
Roosevelt that strikers had killed over 20 men and that he should
use the power of government "to protect the man who wants to
work, and his wife and children when at work." With proper
protection they would produce enough coal to end the fuel
shortage; they refused to enter into any negotiations with the
union. The governor sent in the National Guard, who protected the
mines and the minority of men still working. Roosevelt attempted
to persuade the union to end the strike with a promise that he
would create a commission to study the causes of the strike and
propose a solution, which Roosevelt promised to support with all
of the authority of his office. Mitchell refused and his membership
endorsed his decision by a nearly unanimous vote.[9]
The economics of coal revolved around two factors: most of the
cost of production was wages for miners, and if the supply fell the
price would shoot up because in an age before oil and electricity,
there were no good substitutes. Profits were low in 1902 because
of an over supply; therefore the owners welcomed a moderately
long strike. They had huge stockpiles which grew in value daily. It
was illegal for the owners to conspire to shut down production, but
not so if the miners went on strike. The owners welcomed the
strike, but they adamantly refused to recognize the union, because
they feared the union would control the coal industry by
manipulating strikes.[10]
The two sides were supposed to listen to expert
testimony and come to a friendly agreement; cartoon
from the Cleveland Dealer
Theodore Roosevelt teaches the childish coal barons a
lesson; 1902 editorial cartoon
Roosevelt continued to try to build support for a mediated
solution, persuading former President Grover Cleveland to join the
commission he was creating. He also considered sending the U.S. Army to take over the coalfields.
J.P. Morgan intervenes
J.P. Morgan, the dominant figure in American finance, had played a role in resolving the 1900 strike. He was deeply
involved in this strike as well: his interests included the Reading Railroad, one of the largest employers of miners,
and he had installed George Baer, who spoke for the industry throughout the strike, as the head of the railroad.[11]
Now, at the urging of Secretary of War, Elihu Root, Morgan came up with another compromise proposal that
provide for arbitration, while giving the industry the right to deny that it was bargaining with the union by directing
that each employer and its employees communicate directly with the commission. The employers agreed on the
condition that the five members be a military engineer, a mining engineer, a judge, an expert in the coal business,
and an "eminent sociologist". The employers were willing to accept a union leader as the "eminent sociologist," so
Roosevelt named E. E. Clark, head of the railway conductors' union, as the "eminent sociologist" and, after Catholics
Coal Strike of 1902
exerted pressure, added a sixth, Catholic bishop John Lancaster Spalding, and Commissioner Wright as the seventh
member.[12]
The Anthracite Coal Strike Commission
The anthracite strike ended, after 163 days, on October 23, 1902. The commissioners began work the next day, then
spent a week touring the coal regions. Wright used the staff of the Department of Labor to collect data about the cost
of living in the coalfields.
The commissioners then held hearings over the next three months, taking testimony from 558 witnesses, including
240 for the striking miners, 153 for nonunion mineworkers, 154 for the operators and eleven called by the
Commission itself. Baer made the closing arguments for the coal operators, while lawyer Clarence Darrow closed for
the workers.
Although the commissioners heard some evidence of terrible conditions, they concluded that the "moving spectacle
of horrors" represented only a small number of cases. By and large, social conditions in mine communities were
found to be good, and miners were judged as only partly justified in their claim that annual earnings were not
sufficient "to maintain an American standard of living."
Baer said in his closing arguments, "These men don't suffer. Why, hell, half of them don't even speak English".[13]
Darrow, for his part, summed up the pages of testimony of mistreatment he had obtained in the soaring rhetoric for
which he was famous: "We are working for democracy, for humanity, for the future, for the day will come too late
for us to see it or know it or receive its benefits, but which will come, and will remember our struggles, our triumphs,
our defeats, and the words which we spake."[14] In the end, however, the rhetoric of both sides made little difference
to the Commission, which split the difference between mineworkers and mine owners. The miners asked for 20%
wage increases, and most were given a 10% increase. The miners had asked for an eight-hour day and were awarded
a nine-hour day instead of the standard ten hours then prevailing. While the operators refused to recognize the United
Mine Workers, they were required to agree to a six-man arbitration board, made up of equal numbers of labor and
management representatives, with the power to settle labor disputes. Mitchell considered that de facto recognition
and called it a victory.[15]
The aftermath of the strike
Organized labor celebrated the outcome as a victory for the UMWA and American Federation of Labor unions
generally. Membership in other unions soared, as moderates argued they could produce concrete benefits for workers
much sooner than radical Socialists who planned to overthrow capitalism in the future. Young John Mitchell proved
his leadership skills and mastery of the problems of ethnic, skill, and regional divisions that had long plagued the
union in the anthracite region. By contrast the strikes of the radical Western Federation of Miners in the West often
turned into full-scale warfare between strikers and both employers and the civil and military authorities. This strike
was successfully mediated through the intervention of the federal government, which strove to provide a "Square
Deal"—which Roosevelt took as the motto for his administration—to both sides. The settlement was an important
step in the Progressive era reforms of the decade that followed. There were no more major coal strikes until the
1920s.[16]
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Coal Strike of 1902
References
[1] http:/ / www. stfrancis. edu/ content/ ba/ ghkickul/ stuwebs/ btopics/ works/ anthracitestrike. htm
[2] http:/ / pabook. libraries. psu. edu/ palitmap/ Coal1902. html
[3] Blatz 1991
[4] Robert J. Cornell, The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 (1957) p 45
[5] Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (2001) p. 133
[6] Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (2001 p. 134
[7] H. W. Brands, T. R.: the last romantic (1998) p. 457
[8] Herbert Croly, Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1912) p. 399
[9] Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (2002) p, 190
[10] Frederick Saward and Sydney A. Hale, The Coal trade (1909) p. 71
[11] Jean Strouse, Morgan: American financier (2000) pp 449-51
[12] James Ford Rhodes, The McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, 1897-1909 (1922) p 246
[13] Walter T. K. Nugent, Progressivism: a very short introduction (2010) p. 38
[14] John A. Farrell, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned (2011) p, 116
[15] Wiebe, 1961, p 249-51
[16] Wiebe 1961
Bibliography
• Akin, William E. "The Catholic Church and Unionism, 1886-1902: A Study of Institutional Adjustment." Studies
in History and Society. 3:1 (1970): 14-24.
• Aurand, Harold W. Coalcracker Culture: Work and Values in Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1835-1935. Selinsgrove,
Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 2003. ISBN 1-57591-064-0
• Blatz, Perry K. Democratic Miners: Work and Labor Relations in the Anthracite Coal Industry, 1875-1925.
Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994. ISBN 0-7914-1819-7
• Blatz, Perry K. "Local Leadership and Local Militancy: The Nanticoke Strike of 1899 and the Roots of
Unionization in the Northern Anthracite Fields." Pennsylvania History. 58:4 (October 1991): 278-297.
• Cornell, Robert J. The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 (1957)
• Dailey, Lucia. "Mine Seed." Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2002. ISBN 1-4033-6697-7; history of Labor and
1872, 1877 and 1902 Anthracite Coal Strikes.
• George, J.E. "The Coal Miners' Strike of 1897," Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 12, No. 2 (Jan., 1898), pp.
186-208 in JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1882118)
• Gowaskie, Joe. "John Mitchell and the Anthracite Mine Workers: Leadership Conservatism and Rank-and-File
Militancy." Labor History. 27:1 (1985–1986): 54-83.
• Greene, Victor R. "A Study in Slavs, Strikes and Unions: The Anthracite Strike of 1897." Pennsylvania History.
31:2 (April 1964): 199-215.
• Grossman, Jonathan. "The Coal Strike of 1902 – Turning Point in U.S. Policy." Monthly Labor Review. October
1975. Available online. (http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/coalstrike.htm)
• Harbaugh, William. The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. New, rev. ed. New York: Collier Books, 1963.
• Janosov, Robert A., et al. The Great Strike: Perspectives on the 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike. Easton, Pa.: Canal
History and Technology Press, 2002. ISBN 0-930973-28-3
• Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2001. ISBN 0-394-55509-0; biography of
President Roosevelt
• Phelan, Craig. "The Making of a Labor Leader: John Mitchell and the Anthracite Strike of 1900." Pennsylvania
History. 63:1 (January 1996): 53-77.
• Phelan, Craig. Divided Loyalties: The Public and Private Life of Labor Leader John Mitchell. Albany, N.Y.: State
University of New York Press, 1994. ISBN 0-7914-2087-6
• Wiebe, Robert H. "The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902: A Record of Confusion." Mississippi Valley Historical
Review. September 1961, pp. 229–51. in JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/pss/1902513)
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Coal Strike of 1902
• Wilson, Susan E. "President Theodore Roosevelt's Role in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902." Labor's Heritage.
3:1 (1991): 4-2.
Primary sources
• United States Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, Report to the President on the Anthracite Coal Strike of
May-October, 1902 online edition (http://books.google.com/books/pdf/
Report_to_the_President_on_the_Anthracit.pdf?vid=OCLC65212138&id=FN4JAAAAIAAJ&output=pdf&
sig=vFY_ftUdao3z8xfTTIG1-VQrGqg)
External links
• Department of Labor essay on the strike (http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/coalstrike.htm)
• History of the 1902 strike (http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/gildedage/1902AnthraciteStrike/default.cfm)
• A history of the coal miners of the United States, from the development of the mines to the close of the anthracite
strike of 1902 (http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cdl;idno=cdl428) Cornell University
Library Historical Monographs Collection.
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Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
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