Voices from the Appalacian Coalfields
Voices From the Appalachian Coalfields – A review by Larry Kerschner
Voices From the Appalachian Coalfields by Mike and Ruth Yarrow with photographs by Douglas Yarrow (Published by Bottom Dog Press, Huron OH, 2015) is a book filled with the voices of the coal miners and their families that fill you in on the day to day health and safety issues found in the dangerous work of underground coal mining. It shows the camaraderie that develops between people who “don’t care what a man’s religion is or what his politics is”. The voices of women miners and miner’s wives are well represented. Woman Miner “Connie” “At first they didn’t like the idea of us women being in there. One crew I worked on, a couple of them came to me one night and told me they were glad I was there”. The found poem format brings you heart-to-heart with the folks interviewed by the Yarrows.
I first bought the book because the Yarrows have been friends for many years. However, this book grabbed a hold of me and pulled me into these people’s lives. This is an astounding book. I didn’t know this part of his history but I wish I had talked to Mike about this project.
Ruth is to be commended for not allowing this insight into a part of our history to be lost. The photographs of the miners, many at work in the mines, by Douglas Yarrow, add another important dimension.
Take Care of your own – Miner “Ken” (page 14)
It’s like being in a war.
I have not been in a war,
but I am sure there are a lot of similarities.
It’s just a very intense situation where your life is on the line,
or people are being really messed over.
Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, noted the many veins of coal found in what became known as the Appalachian region. However, except for blacksmiths, there was little use for coal until after the Civil War. In the post-War industrialization, coal became valuable for factories and railroads. The first coal mines in Appalachia were run as small operations but as need for coal increased, capitalists from the North-East moved in with money to exploit the people and the natural resources. Independent coal operations were consolidated into larger corporate entities such as US Steel.
The First World War significantly increased the need for coal resulting in a “coal boom” in Appalachia. By 1918, record sales totaled 579 million tons of “black diamond”. By the 1920’s, at the peak of coal production, 700,000 miners were employed. Coal companies, owning huge plots of land, created company towns where miners and their families could be easily controlled. Mining companies, to further control their workers, began paying in scrip instead of dollars. The scrip could only be redeemed at company stores. A 1911 report by the Immigration Commission found miners only receiving 30% of their wages in cash. A 1925 West Virginia law made it unlawful to transfer or trade scrip to a third party effectively preventing miners from moving out of the area unless they were willing to abandon what little they had.
Eventually this untenable situation resulted in miners risking everything to join labor unions. After the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the following Great Depression, the orders for coal dropped drastically. Coal companies started offering coal at a reduced price by reducing wages paid to the miners still working who were often paid to work for only one or two shifts a week.
Make Things Better – Miner “Sam” (page 37)
Organized labor right now in the United States is in deathly trouble.
If we don’t get somebody that’s for labor, we are going to be working for less than minimum wage.
‘Cause they got everything in the world against us right now.
They got the right to get out from under contracts,
The Government’s done took over the Teamsters, the railroads, and the banks.
President Roosevelt’s New Deal brought relief in the form of food and clothing and jobs. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) put as many as three quarters of the unemployed miners on the federal payroll creating paved roads.
Me and the Guys – Woman Miner “Connie” (page 24)
Sometimes I’ll think, “Well, what in the world am I doing here?
I should be home taking care of the house
and taking care of my daughter, acting like other women do.”
I’ve tried to be like nice women,
going to parties, baby showers;
but when they start playing all these little ignorant games, it just drives me up the wall.
The widespread unemployment continued until the Second World War created a new coal boom. During this boom, the miners finally began to receive some of the profits of their labor including health and disability insurance due to membership in the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).
UMWA was first organized in 1890. John L. Lewis was president of the UMWA from 1920-1960. His work to organize the country’s industrial workers through the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s helped raise living standards for millions of American families.
Perhaps Lewis’ greatest legacy was the creation of the UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund in a contract with the federal government, signed in the White House with President Truman in attendance. The UMWA Fund would change permanently health care delivery in the coal fields of the nation.
However in the post-War period the appetite for dirty coal began to wane with the widespread use of the relatively cleaner fuels such as oil and gas. The newer fuels combined with the introduction of machines that were faster, cheaper and more efficient than the miners lead to a decrease in the need for miners that continues until today.
Kids Today- Miner’s wife “Donna” (page 41)
The school system is awful bad around here.
When they finish school, or quit school,
the majority of them the last two years has went into the service.
Usually when you grow up in a place,
you like to stay there and work.
Because there’s no jobs around here, they have to leave and go.
That’s the sad part.
I don’t want the mines for my sons;
I don’t want them to even think about going in no mines.
Mike and Ruth Yarrow did 225 interviews with miners and their families in the Appalachian coalfields in the 1970s and 80s largely in Fayette, Raleigh, Mercer and McDowell counties of West Virginia.
Mike says,” The people we talked with have seen a radical decline in employment in the past ten years due to mechanization, increased foreign competition, and the slump in the steel-coal market. The pattern now is islands of employment in a sea of unemployment where the employed few are expected to work longer hours, to produce more, and to ignore safety violations. In this context the once-strong United Mine Workers of America is losing membership while companies are aggressively opening non-union mines”.
From Ruth, “ As these voices will tell you, underground coal mining is dark, dangerous work. It is a world of totally dark tunnels, often dripping wet, where the only lights are the beams from hard hats….This book is written as found poems because Mike realized that the interviews revealed strong emotions, rhythmic phrases and vivid story-telling skills that could be poetry.”
Talk About Luck! – Miner’s Widow “Catherine” (page 74)
I felt real angry at the mines.
They don’t even care about the men working in there.
That guy that owns the mine, he attended the funeral,
but he didn’t come over to me, he didn’t say nothing.
I said, “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to get even with him.”
So I’ve got the lawsuit out on him and his company.
The union and everyone around, the community,
really helped me a lot.
My family, they called me up I don’t know how many times a day.
The baby was five months old when my husband got killed.
I still am really overprotective with the baby
because I’m afraid he’s going to disappear on me.