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CHAPTER XX
The Mining Industry
At the present time Monroe
County ranks third in the list of coal-producing counties
in the State; but it is safe to venture the prediction
that within the next five years she will occupy a place
at the head of the list.
Mahaska County is at present
the largest coal-producing county in the State, producing,
in 1895, 902,430 tons of coal, valued at the mines at
$1,209,256.
Appanoose County came next,
with her 350,000 tons, valued at the mines at $420,000.
Monroe County followed,
with 313,354 tons, valued at the mines at $391,692.
It should be here stated
that the foregoing figures represent the condition of
the coal industry at the period of the great financial
panic of 1894 and 1895, when all industries, and notably
that of mining, were completely paralyzed. During this
memorable period of depression the coal industry suffered
most of all. The railroads, having little or nothing
to haul, did not need coal for steam purposes. The factories
throughout the country ran on half or quarter time,
and many completely shut their shops. From this source
another portion of the coal demand was cut off. The
winter was mild and not much coal was required as fuel.
Then the coal-miners strike added to the depression
and curtailed in a large measure the output in 1895.
Hence it is that the figures given do not express the
normal condition of the mining industry in Monroe County.
In 1893, just on the eve
of the financial crisis, Monroe County produced 641,805
tons of coal.
In 1895 Mahaska County had
28 mines in operation, Appanoose had 72, while Monroe
County had but 18, and 6 of this number are but "slopes,"
or country banks, some employing but one or two men
during the winter months.
The State Mine Inspector
divides Iowa into three mining districts, and the First
District comprises the counties of Adams, Appanoose,
Davis, Lucas, Monroe, Page, Taylor, Wapello, Warren,
and Wayne. Of these, Monroe, Lucas, Wapello, and a part
of Davis are the only counties within
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the First District which yield any coal
from the lower coal seam. The others named work a 3-foot
vein, with an interval of about 8 inches of fire-clay
in the middle of the seam. This 3-foot vein also occurs
in Monroe County, but the coal at present is not mined
for shipping purposes, and is worked only in country
banks, for local consumption as fuel.
In no locality in the mining
districts of Iowa is the product of this thin coal vein
very suitable for steam purposes. It is lighter, and
while it is superior for fuel purposes to that of the
lower coal lying at a greater depth, it does not find
a market as steam producing coal. Its quality in Monroe
County is not quite so good as in Appanoose County,
yet this, however, may be due to the fact that up to
the present no tests of its quality have been very extensively
made in Monroe County, in regions overlaid by a thick
rock roof. Where entries have been driven to any considerable
distance from surface exposure and beneath thick superincumbent
strata of rock or slate, the quality of the coal is
perceptibly improved. This coal seam is unvarying in
thickness throughout the county, and crops out along
all the principal streams. It is preferred for fuel
purposes to the lower coal, even in Monroe County, and
no doubt it will command a good commercial value in
the future, when there is a greater demand for it than
now.
About 50 feet below this
seam there is another one, about 16 inches in thickness,
which is usually from 100 to 150 feet above the lower
coal seam. Another seam of about the same thickness
occurs above the 3-foot vein in localities within the
county.
Monroe County, like Mahaska,
occupies the center of the great coal-bearing district
of Iowa, which, beginning at Webster County, parallels
the Des Moines River on either side, as far down as
Van Buren County. This area is classed by geologists
as the "lower coal measures." The thickness
of these coal measures in Monroe County is variously
estimated at from 200 to 400 feet, and contains, as
already stated, several seams of coal of varying thickness,
from 8 feet down to as many inches.
The lowest stratum of coal
is by far the most important commercially, as the vein
is of the greatest thickness, and also superior in quality
for steam purposes. It does not lie in a continuous
or persistent stratum extending over any considerable
areas, but occurs in lenticular basins or pockets
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some of which are of large extent. These
pockets doubtless represent the inequalities of surface
of the earth, during the glacial period, when the mass
of vegetable matter drifted in and formed beds of coal.
When it is remembered that
the coal-fields of Monroe County are practically in
an undeveloped state at the present time, it is reasonable
to conclude that she will soon overtake and outrank
Mahaska County as the banner coal county of the State.
Much of the available coal supply in Mahaska County
has already been mined, and with the present number
in mining operations in the county, her output is destined
soon to diminish with the exhaustion of her present
already thoroughly worked mining camps. A large amount
of Monroe County coal lands are held in reserve in anticipation
of an early advance in prices incident on the diminution
of the coal supply in neighboring localities.
The distribution of coal
in Appanoose County is doubtless confined to a less
area than that of Monroe County, and the lower vein
is not present at all in any locality within the county.
A 3-foot vein is the only one worked in the county,
and it is near the surface and is easily accessible
by means of drifting into the earth. This does not require
an expensive equipment, and with the rapidly increasing
number of mines which take the place of those worked
out, the output will soon begin to diminish. Moreover,
the quality of the coal, while superior for domestic
purposes, cannot be placed on the market as steam coal,
and in the summer season the industry is usually partially
suspended, and often altogether so, on account of finding
a light market for the coal.
For purposes of State inspection,
the coal-producing area of Iowa is divided into three
mine-inspection districts. Each of these is under the
supervision of a Mine Inspector appointed by the Governor.
The First District comprises the counties of Adams,
Appanoose, Davis, Lucas, Monroe, Taylor, Wapello, Warren,
and Wayne.
The counties of Appanoose,
Monroe and Wapello are the only three counties of the
district which are of an importance as coal producing
counties.
The three named, together
with Mahaska County, of the Second District, are the
mining centers of the State.
The Second Inspection District
of Iowa comprises the
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counties of Jasper, Jefferson, Keokuk,
Mahaska, Scott, and Van Buren, and the Third is made
up of the counties of Adair, Boone, Dallas, Greene,
Guthrie, Marion, Polk, Story and Webster.
For organization and various
other purposes, the mining districts of Iowa, irrespective
of the mine-inspection district division, are divided
into the Northern, Des Moines, Central, and Southern
districts. Some of these districts are known as "low
coal" districts, the term "low coal,"
in mining parlance, meaning coal occurring in shallow
seams—the 3-foot vein, for instance, of Appanoose,
of the Southern District, or of Boone and Webster of
the Northern District.
This "low coal"
is distinguished as "mining coal," or coal
to mine which the miner has to use his shovel and pick
alone. He merely digs the fire-clay from the seam, and
wedges or pries the coal out, without resorting to "shooting"
or blasting. This coal readily separates from the shale
or slate roof, and as it rests on a bed of fire-clay,
it freely separates from the latter. In order, however,
to mine such coal, the miner has to remove a portion
of the upper or lower, or sometimes both upper and lower,
adjacent strata, in order to get sufficient height in
his room for operating purposes and for the passage
of mules drawing the cars. Owing to this extra amount
of labor which the miner has to perform, he receives
a higher price per ton for the amount of coal mined
than if the coal was "higher."
The price per ton for coal
mined is fixed by common agreement between operators
and miners throughout the coal-mining districts of the
United States. This schedule of prices for Iowa was
fixed in 1893; and since then occasional violations
of that basis led to one of the most extensive strikes
or suspensions of labor in the mines that the mining
industry in the West has ever experienced. The history
of that strike may not be fairly well understood by
those not immediately interested, as the causes that
led to it were not altogether local in character.
During the eight-hour strike
movement of 1890, when most of the various organized
labor organizations throughout the United States struck
for eight hours of labor instead of ten hours, the United
Mine-Workers of America were drawn into the strike movement.
The miners did not demand of the operators ten hours'
pay for eight hours' work, since the miner is paid by
the ton for his labor; but
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the theory was, that by reducing the number
of hours for each day's labor more men could be provided
with work in getting out a required amount of coal.
In obedience to an order
from the national organization, the Monroe County miners
struck; they held out for several weeks, but at some
of the mines their demands were not acceded to by the
operators, and the strike was abandoned. The movement
was not well generated, and, one after another, the
camps resumed work without having achieved any advantage.
At the termination of this
strike, the Iowa miners withdrew from the national organization,
owing to a lack of support, and in 1893 a State organization
was perfected, which took the name of the Iowa Miner's
Association, with its headquarters at Foster, Iowa.
J. T. Clarkson was chosen president of the organization,
and Richard Williams, also of Foster, was secretary
and treasurer.
That year brought the forerunner
of the great financial distress of the country. All
departments of trade became stagnated, the arteries
of commerce became clogged, and money ceased to circulate
freely. Every kind of business succumbed to the general
distress. The farmer could not get anything for his
products. Transportation shrunk to a minimum, and factories
curtailed their output. This, of course, affected the
coal trade in a large degree. The operators of mines
could not find a market for all their output at former
prices. They found that they could not pay operating
expenses by paying the schedule rate per ton for mining
the coal, and most of the operators began to cut below
the schedule rate, which had been fixed in 1893 and
which is known as "the 1893 basis." This rate
was as follows: For mining coal in the Southern District,
comprising the counties of Appanoose and Wayne, $1.00
per ton; Central District, comprising Monroe, Marion,
Mahaska, Keokuk, and Wapello counties, 75 cents per
ton; Des Moines District, $1.00 per ton; Northern District,
comprising Boone and Webster counties, $1.00 per ton.
At the time the general
strike or "suspension" was ordered in 1894,
by the National United Mine-Workers of America, the
Iowa miners were not members of that organization, and
were really not parties to the calling of the strike
at that time. The order was given to strike on the 21st
of April, 1894, and after many urgent appeals from the
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national officials and from miners within
the State, the President of the Iowa Miners' Association
issued a call for a miners' convention to meet at Albia
on May 3d, for the purpose of considering the appeals
from the national organization, for coöperation.
After hearing reports from every mining camp within
the State, it was found that about two-thirds of the
delegates were opposed to a strike or to participating
in the "national suspension."
A report was submitted by
each delegate, which showed that a reduction had been
made, of 20 cents per ton on coal mined in the Southern
District, where "low coal" is mined; 25 cents
per ton reduction in the Des Moines District, and 20
cents per ton in the Northern field. This reduction
affected about 65 per cent of the mines in the State,
not including What Cheer and other eastern mines. Several
of the Monroe County mines, however, did not make any
reduction, among which was the Deep Vein Coal Company
at Foster. Yet, notwithstanding, the strike went into
effect at that place, the same as if the company had
violated the 1893 compact.
In the convention, a motion
to suspend work was voted down by one majority. The
next day a motion was carried to reconsider the vote,
and, when acted on, it was carried by a majority of
eleven votes, that, in view of the reductions made in
the State, which were threatening to produce a uniform
reduction of 20 cents per ton, over the State, by reason
of competition compelling the operators who had not
so reduced the price per ton for mining to meet the
operators in the market who had made the reduction,
it was resolved that the president issue a call for
all miners in the State to stop work; which was done,
and the miners were idle until June 11, 1894, when the
following agreement was entered into by the parties
to the contract:
"Whereas,
The miners of Iowa are to-day idle because of their
action in joining the movement known as the 'national
suspension'; therefore be it
"Resolved,
By the operators and miners of Iowa, in joint convention
assembled, at Oskaloosa, on this 9th day of June, 1894,
that the scale of wages for mining coal, and the rules
and regulations in force during 1893, be restored (excepting
so far as these may be modified by the acts of the Twenty-fifth
General Assembly of Iowa), and that the same continue
in effect until April 1, 1895.
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"Resolved,
That whereas there have been no acts of violence committed
at any of the mines here represented, it is agreed by
the operators here assembled that there shall be no
discrimination used against their men on account of
the part taken in the suspension.
"Resolved further,
That it is the aim of the Iowa operators to always deal
fairly with their men; they agree that they will be
glad to reconsider complaints at any time, and that
they stand ready at all times to properly adjust any
wrongs that may exist.
"Resolved further,
That the operators of Iowa whose signatures are hereto
attached will recognize the written request of any or
all of their miners to pay over to any committee or
its treasurer any sum per ton due such men, it being
understood that said committee may dispose of such sums
of money as they deem expedient, and that the operators
have no interest in such sums after they have been paid
over as above.
"It is agreed by the
representatives of the miners of the State, who are
duly authorized to act, that all miners in the State
shall return to work, commencing Wednesday, June 13th,
at all mines willing to resume on the above basis.
"In witness whereof
we hereunto attach our respective signatures."
To this were attached the
following signatures: J. W. Reynolds, President Executive
Board; J. T. Clarkson, Secretary; W. S. Scott, President
Dis. 13, U. M. W. of A.; Julius Fraum, Secretary and
Treasurer Dis. 13 U. M. W. of A.; Robt. Cunion, Foster;
Jas. B. Williams, Wapelluka; Robt. Downs, What Cheer;
Elisha Holland, What Cheer; Geo. Richard, Colfax; W.
F. Lewis, Wapelluka; Thos. H. Davis, Des Moines; Robert
Cowan, Angus; Wm. Mitchell, Flagler; White-breast Fuel
Company, by Paul Morton, President; Oskaloosa Coal and
Mining Company, by E. H. Gibbs, President; What Cheer
Coal Company, by E. M. Trescott, Superintendent; Chicago
Coal Company, by D. C. De Wolf, President; Star Coal
Company, by C. H. Rathburn, Secretary; Wapello Coal
Company, by H. L. Waterman, Vice-President; Excelsior
Coal Company, by Geo. Ramsey, Superintendent; Black
Swan Coal Company, by Thos. Beck; Hickory Coal and Mining
Company, by J. H. Ramsey, Superintendent; Boone Valley
coal and Railway Company, by Hamilton Brown; Lower Vein
Coal and Railway Company,
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by Hamilton Brown; Boone Coal and Mining
Company, by Hamilton Brown; Iuka Coal Company, by H.
Booth, President; Oak Hill Coal Company, by S. R. Rawlings;
Columbian Coal Company, by W. A. Durfee, General Manager;
Smoky Hollow Coal Company, by J. J. Evans, Proprietor.
Thus ended one of the most
extensive and far-reaching strikes that this country
has ever seen. It affected at one time fourteen thousand
mine employees.
At the convention at Albia,
which ordered the Iowa miners to strike, J. T. Clarkson
resigned his office of president of the Iowa Miners'
Association, but occupied the position of secretary
at the time he attended the National Executive Board
meeting at Columbus, Ohio, June 4, 1894, when it formally
voted to declare the "national suspension"
off, and to permit every mining district to make any
kind of arrangements they chose between the miners and
the operators.
Mr. Clarkson was opposed
to the strike from first to last; but, under the overwhelming
pressure brought to bear on the Iowa miners, and the
persistent entreaties of the miners themselves, he yielded
to their wishes, and called the convention. Later he
accepted the office of vice-president of the Iowa Miners'
Association, but resigned in 1895, and has since then
devoted his talent and energy to the practice of law.
Whether this great strike
resulted in any material advantage to the miners of
Iowa is a matter of doubt. The Deep Vein Coal Company,
of Foster, Iowa, refused to enter the agreement, and
the strike was prolonged at the place for some weeks.
That company had never violated the '93 schedule, and
had paid its employees promptly every two weeks. Moreover,
it had to face the competition of other mines which
operated on a reduced scale for mining, but it gave
its men work (though not on full time), as long as they
wished to work. Mr. Foster, president of the company,
took exceptions to one clause of the agreement requiring
his company, on request of the miners, to become their
agent in collection of certain dues or "relief
funds." The miners at Foster at length signified
their willingness to resume work without having secured
any concessions from the company, but their action cost
the company the loss of some valuable coal contracts,
which, on account of its inability to fill them at the
time of the strike, were placed with other companies
which had already gone to work.
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During the strike many of
the miners and their families were reduced almost to
destitution. The relief fund was inadequate, and the
appeals sent out to the farming community for donations
fell on unsympathizing ears. The farmers would not contribute
to their support, and met the solicitors with the retort:
"Why don't you go to work if you are starving?
We have to work for whatever we can get, in order to
keep the wolf from the door." The farmers could
not see the wisdom of a strike at a time when all business
was already paralyzed by a financial panic. They felt
that they themselves were in the same boat, and refused
both material and moral support to the strike movement.
Their aid was not withheld through a lack of charity,
for they felt that it would be fostering a social evil
to encourage men in idleness.
Probably a majority of the
sober reflecting miners were opposed to the strike;
but in a mining community there are ruling spirits,
whose counsels are listened to and heeded by the rank
and file. Sometimes these bosses are unscrupulous men,
who go by the name of "agitators." There are
a few of them in every mining camp, and they are a source
of mischief to both operators and miners. In all treaties
with operators they are careful to have the latter agree
to a clause which binds the operator to not make any
discrimination against them and their active followers
for having abetted the strike. Notwithstanding the enactment
of a statute in the laws of the State, forbidding this
discrimination, the "agitator" soon finds
himself out of employment in the mines. He goes from
mining camp to mining camp seeking work, and is told
his services are not desired. He usually goes to work
with the rest of the miners, but he invariably lands
in some part of the mine where there is bad air, "low
coal," or a treacherous roof. He is not a favorite
with the "pit-boss," and is assigned by him
to the least desirable part of the mine, where he cannot
earn a living by his labor.
The scale of wages for mining
coal, as agreed to by the joint convention at Oskaloosa,
June 9, 1894, which scale was a continuation of the
'93 scale, and was to be in force until April 1, 1895,
was not strictly observed by the parties to the contract,
and in the spring of '95 the operators and miners met
in convention at Ottumwa, March 29th. In this convention
an agreement was entered into, which is known as the
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"Ottumwa Agreement," and in
which it was agreed that the '93 scale would be observed
from April 1, 1895, to April 1, 1896. It seems the operators
entering into this compact found themselves unable to
carry out its provisions, and a reduction was made,
which precipitated another strike, by the operators
in the Northern, Southern and Des Moines districts refusing
to sign or abide by the agreement.
In the Southern District
nearly all the men went out on account of a reduction
of from 10 to 15 cents per ton. A levy of $1.00 per
head was placed on every miner working throughout the
districts, but this aid was soon exhausted, and the
striking miners were advised by the State organization
to temporarily resume work at the reduced schedule price.
This advice was given out in a circular signed by J.
T. Clarkson, as president pro tem., and Julius
Fraum, secretary and treasurer of the Iowa Miners' Association.
In Monroe County the fixed
schedule for mining coal has for several years been
the same of Mahaska County—viz., 70 cents per
ton for summer and 80 cents for winter, or 75 cents
on an average. The State Mine Inspector of the First
Inspection District gives the following prices for the
various counties comprising the districts:
Appanoose and Wayne counties, per ton
. . . . . . . . . . $1.00
Central District, comprising Mahaska, Monroe, Marion,
Keokuk, and Wapello counties, per ton . . . . . . .
. . .75
Des Moines District, per ton . . . . . . . . . . 1.00
Northern District, comprising Boone and Webster counties,
per ton . . . . . 1.00
The State Mine Inspector,
however, in his report of the First District, for the
year ending June 30, 1895, places the average price
for mining coal in Monroe County at 66 cents per ton,
in Mahaska County at 75 cents per ton, and in Appanoose
County at 88 cents per ton.
The writer has no knowledge
of any rate in Monroe County lower than 70 cents.
The State Mine Inspector's
Report for the year 1895 gives the following as the
number and character of the mining plants of Monroe
County:
Page 341 (click on image to view chart)
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In addition to the foregoing,
two more companies have organized and begun operations
since 1895—viz., the Hilton Coal Company, of Hilton,
Monroe County, and the Central Coal Company, near Avery,
a further description of which is found elsewhere in
this volume.
Few of the mining concerns
within the county have achieved much success financially
within recent years. Labor disturbances have been one
cause, and a sharp competition in the coal markets another.
The expense of mining in
some of the localities is much greater than elsewhere,
owing to unsatisfactory roofing, "faults"
in the coal, hilly or uneven condition of the inner
surface of the mine, and a variety of other hindrances.
In many cases the railroads
themselves have discriminated against certain coal operators,
the roads being more or less identified with coal enterprises
themselves. Those coal companies which are accorded
the special favoritism or patronage of the railroads
are successfully operated and those concerned make money.
The fifty days' strike of
1894 was certainly an ill-advised move on the part of
the miners of Iowa. They had no local grievances to
set right; they struck out of sympathy for a horde of
turbulent foreigners working in the mines of the Eastern
States—a population consisting largely of Sclavs,
Huns, and other European nationalities, little governed
by civilization or the requirements of good citizenship.
The loss to the miners themselves, entailed by the strike
of 1894, amounted, in the First District, to 299,584
tons of coal, and $399,226 in earnings, or a decrease
of 18.5 per cent of earnings.
Following is a list of accidents
occurring in the mines of Monroe County for the two
years ending June 30, 1895:
Page 343 - please click on image to view list.
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At half past 8 o'clock on
the morning of November, 1894, a tremendous explosion
occurred in the mines of the Iowa and Wisconsin Coal
Company, two miles west of Albia. It occurred in what
was known as the back entry of the main South. It had
been allowed to fall in some time previous, and was
now being opened up again by taking a "skip"
off the rib. The work had proceeded in this way till
at the time of the occurrence it was twenty feet ahead
of the last break-through where the air was traveling,
and 1,250 feet from the bottom of the shaft.
The explosion was caused
primarily by a shot having been fired. The hole for
the shot was a 2 1/2 inch hole, and it contained four
and one-half common charges of powder. The hole was
6 feet deep, and was 12 inches out of perpendicular.
The shot was fired by a squib. Four men sat near the
shot, inside the break-through and in the main entry.
Two other men were 90 feet distant. These men were burned
worse than those in close proximity to the shot. The
shot spent its force in the air, blowing out the tamping
without breaking up the coal. The flame from the shot
seemed to ignite in the air of the entry either an accumulation
of gas or "dust." In this explosion John A.
Jones was killed and James Dyson and George Taylor were
severely burned and maimed for life. The exact cause
of the explosion was somewhat of a mystery to mining
experts.
Chapter XXI
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