In April 1869, miners in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region gathered in Hazleton to put their anger – and their demands – into the public record.
At a time when coal companies controlled not only work underground but life above it, miners adopted a series of formal resolutions condemning the everyday practices that defined existence in the coal fields: company stores, withheld wages, forced deductions, and employer control that extended well beyond their workday.
Their words were printed in full by the Philadelphia labor newspaper The Workingman’s Advocate, publishing (and preserving) a collective statement from working mineworkers themselves. The language is direct and unsparing.
As the newspaper noted at the time, the conditions described were so severe that “those not familiar with the subject would scarcely believe” they existed. What follows are the miners’ resolutions – followed by the paper’s commentary:
“Resolved, That we condemn the system of forcing the men to deal in the companies stores, as it is wrong in principle and practice; against the law of the state and government, and ought to be done away with and abolished forever.
Resolved, That we condemn the system of stopping in the office for a ‘Doctor’ any monies whatever, as it is wrong and against the laws of the state and government, and ought to be done away with and abolished forever.
Resolved, That we condemn the system of keeping our money at pay day when due us, as it is wrong and contrary to the laws of the state and government, and ought to be done away with and abolished forever.”
The above are part of a series of resolutions adopted at a meeting of the miners and laborers held at Hazleton, Pa., last month. They disclose a state of affairs that those not familiar with the subject would scarcely believe existed.
The miners are not only forced to work at very low wages, but to keep them still more under the thumb of their employers, their wages are not paid them when due.
Monthly payments are supposed to be the rule, but to force the men to deal at the companies stores their wages are held back, credit is denied them at private stores and want compels them to be charged extortionate prices at the store of the company for whom they work.
The order was abolished by the state and for a time gave relief, but the system is restored in all its former hideousness, not by the payment of orders it is true, but by forcing the men to deal at certain stores.
Then some official of the company has a relative, yclept [old-English word meaning called or named] – a doctor, who through incapacity or malpractice, has been compelled to live on on friends, and this official to get rid of the pensioner makes the charitable proposition that the company hire a physician, which of course is done, and the company takes great credit to itself, for so far looking towards the welfare of their employees. But at the end of each month, one dollar or more is deducted from each of the employees wages to pay the doctor.
What magnanimity!
Read more Coal Region stories
“Miners at work” – Harper’s Weekly illustrations of the Coal Region from 1869
A rare interior view of a coal breaker in the Wyoming Valley during the Civil War
Exploring Eckley Miners’ Village | Coal Region History
Illustration shows Pennsylvania mineworkers during payday at the mines | 1873
Subscribe to the latest from Jake Wynn – Public Historian
Enter your email below to receive the newest stories.