Even the close of the strike which has been rumored the past fortnight would not make such a fundamental inquiry during the spring and summer inopportune, but rather a measure of precaution in anticipation of future labor conflicts in the region. The fact that such an inquiry has been actively contemplated is not generally known; information about it has not been published in the newspapers, but has been given me for use in The Survey.
Backward View of the Trouble
The Kanawha trouble dates back about ten years. At that time the miners' condition was good, as things go for men in the coal fields, and the miners along Cabin Creek were organized. An ill-advised strike was called then, and it resulted in a disastrous defeat for the miners. This strike was ordered by officials of the union against the desire of the miners directly affected and it is charged by Cabin Creek miners that it was declared in the interest of the Ohio operators who desired to cripple their West Virginia competitors. Some of these operators have since admitted that they helped finance the strike. As long as the trouble lasted, operators in competitive fields could gobble the business of operators whose plants were shut down. Of course, after the men had been beaten and the strike broken and non-union conditions and wage scales went into effect, the competition was more bitter than it had been before, yet the pickings were good while they lasted. That, however, is all ancient history.
Ever since the strike of a decade ago the men on Cabin Creek have been restless. Conditions were burdensome although they were not so bad on Paint Creek which was organized. The operators were out after business and they cut prices on coal to the limit in order to meet the competition of Illinois, Ohio and western Pennsylvania operators and get a share of the "lake trade." For the driving force behind this civil war in the hills of West Virginia is to be found in the coal bins of 10,000 factories of the Middle West and beyond whose managers and workmen know little or nothing of the struggle.
By "lake trade" is meant the coal that goes to ports on Lake Erie for transportation by steamer and barge to Detroit and as far as Duluth and Superior for distribution throughout the Northwest. All the trade that passes over the lakes, no matter what its ultimate destination, is known as the "lake trade." The Pittsburgh operators have held that the opening of the West Virginia fields was an economic blunder, that the lake demand was no greater than Pittsburgh and Ohio could supply, and that it was a mistake for the West Virginia operators to enter that field. The latter took the position that they had the coal, and did not propose to let it remain undeveloped because it would interfere with the market of the operators of other fields. They would mine their coal and would sell it wherever they could, and if they could grab a big share of the lake trade they proposed to do it. It has been a battle of millions.
To strengthen their position the Pennsylvania operators have bought large blocks of West Virginia coal lands. The Lackawanna Coal Company has, for example, secured control of the principal operations on Paint Creek.
The operators in the Ohio, Illinois, and most of the Pennsylvania fields, get out their coal under terms as to hours and wages imposed by their agreements with the United Mine Workers. In order to be in a position to meet the growing competition of the West Virginia fields on an even footing in the matter of labor, it is an open secret, that they have given aid and comfort to the union in the effort to organize the West Virginia field. They have been fighting on the other hand for a reduction in their own freight rates or an increase in those of their West Virginia competitors, they did not care which, as the consumer finally pays the bill. Until a comparatively recent time, the rate from the Pittsburgh district to Ashtabula and Cleveland has been 88 cents a ton, while to Toledo and Sandusky, the rates from the West Virginia field have been 97 cents and $1.12 a ton.
Something more than a year ago the pressure on the railroads became so great that a meeting of the officers of the coal carrying roads and the operators from the Pittsburgh and the West Virginia districts was held in New York in an effort to settle the difficulty. No agreement could be reached and the roads, unable to resist the pressure of the Pittsburgh operators advanced the rate from the West Virginia fields 9-1/4 cents, making the differential in favor of the Pittsburgh field 18-1/4 instead of 9 cents.
