Coal Age

AUG 2012

Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.

Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/82345

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 35 of 205

1911-1919 gIn The Beginning 1911-1919 Coal Age was launched October 14, 1911, as a weekly publication by the Hill Publishing Co. amid an industry slump with coal prices falling along with demand. Mining coal, beginning after the War of 1812, had become America's first big industry—creating symbiotic rela- tionships with railroads and steel compa- nies and spawning dozens of service companies and vendors. In 1911, coal was the fuel of choice for millions of urban dwellers throughout the crowded eastern seaboard cities—particularly hot burning anthracite with its relative lack of smoke. Railroads across the nation burned millions more tons in thousands of hun- gry locomotives, and enterprises like the new U.S. Steel Company and the much more established Colorado Fuel and Iron demanded trainloads of coking coal to forge the steel that built America's infra- structure. Though coal was king in 1911, too many producers were oversupplying railroad, steel and home-heating markets as the pre-World War I economy was slumping. The teens were largely hand-loading and shot-firing days, and work in the mines was incredibly dangerous with "accidents" occurring each day and thousands killed every year due to explosions, gas intrusions, floods, cave ins and roof falls. A new indus- try, each regulation was written largely in blood. As the mines and producers grew in size, so did organized labor. By 1911, the United Mine Workers of America had been struggling for a seat at the table for more than 15 years and organized miners belong- ing to a variety of unions had been literally fighting coal operators for recognition since the Civil War. As the decade wore on, a series of increasingly bloody strikes led to outright industrial warfare, halted only by the on-set of the unpopular Great War. A brief period of labor peace ensued during the war, but once it was over, demand waned, coal prices fell and operators started trying to cut wages. Labor tried to hold onto its gains and tensions mounted. The teens were also a period of transi- tion as miners and mining companies both spurred the creation and perfection of a host of new machines and labor saving devices. Both to make the mines safer and to produce more coal with fewer men, steam, diesel and electrically operated loading, cutting and haulage machines were being tested and deployed through- out the industry. By the end of the decade, productivity was soaring and mules were increasingly being sent to pasture. However, as coal operators battled miners for control of the future of the industry, coal also faced competition from the increasingly powerful oil indus- try and many progressives hoped and predicted that, in fact, the coal age was coming to an end. In Coal Age's first issue, new Chief Editor Floyd W. Parsons, directly addressed the millions of men then work- ing in the industry and promised them the new publication "will furnish you a schooling that will make it easy to climb *Coal Age, January 16,1912 32 www.coalage.com 100th Anniversary Special Issue August 2012

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Coal Age - AUG 2012