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1930-1939 In the June 1933 issue, Sydney Hale and staff begrudgingly accepted Roosevelt's New Deal and the beginning of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) knowing it meant national price, production and com- petition controls, and compulsory unioniza- tion. The industry was falling to new bottoms every day and even mechanization was unable to create a floor. It was up to the government. "Rugged individualism has had a glorious tradition which, emotionally, it is not easy to abandon. Yet even the most enthusiastic exponents of this tradition must admit that cherished social and economic standards have broken down under the impact of the industrial depression. Unfortunately there seems little reason to believe that these can be built back up as rapidly as national necessities demand with- out the government support and sanctions implied in this bill." The National Recovery Act (NRA) and NIRA stopped the bleeding by establishing unprecedented government control over all sectors of the economy, from coal mining to publishing Coal Age. For that reason, even the magazine's masthead began to fly the NRA's Blue Eagle symbol in the October 1933 issue. "The great experiment in tri- partnership of industry, labor and the feder- al government in bituminous coal mining is now under way. By the terms of the code of fair competition, effective October 2, trade practices against which leaders in the industry have inveighed for years are specif- ically outlawed," wrote Hale in that month's editorial. One of the biggest changes brought by these acts was the adoption of a national minimum wage. "In the majority of cases, these minima represent…substantial increases over the rates prevailing prior to the enactment of the law…Definitely peg- ging wages puts an end to that particularly vicious form of competition under which the wage earner was the chief victim of a frantic scramble for tonnage at any price." A second provision of the NRA was the estab- lishment of "fair market prices" below which no operator could fall under legal penalty. Though Hale knew there would be critics both of the new policies and Coal Age's endorsement of them, he credited "the groups of coal men who labored through the hot Washington summer, frequently surren- dering cherished opinions and prerogatives in the cause of cooperation, that this great experiment might be possible." Along with minimum wages came union representation and the open shop nation- wide. Labor's incredible victory came straight out of the jaws of defeat. From a 70 www.coalage.com Night on Summer Hill. Strip shovels now work where Ginter stumbled over "stone coal in 1791. *Coal Age, October 1934 100th Anniversary Special Issue 1924 high, organized labor had lost tremen- dous support—or at the very least, it had lost the ability to represent workers throughout much of the eastern coalfields, particularly in battleground states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Roosevelt's election not only changed that but brought to reality 60 years of liberal, progressive and socialist fantasies. Writing in the October 1933 issue Hale noted, "Three months ago, recognition of the United Mine Workers in the bituminous fields east of the Indiana-Ohio state line was confined to southern Ohio, a few scattered operations in Pennsylvania and several companies in northern West Virginia: today, thanks to the new freedom granted orga- nized labor by the NIRA and to direct presi- dential intervention, operators throughout the great Appalachian region have signed wage agreements with the Lewis organiza- tion. The sheer drama of this swift revival and expansion of union power needs no the- ater; the task of consolidating these gains and of making the new contracts effective instruments for the betterment of the whole industry, however, is much less spectacular but infinitely more important." Coal Age published the entirety of the new NIRA codes for the coal industry that issue as well, a very different blueprint for recovery than what they had proposed just a few issues before—but in many ways, it was able to achieve precisely the same ends. At least, the bottom had been reached, albeit through government fiat. And so marked an end both to the lowest points of the Depression, and of unregulated free-markets. For the next 16 years under Roosevelt and later Truman, and through the beginning of the Reagan-era, the econo- my would be much more regulated, unions would have much more power, and American capitalism would be practiced very differently. Though the Depression was far from over and industrial recovery still far off, 1933 was to borrow from Churchill, the end of the beginning. Stability Brings Recovery & Innovation Throughout 1933, operators, the UMWA and the government worked out new wage scales and the government set new price scales as well. This was in exchange for labor peace, something both sides wanted. Though the agreements all had sunset claus- es, operators, for the most part, agreed to unprecedented controls. In the case of dis- agreements between labor and operators, by law there must be arbitration. "The pro- cedure calls for conferences between the management and the mine committee, after which the dispute is referred to a board of four, two selected by the operators and two by the miner. In case the board fails to agree, the matter is referred to an umpire selected by the board or, in case the board fails to agree, by the NRA Administrator. No consid- eration of disputes is permitted as long as the mine is shut down in violation of the contract," wrote the editors in the March 1934 issue. However, labor peace nationwide was hard to create as both the union and opera- tors jockeyed for position in the various dif- ferent coalfields. Wages and prices were understood not to be equal for each field and for each task. How unequal and who made that decision were basis points for fur- ther strikes and lock outs. In April, Coal Age announced the adoption of a 35-hour work week for much of Appalachia. First adopted in the north, southern operators, particular- ly in Alabama, held out. Strikes brought in the National Guard, who, unlike previously, sided with labor and against the operator's guns. Throughout the various sets of negoti- ations nationwide, the UMWA either was given or achieved preference over other organizations such as the Progressive Miners Union in the Midwest. Though some companies fought the administration out in the courts, others adapted. Though wages trebled, Eugene McAuliffe, president of the Union Pacific Coal Co., was able to report in the July 1934 issue that, through careful and progressive mechanization, his mines were once again August 2012