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.

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1911-1919 ments. "The apparatus was designed with the idea that it might be put into service much quicker than the older model," though some tweaks were added through- out 1911. Through August 1914 and the outbreak of the World War I, more than 8,000 different self-contained breathing apparatus units of differing designs had been installed in the U.S. for mining work. However, little of this technology with being developed in America, and, as Europe slid into war, the Federal Bureau of Mines and others were forced to develop technologies at home. None of these were as affective as the Draeger units that were immediately in high demand following the end of hostilities in late 1918. gLabor: The Road to Industrial Warfare Nineteen weeks into publication, Coal Age attempted to strike a neutral position on the subject of organized labor. In the February 17, 1912, editorial titled "Where Do We Stand?" the editors boldly stated: "Treading on what is supposed to be dan- gerous ground, we wish to assert right now that we are not opposed to Unionism when labor is organized on a sane basis and conducted for the good of the majority... However, we abhor those leaders who are traitors to the cause of the men, and who grow fat on the suffer- ings of a misguided and trusting body of fellow-workmen." That stance was to be tested through- out the decade and particularly into the 1920s as labor actions grew into more vio- lent bouts of industrial warfare. Beginning with the Cabin and Paint Creek strikes in West Virginia in 1912- 1913 and in particular the Ludlow Massacre in April 1914, Coal Age took readers to the front lines, and presented readers with an accounting of the battles being fought for worker rights and safety. But beginning with the declaration of war in 1918, criticism of both the war and agi- tating against increased production was deemed illegal. Many union organizers were jailed and Coal Age's editorials took on a propagandist bent. The terrible details of the Ludlow strike and the violence that ensued clearly galva- nized the editors and readers throughout the 42 www.coalage.com spring of 1914. The magazine ran a "Colorado Strike" section for several issues along with first hand accounts, legal docu- ments and dozens of images—many taken at the front. "The disturbance in Colorado has been permitted to grow until, no longer a strike, it has assumed the proportions of a war. Probably 87 persons have been killed and at least nine plants have been burned. The state militia is without pay and conse- quently campaigning is hampered. Both northern and southern Colorado is affected." Even after U.S. troops entered the field, mass violence continued throughout the state as enraged miners fought operators near Boulder, Denver and Trinidad to the south. 100th Anniversary Special Issue With the entire nation's eyes on Ludlow and mine owner John D. Rockefeller com- ing under fierce criticism, the coal operators lined up against organized labor, socialism, the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., aka the Wobblies), and mob rule. Both sides eventually looked to the federal govern- August 2012

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