>From today's Charleston Gazette:
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/Viewpoint/2006010314
January 04, 2006
Bob Miller
# Coal industry's legacy is corruption, death
THROUGHOUT much of the life of West Virginia, coal interests corrupted the political processes, desecrated the environment and brought death and suffering to untold thousands of men, women and children as coal interests ruthlessly pursued profit.
For generations, the coal-producing regions remained a sea of poverty and despair in an ever-prospering nation. Neighboring states always did better, much better. Educational opportunities for young West Virginians were substandard compared to the start in life offered the children of the border states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
West Virginia’s history is one of inferior schools, controlled politics, boom-and-bust cycles, high unemployment, a continual exodus of the brightest and most talented young people, environmental destruction, dismal rural health care, insufficient tax revenues and a lack of political vision for the future.
All of this came to pass because of the millions of tons of coal that lay beneath West Virginia’s wrinkled skin. Coal made a few people wealthy and powerful, and most everybody else poor and subservient.
In December 1900, my father went to work in a Fayette County coal mine. He was 11 years old. He was treated harshly as he labored long hours for 50 cents a day. He survived, but his 13-year-old brother Bernard didn’t. He died in a mine explosion in Raleigh County in 1914.
>From 1900 through 1969, 19,544 West Virginia miners died on the job. An
average of 279 miners died annually during the 70-year period. Tens of
thousands more were injured and maimed and countless others lost their
ability to breathe, suffering from black lung.
During the late 1800s and into the 1930s, West Virginia was not an island in the Caribbean, nor a colonial holding in Africa, nor a dictatorship in Central America. West Virginia was part of the United States, covered by the same Constitution and Bill of Rights as other states. Pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln hung in the schoolrooms and public buildings.
West Virginians spent the same currency, voted for the same presidential candidates, ordered goods from the same mail-order catalogs and served in the same federal military as other Americans.
But West Virginia was unique among the states.
The political structure turned the militia against working people time and again, year after year. Armed force was used to prevent unionization, intimidate men, women and children and put workers in jail.
Legislators knew that company thugs patrolled the coal camps, armed with pistols, rifles and blackjacks, coercing and intimidating the people.
Legislators knew that coal company “detectives” had been given authority to enforce the laws and make arrests through designations as “special constables.” They knew and did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that coal companies were giving large amounts of cash to the sheriffs of coal-producing counties to hire hundreds of deputies armed with guns and badges and give the full authority of law. They did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that workers were being forced to vote the “right way” at the polling places. They knew, but they did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that workers were being blacklisted, and dossiers and physical descriptions were maintained on those who spoke out for a union, or job safety, or questioned the short weighing of their coal.
Legislators knew that union organizers were being arrested and thrown in jail when there was no evidence laws had been broken. They did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that miners and their families were being forced to spend their hard-earned wages at company stores, where prices were inflated and quality was poor. They did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that the mineral wealth of the state was being gobbled up by absentee owners, motivated only by profit and greed. They knew, but did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that corporations were not paying a fair share of taxes to support the services and institutions of state government. They did nothing about it.
Legislators knew that children, many ranging in age from 11 to 15, were working long hours in and about the mines and other industrial sites for meager wages, breaking their health and spirit.
Legislators knew that miners and industrial workers were forced to labor long hours under extremely hazardous conditions.
For years, state lawmakers knew what was happening, but didn’t stand up for the people. Instead, they catered to and were cowed by a wealthy elite.
Miller, a Charleston historian, is a former news reporter and gubernatorial aide.
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