Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890-1930

by Price V. Fishback

Overview

While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on the struggle to organize unions, this work offers a more diverse and quantitative examination of the labor market. It regards the economic lives of the bituminous coal miners in the early twentieth century. Fishback's analytic framework encompasses competition among employers for labor, the legal environment, institutional development in response to transactions costs as well as the impact of labor unions on the coal industry. Utilizing economic theory and statistics, Fishback reveals the models hidden in the descriptions of events, and then tests their internal consistency as well as the hypotheses they generate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195067255
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/28/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.49(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.07(d)
Lexile:	1480L (what's this?)

About the Author

University of Arizona

Table of Contents

1.	The Miners' Choices: Voice or Exit	3
2.	The Analytical Framework	11
	The Implications of Competition	11
	The Impact of Collective Action and Unions	14
	Summary of Implications	16
3.	The Coal Labor Market, 1890-1930	19
	Long-term Trends in the Coal Product Market	19
	Exercising Voice Through the Union	23
	Competition Among Employers for Labor	25
	The Miners' Mobility	27
	The Miners' Information	31
	Summary	35
4.	Working in a Coal Mine	42
	Tonnage Men	42
	Daymen	45
	Management	47
	Rewards in the Occupational Hierarchy	49
5.	Methods of Wage Payment	60
	Piece Rates, Time Rates, and Transactions Costs	60
	Piece Rates and Quality Control	65
	Piece Rates and Variation in Mine Conditions	68
	Summary	73
6.	Dig Sixteen Tons and What Did You Get? Earnings	79
	Why Become a Miner? High Hourly Earnings	80
	Annual Earnings	83
	The Worker's Choice	84
	Trends in Real Earnings	88
	Regional Comparisons Within Coal Mining	91
	Summary	97
7.	Death's Taken a Mighty Toll for Coal, Coal, Coal	102
	The Extent and Nature of Coal Accidents	102
	Wages and Accident Rates	108
	Unions and Safety	111
	Government Regulation of Safety	112
	Changes in Liability Laws	118
	Compensation and Accident Prevention	120
	Summary	125
8.	Did Coal Miners "Owe Their Souls to the Company Store"?	133
	The Limits on Store Monopoly	134
	Why Did Companies Own Stores?	135
	Store Prices	136
	Were Miners Forced to Buy at the Store?	141
	Conclusions	147
9.	The Company Town	152
	The Nature of Company Housing	152
	Why Did Companies Own Housing?	155
	Monopoly Ownership?	155
	The "Necessity" of Company Ownership	157
	A Device to Prevent Collective Action	159
	Model Towns	161
	Sanitation in Coal Towns During the 1920s	161
	Sanitation in Company Towns	163
	Sanitation in Company versus Independent Towns	164
	Conclusions	165
10.	Coal Mines as Melting Pots	171
	The Geographic Location of Blacks and Immigrants	172
	The Limited Nature of Discrimination in West Virginia	176
	Wage Rates and Earnings	176
	Differences in Workplace Safety	178
	Positioning in the Job Hierarchy	179
	The Impact of Competition on Segregated Schools	184
	Housing Segregation	186
	Segregation Across Mines	188
	Black Workers in Alabama	190
	Black Workers and the UMWA	190
	Summary	191
11.	What Did Miners Gain from Strikes?	198
	Strike Activity in Bituminous Coal Mining	199
	Differences in Strike Activity Within the Coal Industry	203
	The Pecuniary Gains and Losses from Strikes	205
	Violence During Strikes	212
	Conclusions	215
12.	Conclusions	221
Appendix A	Calculating Earnings for Workers in Coal Mining and Manufacturing	225
	Annual Earnings	225
	Hourly Earnings	226
Appendix B	Sources of Data for Panel of Twenty-three Coal States from 1901 to 1930	234
	Accident Rates	234
	Coal Prices, Technological Variables, Strikes, Union Strength, and Mine Size	235
	Wage Rates	236
	Workers' Compensation Legislation	237
	State Mining Legislation and Enforcement	238
Appendix C	Estimating the Relationship Between Wages and Accident Rates	242
Appendix D	A Theoretical Model of Accident Prevention by Miners and Employers	250
	The Representative Miner	251
	The Operator	253
	Combining the Results	254
Appendix E	Measuring Segregation in Job Hierarchies	256
Appendix F	An Empirical Test of the Influence of Coal Companies on Equalizing Black and White Schools in West Virginia	262
Appendix G	Piece Rate Regressions for West Virginia Counties	266
	Index	271

Editorial Reviews

"A stimulating and lucid reassessment of a major area of US labor history....This is an excellent example of historical economics."—Business History

"A fascinating piece of iconoclasm. Fishback brings to bear an impressive range of evidence and argument....This cliometric investigation is one that anyone interested in labor economics, labor relations, or the coal industry should read."—Industrial and Labor Relations Review

"An excellent quantitative history of an important subject, effectively combining economic theory and empirical analysis. An important source for researchers, it should also provide a valuable case study for teachers of economic history or the economics of organizations."—Journal of Economic Literature

"Students of labor relations in the turn-of-the-century coal industry will find Soft Coal, Hard Choices an invaluable reference. But it deserves to be read more broadly, for it provides a compelling demonstration of the value of the economists' analytical tools for understanding labor history."—Journal of Economic History

"Price Fishback insists that economic organizations of all kinds, including even coal mining and company towns, can and should be examined in a disciplined way. His facinating treatment breathes new life into these issues and will be of interest to students of labor and economic organization alike."—Oliver E. Williamson, iversity of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher