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

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. Did miners really owe their souls to the company store? Did they receive lower pay than in other jobs, despite the constant danger they faced? Was the quality of life in mining towns uniformly dismal? Soft Coal, Hard Choices answers these and other questions. The book contradicts many myths using evidence ranging from company records to oral histories to statistics collected by state and federal governments. While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on union struggles, Fishback discloses the beneficial impact of competition among employers for labor. He further examines the impact of legal environment and the development of institutions like company towns. Careful analysis using economic theory and statistics reveals numerous insights about the welfare of coal miners in the early 1900s. Unions helped miners obtain higher wages, but so did competition among employers. Employers were unable to exploit local and housing monopolies because the miners had the option of moving from town to town. Workers choosing between mining and other jobs faced a hard choice between similar alternatives. High hourly earnings and freedom from close supervision in mining helped compensate miners for accepting more risk of accidents and layoffs. The combination of narrative and analysis in Soft Coal, Hard Choices will interest historians, economists, and the general reader alike. Price Fishback, an economist at the University of Arizona, has looked backward and studied the economic welfare of the bituminous coal miner during the industry's ascendancy, from 1890 to 1930. The result is an impressive work which should be of interest to all students of Appalachia. His account combines economic theory and quantitative evidence to examine the historical record. There are chapters on the coal market during the period as well as appendices presenting the technical basis for the author's work. Chapters are devoted to a discussion of wages and the role of the unions, accident/safety legislation and workers compensation. Living conditions in the company town and the role of the company store are explored as well as the economic development of the region. Labor shortages, subsequent hiring of minorities, and the social problems associated with discrimination and segragation are discussed. Finally, Fishback examines the strike data and draws conclusions about why miners chose to strike Making use of economic theory and statistics, this study examines the economic lives of American coal miners in the early part of the 20th century. It emphasizes the competition among employers for labour, legal rights, the state of the labour market and the impact of trade unions