Regardless of what their state government might or might not do to protect them, the miners of West Virginia had to rely on themselves and their buddies, rather than on company fire bosses and state mine inspectors, whose numbers were few and whose visits were infrequent. Coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad Down, Down, Down to break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood., President John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, convention badge, 1936. Wages are shown in both contemporary Yen and US dollars. Work clothes, work shirts, dress shirts, dress pants, trousers, vests, suits, dress gloves, overcoats, winter coats, fur caps and collars, neck ties, belts and suspenders, caps and hats, nightwear, socks, shoes, boots, pocket knives, pocket watches, toupes, razors, smoking pipes. At suppertime, youngsters like Frank would sit with the men on a pile of slate and listen as veterans of the mine would sing songs, spin yarns, and tell jokes; they would rib the boys, trick them for laughs, and tell them tall tales of the devilish apparitions that appeared to them down in the hole. West Virginias drift mines were cut into the mountains horizontally and its slope mines descended gradually into the earth. This answer is: Study guides. Government Documents Department, Ellis Library Source: BLS, Shows the wages of a variety of occupations both in and outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. Source: BLS, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1930. The mine operators assumed that if they paid a worker according to the number of tons he loaded, they would foster a competitive climate underground; and in a sense, the tonnage system worked this way. Source: U.S. Federal Trade Commission report. Source: BLS, Shows the daily wages of workers in the glass factories of northern France. Shows average charge per case for appendicitis, childbirth, heart troubles, cancer, dental problems and more. Shows the wages of Japanese mining workers by gender and age. Shows pay tables based on years of service,for Army and Navygenerals, admirals, colonels, lieutenants, captains, ensigns, etc. Table shows average 1929 and 1931 weekly wages of full-time store employees, managers, and supervisors by kind and size of chain and location. Shows data for Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroitand otheradditional cities on pages5-9. Chart shows median wages of women employed in Philadelphia households as chambermaids, cleaners, cooks, waitresses, laundress, seamstress, and children's nurses (nannies.) Frank Keeney left no account of how he felt the day he entered the mine portal, but one imagines the dread that might have accompanied a ten-year-old boys first trip into the hole. in FOREIGN COUNTRIES, FOOD Also shows average family size in each state. 412. Most of their houses had images of union president John L. Lewis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Jesus. Table 41 in this source shows the average salary for all teachers in elementary and secondary schools in New York state, not including NYC. This was the room and pillar method of mining common in the Appalachian bituminous coalfields. As the men removed one pillar after another, the wooden posts used to support the mine top would be strained as the roof started getting heavy. The wood would then creak and groan and then splinter as the miners heard the roof working above their heads and planned their retreat accordingly. Describes the labor policy of South Africa in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. School and office supplies: Average earnings by occupation and districts. The workday ended at 5:30 in the evening when the sunlight had already faded over the mountains. View object record Miner's hat, about 1930 Source: The tables show pay for employees engaged in the manufacture of automobiles, trucks, car bodies and parts. Wages are shown in German marks. Wages are shown in Italian lire. Describes the labor policy of Mexico in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Dresses, skirts, blouses, suits, patterns for sewing frocks,, dress gloves, shawls, sweaters, silk undergarments, pajamas, union suits, corsets, gowns, stockings, hats, winter coats, fur coats, winter gloves and mittens, shoes, purses and bags, diamond rings, necklaces and jewelry, brooches, perfume, wigs. Source: the Historian of the U.S. Aboveground, many miners suffered at the hands of the company men who short-weighed tonnage a man had loaded or docked his pay because slate was found mixed in with the coal. Few words meant more to mine workers than manliness, a quality that connoted dignity, respectability, defiant egalitarianism, and patriarchal male supremacy, in the words of historian David Montgomery. 45-57. Source: BLS, Shows the cost of foodstuffs, clothing, and other necessities in Hungary. These were the underground attitudes Frank Keeney absorbed as he entered manhood as a coal miner. The craftiness and deftness of the best colliers was most evident when they performed the riskiest task of all. Covers more than 1,200 cities. Shows wages by occupation grouped by industries, with breakouts for males and females. how much did coal miners get paid in the 1950s. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, March 1932, The "Service Industries" chapter in this source breaks out wages paid to workers in hospitals, hotels, bowling alleys, theaters, parks, churches, country clubs, athletic clubs and yacht clubs, advertising agencies, banks, laundries, schools/colleges, and restaurants (making no distinction between waiters, cooks or bus boys). 408, Shows the wages of a variety of occupations in the capital of Argentina. Coal diggers gave up some of their hard-earned pay to aid fellow miners when they were sick or injured, and when a mine exploded, they risked their lives to rescue the survivors trapped inside. At the far end of the room, the miner lay down on his side and cut under the bottom of the coal face with his pick, inching his way into the cut and hoping the coal was hard enough not to collapse on him. Former Timeline picture editor. The carpenters, mechanics, mule skinners, and other mine employees, who enjoyed no such latitude, were known by pit-face miners as company men. By contrast, the pit-face miners saw themselves as autonomous workmen who labored for themselves as well as for the company. Published 1921. Covers occupations in the building trades, metal trades, printing trades, coal mining and more. 358, Average hours and earnings by occupation and district. Wages are shown in Brazilian milreis and contemporary US dollars. Cabinets and cookware. Source: National Education Association of the United States. Wages are shown in Sweden kronor. Industrial home work was most common in clothing manufacturing and tobacco industries (rolling cigars, etc.) Lists single-unit prices for barbital, benzoyl peroxide, benzocaine, aspirin, quinoline, and more, showing proprietary and coined drug names. His salary was paid entirely by coal companies. Wages are shown in both US and English currency. Prices are shown in contemporary US dollars. West Virginias mine safety laws were the weakest in the nation. There is also a table showing, Shows the value of multiple currencies in US dollars in the years of. Coal mine owners and superintendents rarely went underground. Sporting goods: Scroll forward and back to see the various cities for which average food prices are available. Wages are shown in yen. This article reprinted from a January 1923 edition of, This source quotes medians (the mid-point, with 50% falling below the line), first quartiles (25% falling below) and third quartiles (75% falling below). One statute required operators to print maps of their mines, but it excluded any provisions for enforcing this requirement. In 1928, halfof all families had a combined family income of $2000 or less. Three decades earlier a boy about the same agea newly emancipated slavehad worked in the same minefield. Another statute required employers to hire pit bosses to examine every working place in the mine, but only as often as practicable. A third rule required the managers to water the coal dust, but only when they detected a dangerous level of gas. Click for more info about the kind of home a family earning less than $2,500 annually could buy in 1928. Gasoline cost an average21.7 per gallon in 1929. It provided a $1.20-a- day wage increase effective Jan, and an increase of 80 cents a day beginning April 1, 1959. Shows the hourly and weekly wages for 12 principal industries throughout Germany. But on some weeks, a miner might work only two or three days because the railroad failed to supply enough coal cars, or because the mine needed repairs. See "Blood donation" in. Infant's: Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. The following two tables shows the average daily earnings of industrial and building workers by occupation as well as in Moscow, Leningrad, and the Ural mountain region. Source: BLS Source: BLS, See fairly comprehensive coverage of this topic in Appendix 23, "Charges for various kinds of medical services" in, Fee schedules established by the Ohio State Medical Association for. The 1920 Montgomery Ward mail order catalog showed the price of. 1920, Wages by occupation - Manchuria, 1920-1921, Daily and monthly wage earnings - Soviet Union, 1926-1927, Average yearly wages in the Soviet Union, 1929-1932, salaries paid school teachers throughout Russia, seldom exceed 12 rubles per month in late 1923, Agricultural wages - Switzerland in 1914, 1921, 1930, Earnings and prices - Switzerland, 1920-1921, Wages in Great Britain, France and Germany (with addendum for Switzerland), Minimum wage legislation in various countries, Comparative wage rates in the U.S. and in foreign countries, 1927, Wages paid on steamships by country and occupation, 1922, wages paid to Chinese and Lascar (Indian or southeast Asian) employees, Farm family incomes in Wake County, North Carolina - 1926, Foods - Average retail prices over time, 1923-36, Foods - Average retail prices across 39 cities, 1920-1928, corn meal, rice, potatoes, granulated sugar, coffee and tea, onions, navy beans, prunes, raisins, canned salmon, evaporated milk, margarine, lard, oats, corn flakes, wheat cereal, macaroni, canned baked beans, canned corn, canned peas, canned tomatoes, bananas, oranges, Food price averages for each year from 1890-1970, Cigarette, cigar and rolling papers - Los Angeles, 1921, Farm houses in Iowa - Value and size, 1923, Sears homes with costs to build, 1908-1939, Cost of materials to build a Sears home, ca. This table covers pages 357-360 in this source. for rural households in the U.S. and selected foreign countries. Salt operators eventually hired more white or free-black laborers due to the risk of investing money in bondsmen, who frequently were killed or injured in the mines. Compares average retail prices for drug-store items at independent stores and chain stores in Cincinnati and Washington DC. The correct use of explosives depended on the miners skill and knowledge of how to drill, how much powder to use, and how to damp a charge properly. Other enslaved African Americans escaped from the salt works to Ohio, a free state only 60 miles away. Source: BLS, Shows the earnings over different times for both government employees and manual workers in Hamburg. Shows the "living wage" per week for different metropolitan areas of Australia. Wages shown in 1931 US dollars. Source: BLS, Shows the hourly wages for men and women in Finnish unions. Between 12th and 14th Streets COST OF LIVING Mine foremen attempted various forms of industrial discipline to maximize productivity, but in the early 1900s, coal miners experienced little of the supervision foremen and factory managers imposed on workers; in fact, veteran colliers often became surly when a mine foreman came by their place on his little scooter to check on them. Wages are shown in Brazilian milreis. Wages are shown in French francs. Some stopped the cars by jamming pieces of wood into the spokes. In West Virginias colliers, miners were paid 49 cents per ton of clean coal, compared with 76 cents in the unionized mines of Ohio. Part of a section on Negro women's wages. Wages are shown in contemporary U.S. dollars. Conversely, a dollar earned in 1928 had the same buying power as abut $15 in the year 2020. Links to government documents and primary sources listing retail prices for products and services, as well as wages for common occupations. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce. Wages are based on the average weekly full-time positions from large cities. Broken out by men's and women's jobs. Source: BLS Bulletins. Shows salaries at the state, county and city levels. Source: BLS. Next came preparations for extracting the coal. 2-4. 365-372. Includes both land and buildings. Managers liked immigrants because they worked for low wages. Source: Federal Power Commission. Shows police department salaries for cities over 100,000 population. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages of manual work occupations in Barcelona, Spain. Eventually, his sons and grandsons also worked in the mines. FromTHE DEVIL HERE IN THESE HILLS(Atlantic Monthly Press), now out in paperback. During the 1910s and 1920s, minimum wage laws were adopted by a handful of states and generally applied only to women and children. continue to render these kinds of occupations obsolete. Wages are shown in contemporary U.S. dollars. Many of the reports can be found in. An increase in annual vacation pay was also stipulated.Wage Chronology: Bituminous . Source: Table shows 52 years of time-series prices on individual foods, such as. Miscellaneous: Source: Cost of living and family expenditures in Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas. In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency commissioned photojournalist Jack Corn to document the plight of the American coal miner in Appalachia. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. For example, a dollar earned in 2020 had the same buying power as 7 in 1928. Source: Shows the average hourly wages for various occupation both in and outside of Paris. Every workingman was supposed to have his turn when it came to getting an empty coal car, because each collier deserved an equal opportunity to get his load to the weigh station. Source: BLS, Shows the average wage rates for 19 different occupations in Hamburg, Germany. Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), A Novel of Putin's Russia That Got Its Writer Beaten Up, What Should You Read Next? Before the days of electric cars, many boys served as mule drivers. A settlement was reached when the coal board added an extra pound to wage rates after two-and-a-half days' intensive negotiations at the industry's London headquarters. Source: U.S. Congressional Serial Set vol. Lists ticket prices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and eight more cities in NY, PA, OH and MA. Shows the standard wages for different shift at ports in Antwerp, Belgium. Source: This calculator can be used to determine the historical purchasing power of currency in the United Kingdom from 1270 to 2017. Source: BLS. Inside workers are further classified as (1) miners and laborers who cut and load coal onto conveyors or into mine cars, and (2) all other employees whose occupations relate to transportation, timbering, pumping, ventilation, and other general underground work. Most trapper boys learned how to overcome their fears by watching and listening to the colliers who went underground with them. After the Civil War, industrialization meant a nearly limitless demand for anthracite and bituminous coal, and hundreds of thousands of new jobs spurred a population boom in the region, which stretches from western New York state to Alabama. Wages are shown in German marks. Miners would lie on their backs and use a pick to undercut the coal. Wages shown in litas, and US dollars in parentheses. The need to correct these abuses led the UMWA to demand the employment of a check-weigh man whom the miners could trust. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wage in both yen and US dollars. Prices are shown in German marks. Source: Missouri State Dept of Agriculture. Shows the average weekly hours and hourly wages for workers in the boot and shoe industry. When the smoke cleared, the collier and his buddy would swing their picks to break up large clumps of coal and shovel the smaller lumps into a mine car; it was back-aching work made more painful by the narrowness of the room. Tables are broken down by occupation, sex, and state. Source: BLS, Shows the average wages for an 8 hour work day in Riga within various industry groups. As a novice, Keeney learned the colliers trade from older craftsmenthe skills of cutting the face, setting the charges, and loading the coal without wrenching his back or crippling himself. A man sometimes had to get down on his hands and knees, with his left shoulder, well padded, against the car, bracing himself with his toes against the ties and the dirt of the floor, wrote a former miner, while his partner controlled the brakes to keep the car from rolling back on the pusher if he slipped or grew tired. Back injuries, broken legs, and severed feet and fingers were common. More passenger air fares from other sources: Household items: He later recalled his terror at being lost in a maze of underground rooms when his lamp went out. Keep your hand upon the dollar, Veteran colliers knew competitive individualism bred greed, hostility, thievery, and a disregard for mine safety. Includes clam, lobster, oyster industries and more. Source: Covers elementary schools and junior high schools in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. Salary data for judges inNY, PA, NJ and CT. Women's and children's clothing - Newcomb, Endicott, and Co. Retail prices for imported merchandise, 1922, Rates charges for hospital services, 1928, Health care costs and expenditures, 1923-1925, Average charges by type of medical complaint, 1929-1930, Public colleges - Tuition by institution, 1921-1922, Private colleges - Tuition by institution, 1921-1922, Howard University School of Medicine - Tuition & expenses, 1920-21, The Undertaker's Trade - Services and Prices, Average funeral cost by state and city, 1927, Cost to mail a letter or postcard, 1863-present, Vacation to Yellowstone National Park - Prices in 1920, Consumption expenditures per capita, 1901-1956, Cost of living increase in U.S. large cities, 1913-1941, Income needed for "minimum subsistence" in cities, 1929, Minimum income needed to live in Washington DC, 1920, Cost of living among wage earners, Detroit, 1921, Lynchburg, VA - Cost of living and expenditures, 1928-1929, Ability to pay and standard of living among farmers, 1926, Farm family expenditures in selected states, 1922-1924, Average annual costs of keeping work horses, 1921, Virginia - Cost of living and expenditures, 1928-1929, Calculator: Present-day purchasing power of a historic dollar amount, Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator, Canada - Food and rents by province and city, 1923, Canada - Prices of staple foods, fuel and rent in 1913, 1920-1927, Retail Prices in Czechoslovakia, 1914-1921, Clothing prices - Great Britain, 1914-1921, New Zealand - Food and cigarette retail prices by city, 1921. equal opportunity/access/affirmative action/pro-disabled and veteran employer. Mostly covers manufacturing industries (tobacco was prominent), but there is some data for women who worked in mercantile stores, 5-and10-cent stores, and in laundries. Wages are shown in 1930 US dollars. Wages are shown in Greek drachmas. Shows monthly wages based on the ocean routes traveled: San Francisco to points west, and New York City to points south and east. Immigrants in southern West Virginia comprised some 25 nationalities, including Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Austrians and Russians. Data gathered by the National Industrial Conference Board (a group of industry associations) which used European government publications for information. Women's: Source: BLS, Shows prices of dozens of food and grocery items, soap, coal, wood by the cord, matches by the box and, Shows the amount spent by a typical Canadian family on food, laundry, fuel/lighting, and rent over time. 2012-08-05 00:38:00. Some occupations covered include telephone operators, waitresses, hotel maids, chambermaids, elevator girls, laundry workers, retail clerks, and factory workers in the wood working industry. Wages are shown in Austrian kronen. Dollars. This risk increased enormously when inexperienced miners failed to undercut the coal before blasting and took the risk of shooting on the solid.. But you get a certain amount of desperation, where youre willing to believe stuff even though you know in your gut its not true.. In 1907, West Virginia appointed John Nugent as superintendent of immigration. Cottage and bungalow home designs with illustrations and floor plans in the "Wardway homes" catalog. Source: BLS. Shows by county the price of undeveloped land, plow land and farm land. Religious organizations -Salaries, 1929in. Source: Shows pay for state carpenters, stage electricians, props men, show directors, agents, ushers and more. Shows expenditures by category with prices per article and amounts needed annually for a family of five. Also tells pay for court clerks and marshals. Source: U.S. Bureau of Education. Total Pay. Issues of Telephone engineer & management detail rates for telephone service in many states. Details the price of clothing for men, women, boys and girls on pp. Coal mining wages - Illinois, 1920. Handkerchiefs, slippers, watches, umbrellas, hair brushes and combs, Christmas decorations. Phone (573) 882-0748. Dining room: Source: Howard University, States "the average student probably spends about $700 per year for a college education" and shows, This source shows the cost of funerals and burial in 18 states and in 10 major cities. Shows average dollar amount spent annually in categories such as food, clothing, maintenance of health, personal goods, furniture and more. When young Frank Keeney walked through a mine portal in 1892, perhaps an older miner, maybe a neighbor, offered him some words of consolation or, at least, instruction as they traveled in and outof the mine on what was known as a man trip. Or he might have heard some words of warning from the older boys who led the mules and coal cars back and forth through the door he tended. Without a match he walked, hands held in front of his body, until, by chance, someone found him and gave him a light. Literary giants have thoughts on the new edits to Roald Dahl's works. Data is separated by sex and age. Source: BLS. Coffee cost an average 47 per pound in 1920. Before the 1930s, many boys worked in mines. Source: U.S. Dept of Agriculture. Source: BLS Monthly labor review, Apr 1926, Shows the average retail prices of various foodstuffs throughout Switzerland. Link navigates to a record containing multiple years worth of this publication. MORE PRICES in the U.S. Wages are shown in both German marks and contemporary U.S. dollars. "The fees and cost of books, instruments, board, room, laundry and incidentals will hardly be less than $400 per session of thirty-two weeks." Tables 6-13 show farm land prices by county in IA, MN, ND, ID, OH, KY, NC and TX. Jump directly to prices for: meats and eggs, butter, cheese, milk, bread and flour, corn meal, rice, potatoes, granulated sugar, coffee and tea, onions, navy beans, prunes, raisins, canned salmon, evaporated milk, margarine, lard, oats, corn flakes, wheat cereal, macaroni, canned baked beans, canned corn, canned peas, canned tomatoes, bananas, oranges, and more. ), athletic gear, boxing, baseball, & tennis supplies, Prices of articles bought by farmers, 1909-1924, Prices paid by farmers for household items, 1910-1960, Clothing prices paid by farmers, 1910-1960, Women's clothing catalog - B. Altman & Co., Summer 1920. Totals are shown in Canadian dollars. One threat the animals and birds could detect was the odor of gas that oozed from the ancient vegetation compacted over the ages. Wages are shown in both Italian lire and contemporary U.S. dollars. Source: 1930 Census of Agriculture. Shows the average daily wages of workers in various industries in Riga as well as other parts of Latvia. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (July 1930), Shows the average wages of multiple occupation in the mining industry. Source: Shows wages by occupation in Belfast, Cork, Glasgow, Dundee, Cardiff, London, Manchester and more. Tells cost of public transportation and railway fares as well. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin #682, chapter 9: "Monthly earnings of professional engineers," pp. Details the price of various building materials on pp. Provides detailed breakouts by occupation. Source: BLS, Shows the average wages of Spanish agricultural workers in different cities. Click "more" for direct links to wages in each occupation. After undercutting the face, the collier turned the crank on a five-and-a-half-foot-long breast auger and pushed with all his weight to bore a hole high on the face. Ukrainian immigrant Nick Gurski began working in the Boone County coal mines in the 1920s. Farm laborers in Missouri earned an average $41.90/month in 1921. The study pays particular attention to women who made less than the average wage. . The regions first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. View object record Steam whistle With industrialization, workers lost control of when to start, eat, and end their day. Shows wages and prices in kronen, along with the exchange rate to translate into U.S. dollars. Engineers working for Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co. used this model to visualize the coal seams and design their mines. Source: BLS, Shows the cost of various foodstuffs in the Riga markets. After the Civil War, industrialization meant a nearly limitless demand for anthracite and bituminous coal, and hundreds of thousands of new jobs .
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