AceHistoryDesk – Today in History – On October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt met with miners and coalfield operators from the anthracite coalfields in Pennsylvania in an attempt to settle the strike, then in its fifth month. The country relied on coal to power commerce and industry and anthracite or “hard coal” was essential for domestic heating. The miners had left the anthracite fields on May 12, demanding wage increases, union recognition, and a shorter workday. As winter approached, public anxiety about fuel shortages and the rising cost of all coal pushed Roosevelt to take unprecedented action.

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When he met with miners and coalfield operators in Washington, Roosevelt became the first president to personally intervene in a labor dispute. Presenting himself as a representative of the millions of people affected by the strike, he urged both parties to resolve their differences and the miners to return to work.

Although United Mine Workers of America President John Mitchellagreed to negotiate, the coalfield operators reiterated their opposition to the miners’ demands generally and to the union specifically and resisted dealing with the workers’ union representatives. Finally, in order to avert what he saw as a national catastrophe, Roosevelt threatened to send military forces to operate the Pennsylvania mines.

On October 23, 1902, the miners returned to work after both sides agreed to settle the strike based on the recommendations of the Anthracite Coal Commission, a body appointed by the president. Ultimately, the miners won a ten percent increase in pay and a nine-hour workday. The United Mine Workers of America, however, did not win recognition from the mine operators. The commission also failed to address the problems of child labor and hazardous working conditions.

President Roosevelt’s efforts to end the dispute met with public approval—especially important in an election year. Urging a crowd of New Yorkers to return a Republican majority to Congress that November, Secretary of War Elihu Root declared:

When our President, in his brave and direct way, acting out of his deep feeling for the needs of his people, undertook to get coal for them against the coming winter by urging the substitution of peace for war in the anthracite region, Mr. Hill in New York and Mr. Olney in Boston condemned him, but I have an idea that the people of the country do not agree with them; and I have an idea also that his action will prove in the end to have resulted, not merely in getting the coal, but in making a valuable contribution to the peaceful and reasonable process of development I have been describing.

Speech of Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of War, at Cooper Union, New York, October 30, 1902. Washington, D.C.: Gibson Bros, printers, 1902. African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection. Rare Book & Special Collections Divisionnone

Twelve Years Later: Ludlow

An ethnically diverse group which had been galvanized by the murder of labor organizer Gerry Lippiatt, the miners overcame barriers of language and culture and voted to strike.

Their demands included recognition of the UMW, a ten percent increase in wages on the tonnage rates, an eight-hour workday, and the right both to buy provisions outside of company stores and live outside company housing. Evicted from company housing, the miners spent a harsh Colorado winter in tent colonies set up by the UMW. Throughout that winter and into the spring, they remained near the mines, warding off strikebreakers and the armed assaults of the Baldwin-Felts Company. Even after the Colorado National Guard appeared on the scene, lending weight to the company’s hired guns, the miners refused to admit defeat. On April 20, 1914, guardsmen began firing on the tent colony. That evening, eleven children and two women died in a fire set by the National Guard. In the wake of the Ludlow Massacre, mine management began to avoid direct confrontation with strikers in favor of negotiated settlements.

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In 1913, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA or UMW) attempted to organize the coal miners of John D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation in Ludlow, Colorado.