The Next Time We Strike: Labor in Utah's Coal Fields, 1900-1933

307 Pages·1992·33.253 MB·English

by  Allan Powell

THE
NEXT TIME
WE
STRIKE

LABOR IN
UTAH'S COAL FIELDS,
1900-1933
ALLAN KENT POWELL
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LOGAN UTAH
Copyright © 1985
Utah State University Press
Logan, Utah 84322
All rights reserved.
Second Printing, 1992
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Powell, Allan Kent.
The next time we strike.
Includes index.
1. Trade-unions-Coal-miners-U tah-History.
2. Collective bargaining-Coal Mining industry-Utah
History. 1. Title
HD6515.M616U87 1985 331.88'122334'09792 84-27005
ISBN 978-0-87421-161-0 pbk
ISBN 978-0-87421-934-0 e-book
For my parents, Leland and Luella Grange
Powell, who met the dangers -and injustices
of coal mining with the conviction that
education held the promise of a better
life for their children.

Contents
Illustrations ...................................... , IX
Map... ............ .......... .................... Xl
Acknowledgements ................................. Xlll
Introduction ...................................... xv
I. A Legacy of Labor and Coal ........................ .
II. The Winter Quarters Mine Disaster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27
III. The 1901 Strike ................................... , 37
IV. The 1903-4 Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 51
V. Intermission for the United Mine Workers of America,
1905-17 ......................................... 81
VI. A New Opportunity: World War I and Afterwards ....... 105
VII. The 1922 Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 121
VIII. The Castle Gate Mine Disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 141
IX. Retrenchment and Disenchantment, 1924-32 ........... , 153
X. The Battle for Control, 1933 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 165
XI. The Union Legacy ................................. 195
XII. Conclusion ....................................... 201
Appendix ......................................... 219
Notes ............................................ 227
Index ............................................ 261

illustrations
PLATE I: Coal miners in Scofield about 1900.
PLATE II: Coal miner and daughter.
PLATE III: Company houses in Sunnyside about 1900.
PLATE IV: Removing bodies from mine after Winter Quarters disaster.
PLATE V: Mr. and Mrs. Abe Luoma and mourning friends.
PLATE VI: Home with three burial caskets in yard.
PLATE VII: Provo burial detachment in Scofield cemetery.
PLATE VIII: Miners in the Bullpen in Price, Utah, April 1904.
PLATE IX: Nephi Company of Utah National Guard during
1903 strike.
PLATE X: Man Trip at Hiawatha.
PLATE XI: United Mine Workers of America convention, 1919.
PLATE XII: Company houses at Consumers, 1936.
PLATE XIII: Burial of Greeks killed at Castle Gate, 1924.
PLATE XIV: Castle Gate after news of mine explosion, 1924.