Matewan West Virginia 1920
Reasons behind the Miners uprising in West Virginia in 1900s
The coal industry had become increasingly competitive post 1900s. The larger companies faced a major problem from individual mining units, which had sprung up in thousands due to the read availability of coal, and the lack of standards for equipments as well as cost of labour. During the industrys more desperate years, prices for coal were so low that the larger companies could show a profit only by raising the prices at their company stores and the rent on the houses in their company towns. These tactics, of course, placed the main burden of economic maladjustment squarely upon the backs of the labouring miners. (Brisbin 20)
Because of these issues, West Virginia became a centre for some of the worst mine violence in U.S. history, after World War I. Though, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) had started organizing workers about 1897, the unionization took hold slowly in this region because of anti-union injunctions from the federal judiciary and threats from mine managers and guards. When UMWA tried to organize or, when organized, tried to strike, mine management and the guards normally took extreme action blacklisting strikers, firing them, or using physical coercion. The result was outbreaks of extremely violence, a classical example of which was the Matewan Massacre a shootout between mine detectives and local officials friendly to miners in Matewan. UMWA had agreed not to strike or demand for higher wages during World War I as a patriotic gesture. However, the situation worsened after the World War I as the prices continued to rise, prompting the UMWA to make strong wage demands. (Brisbin 21)
Details of the Battle of Matewan
Matewan is a small mining town in West Virginia. Before the Battle of Matewan, Matewan had witnessed an infamous bloody feud between 1878 and 1891 between two families, which cost the lives of more than a dozen persons. Because of this, Matewan was known as The Home of Hatfields and McCoys after the two warring families. However, the Battle of Matewan had much more significance and far reaching consequences.
Post World War I, Mingo County, where Matewan lies, had strong anti-union sentiment. When the local miners in Matewan had tried to organize themselves in a Union, the local mining company disliked and opposed it vehemently. However, in Mingo County, the law enforcement institutions were sufficiently divided so that the open warfare that broke out between armed miners and the operators forces, here made up of private detectives supplied by the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency of Bluefield, West Virginia. On 19th may 1920 private detectives, hired by the mining company led by Albert Lee Felts, arrived at the Matewan train station to evict the miners from their company-owned homes. They were confronted by the miners, the local sheriff Sid Hatlfield and the Mayor Cable Testerman. Suddenly a shot was fired and in the ensuing battle both Felts brothers along with five other detectives, two miners and the mayor were killed. Five others were wounded. (Hennen 96)
Consequences of the Battle of Matewan
The Battle of Matewan was at the time was considered one of the deadliest gun fights in American history, taking place in a community ripe for an explosion. The following year, on 1st August 1921, an unarmed Sid Hatfield, who had been acquitted for his role in the battle of Matewan, was shot down allegedly by the detectives seeking revenge. This generated further outrage among miners, who marched across West Virginia late in August, to show their support for organized-miners. They were joined by hundreds others, and finally clashed with groups of police. In an unusual show of force by the government, federal troops brought the uprising to an end after the Battle of Blair Mountain, in which 16 persons were killed, most of them miners. (Franklin 98)
By 1920s, American unions, which had been struggling for decades now, were in full retreat. The defeat of the miners at Blair Mountain severely damaged the UMWA, whose membership in West Virginias south-western coal fields dropped drastically, and by 1922 the UMWAs presence had all but vanished from West Virginia. The labour unions took a further step back due to the formation and expansion of American Constitutional Association (ACA) in West Virginia, by industrialists chiefly coal operators, post 1920. The conditions further worsened during the Great Depression a situation that continued through 1920s and early 1930s. The turning point came with the 1933 national Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), Franklin D. Roosevelts fulfilment of his campaign promise to protect workers beaten down by the nations economic disarray. (Hennen 97)
Conclusion
Labour relations have played a very large role in the history of both policing and security in America. In addition, understanding the history of labour-relations is also important as it brought about the development of society as a whole. This is because organized labour brought together people of different ethnic groups and established numerous changes in workplace, such as benefit plans for employees and the establishment of disciplinary procedures based on the concept of due process.
The Battle of Matewan is an important historical incident that served to better the labour relations though the immediate consequences of the same were not fruitful. The armed march and Mingo County strike resulting from the Battle of Matewan was doomed and the South West Virginia coal establishment were saved, as a result. However, the foundation for the labours being aware of their rights and demanding for the same, was laid resulting in labour reforms that were to start a decade late.