Dark, dreary mines : bituminous coal in the United States, 1865-1900
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In 1900, the bituminous coal industry was highly competitive—a fact that set it apart from many other industries. Both miners and the people who operated the mines believed that too many miners and too many mines produced too much coal. The competition made the industry dysfunctional; miners regularly had too little work to do. This dissertation focuses on the groups that caused this problem and those who tried to fix it. It answers questions about how labor unions came to be considered monopolies at the same time that bituminous coal had no monopoly. Railroads caused mines to open because they needed traffic. Highly speculative, very expensive, and politically connected new railroads in the southern Appalachian Mountains were particularly desperate to recoup their costs. Coal provided a solution. Railroads offered preferential freight deals to those to whom they owed money and pursued other means of influencing the coal market. As a result, railroads expanded the scope of the coal market and intensified competition within and among coal-mining regions. The steel industry also contributed to the dysfunction. Andrew Carnegie, the nation's largest steel producer, developed a close partnership with Henry Clay Frick, the nation's largest producer of metallurgical coal. The close partnership seemed to portend stability for Frick's coal company. The steel industry was remarkably stable—exactly the opposite of the bituminous coal industry. Carnegie, by investing deeply, helped Frick quickly grow his business beyond even Carnegie's demands for coal. While Frick wanted to use his excess capacity to bring stability to the coal industry, Carnegie wanted to use Frick's excess capacity to control his competitors. Carnegie, who always had the upper hand, always won out, and the coal industry suffered as a result. Coal mine operators made slim or sometimes no profits. Coal miners suffered even more. In what was known as the Central Competitive Field, miners and operators teamed up to try to bring stability to the industry in a series of Joint Conferences of Miners and Operators. They looked to maintain power against the railroads by forming democratic associations to fix wages and ensure profits to operators. They had measured success in the 1880s and 1890s. But by the end of the century, changing tactics and decreasing attention to democracy led them to more closely resemble a trust.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Adams, Branden |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Campbell, James T |
| Degree supervisor | White, Richard, 1947- |
| Thesis advisor | Campbell, James T |
| Thesis advisor | White, Richard, 1947- |
| Thesis advisor | Hobbs, Allyson Vanessa |
| Degree committee member | Hobbs, Allyson Vanessa |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Branden Adams. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Branden Adams
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