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Posted on Mon, Oct. 27, 2008

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1919 coal strike caught nation's eye

BY BECCY TANNER

The Wichita Eagle

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

"The best they can do is to put men in jail. And we are not afraid of that. We know what we are up against. We will stay in jail until we are carried out in boxes before we will yield an inch in this fight. The miners of Kansas cannot fight this battle all alone. But I have confidence that the miners of America and organized labor generally will come to our aid, because we are fighting for them as well as for ourselves."

-- Alexander Howat,imprisoned leader of the Kansas United Mine Workers, 1919

On Nov. 1, 1919, more than 10,000 coal miners in Kansas put down their pickaxes and went on strike.

They wanted a six-hour day, a five-day workweek and a 60 percent raise.

The idea of miners on strike did not sit well with then-Gov. Henry J. Allen, in part because the state was facing an energy crisis and public anxiety was running high.

Winter was coming, and coal, which heated and fueled not only Kansas but the nation, was in demand.

The Kansas miners were part of a nationwide coal strike involving more than 400,000 miners.

The new governor had his hands full:

Most of the state's institutions and schools had closed and the state had only a two-week supply of coal.

The leader of the Kansas District 14 United Mine Workers, Alexander Howat, was advocating more rights for the Kansas coal workers. Steam shovels were beginning to replace the workers and Howat accused the mine's owners of using unsafe devices in the mines to set off blasts.

Allen stepped in and created the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations, whose purpose was to prevent disputes between management and labor. The action brought national attention to Kansas.

"It is the duty of government, and it has the inherent power, to protect the people whose welfare is dependent upon it," Allen wrote in November 1919. "If government is to mean anything, then its obligation is to prevent innocent people from becoming the victims of a fuel famine, which, in the course of events, is both unnatural and unnecessary."

After negotiations with the miners failed, Howat was imprisoned, the state took charge of the mines, and Allen called on Kansans to volunteer to mine coal.

During the fall of 1919, more than 10,000 college-age students and returning World War I veterans and the Kansas National Guard answered the call.

The volunteer miners worked in cold, rainy weather and together mined more than 700 train carloads of coal, aiding at least 200 Kansas communities on the brink of emergency conditions.

The state's control of the mines lasted less than a month before the strike was resolved, but it was enough to draw the nation's attention to Kansas.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned several of the Industrial Court's rulings. The Kansas Legislature abolished the court in 1925.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.