Matewan Massacre: Landmark Struggle For Miner & Worker Rights 101 Years Ago, May 19, 1920

[appalachiablue]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016293711

X-Post from Editorials.

[Botany]

1. The coal companies owned you back in the day.

They paid you in scrip. That was only good @ the company store so you wound up always in debt to the company
and before the interstate highways, bridges, better roads, and so on it was really hard to escape the area too.

[appalachiablue]

2. Absolutely, they also owned your home, ran the

school, church and about everything else in many communities. Medieval.

Factory workers in urban centers were charged for the chairs they sat in to work, and if they broke a needle it was deducted from their pay. Brutal times..

[Botany]

3. And in some cases "they" made sure that the gauge of the RxR tracks was good for hauling timber ...

... and coal but not so good for passenger trains. I tried to explain this to my son a few years ago
as we passed a New River Company Store on Rt. 612 in W.V. how it was when we went there
to go rafting but I don't think I got through. "They" had you up in the hills and so you worked
coal, went to the company store, and became angry @ outsiders. However the mine owners lived
in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, NYC, Florida and Charleston.