From the Newcomb-Endicott store, Detroit, Michigan. ), carriages, cribs, high chairs, etc. Besides know-how, the miners depended upon instinct and luck. Shows salaries for teachers ofkindergarten, elementary school, junior high, high school, vocational school, college, and normal schools (teacher training academies). Handkerchiefs, slippers, watches, umbrellas, hair brushes and combs, Christmas decorations. In the US, coal mining is a shrinking industry. Data is broken out byoccupation, sex and district. 484. Shows expenditures among rural Virginia families for food, housing, clothing, automobiles, health insurance, recreation, personal items and more. Wages shown in litas, and US dollars in parentheses. Table shows average 1929 and 1931 weekly wages of full-time store employees, managers, and supervisors by kind and size of chain and location. Heed no operators tale! During the early 1900s, roof falls in the bituminous coal mines killed an average of 886 workers every year, as compared with the 274 deaths per year caused by explosions and fires. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. This is a New Zealand government document. Shows wages and hours for union bricklayers, building laborers, carpenters, cement finishers,hod carriers, inside wiremen, painters, plasterers, plumbers, stonecutters and more. Prices on pp. Email: concannonm@missouri.edu Shows average wages alongside a cost of living index for Germany between 1929-1942. Coal miners homemade prosthetic leg, about 1950. Average earnings by occupation and districts. Living room: This table covers pages 357-360 in this source. Prices are shown in either contemporary US dollars or Chinese coppers. Eventually, his sons and grandsons also worked in the mines. Wages are based on the average weekly full-time positions from large cities. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of foodstuffs and other staple goods in the Mexican capital. Published by the National Industrial Conference Board. 412. From, Average monthly wages by state,with and without board. Some stopped the cars by jamming pieces of wood into the spokes. Furniture, bookcases, carpets and rugs, curtains, hanging lamps, lightbulbs, table and floor lamps, clocks. Source: Shows wages by occupation in Belfast, Cork, Glasgow, Dundee, Cardiff, London, Manchester and more. along with the country of origin, value in that country, transportation charges, duty charges and retail price in the U.S. Includes a photo of most items. Bedroom: Religious organizations -Salaries, 1929in. Phone (573) 882-0748. 45-57. Earnings and prices are shown in Swiss francs. Before the 1920s most miners were independent contractors. Fascinating book that shows various imported items (such as kid gloves, bloomers, silk nightgown, men's pipe, electric flatiron, glass lamp, etc.) Source: BLS, Shows the cost of foodstuffs and other necessities in Greece. By 1910, more Italian immigrants lived in McDowell County than anywhere else in the state. Meal time was cold, cramped, and wet. Veteran colliers knew competitive individualism bred greed, hostility, thievery, and a disregard for mine safety. Prices are shown in Mexican pesos. Coal loaders at the face depended on mule drivers and motor men to honor the old tradition of a square turna custom through which colliers sought to control output and equalize earning opportunities by ensuring that each miner would receive the same number of cars during a workday, in the words of a mine industry historian. Wages are shown in Austrian kronen. The legislature rejected all proposals for reform, however. Dresses, skirts, blouses, suits, patterns for sewing frocks,, dress gloves, shawls, sweaters, silk undergarments, pajamas, union suits, corsets, gowns, stockings, hats, winter coats, fur coats, winter gloves and mittens, shoes, purses and bags, diamond rings, necklaces and jewelry, brooches, perfume, wigs. Table 26 shows wages for laborers with board for every year from 1780-1937; the, In the 1920s, people could sell their blood to hospitals for$35-50 perquart. continue to render these kinds of occupations obsolete. Source: "Income of Lawyers, 1929-1948" in the August 1949 issue of. Wages are shown in both Chervonetz roubles and contemporary U.S. dollars. Includes breakouts by state, source of income, and more. This was the room and pillar method of mining common in the Appalachian bituminous coalfields. Montgomery Ward catalog shows prices of radios and radio supplies on 60+ pages. From. 514. Data is separated by sex and age. $20.00 per week. $180 - $5k. Arranged by occupation and then by city and year. In the words of the popular song Miners Lifeguard, written by a miner from Oak Hill, West Virginia: A miners life is like a sailors, Covers New York City, New Jersey towns, Fall River MA, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Portland OR. Typically, workers could get an advance on pay, in company-issued paper currency, called scrip, or tokens to buy goods. Source: Shows the average hourly wage of a variety of jobs both in and outside of Paris. Coal mining is a dangerous job requiring skill and judgment. Few words meant more to mine workers than manliness, a quality that connoted dignity, respectability, defiant egalitarianism, and patriarchal male supremacy, in the words of historian David Montgomery. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (September 1932). Source: U.S. Congressional Serial Set Vol. Source: Table shows 52 years of time-series prices on individual foods, such as. Tomorrow night at 9pm PBSs American Experience will broadcast The Mine Wars, based on the book. Wages are shown in Latvian rubles. In 1927, "$30 per month was taken as the average minimum expenditure for rent in Boston for the [working class] family of four living on the American standard.". Shows average value of mortgaged homes, average debt remaining on the mortgages and average interest paid on mortgages annually, for 68 cities of 100,000 or more population. The craftiness and deftness of the best colliers was most evident when they performed the riskiest task of all. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1930. Report published in 1923 gives wages for Arkansas women by occupation and race. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin #682, chapter 9: "Monthly earnings of professional engineers," pp. There was little prospect then that coal would be in demand as it is today or that the daily wage of miners would be multiplied 8 to 10 times by 1974. $15 - $30. Chart indicates hourly earnings ranges for piecework at automobile manufacturing companies in Germany. The regions first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. Compares average retail prices for drug-store items at independent stores and chain stores in Cincinnati and Washington DC. Under these terms, a hard worker could earn $2.00 for ten to twelve hours of labor, if the work was steady. Source: Click "more" for direct links to each occupation. Source: BLS, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Source: Quote: "I presume that a fee of $200 would be a pretty fair estimate of the surgeon's charge for operation and the after-treatment between the operation and the death of the patient." The laborer's work is often made difficult by the water and rock which are found' in large quantities in coal veins. Each table is for a different New Zealand city. First, the men had topush an empty coal car up wooden rails that they had installed on their own time. Shows the "living wage" per week for different metropolitan areas of Australia. At dawn, the workers reported to the payroll clerk in the company office, where they were handed numbered brass checks to attach to each coal car they loaded. 90%. In 1900 almost 2 percent of Americans were coal miners. Retreat mining was a risky business, but at least the miners engineered these cave-ins. Source: This source is entirely about compensation of state and local government employees in New York. Kanawha County coal seams were relatively thick, so men could often stand or just bend slightly, but some coal cutters had to work bent over all day in low coal. After sorting out the slate fragments and loading the car, the miner attached his brass check to the side of the car and pushed it out into the main tunnel, where mules or a small locomotive pulled the load out of the mine to the weigh station and then to the tipple, where the coal would be prepared and funneled into railroad cars. Shows the wages of Japanese mining workers by gender and age. Shows wage rates for engineers, conductors, passenger baggage men, coal passers, firemen, switch tenders, hostlers, signalmen, station agents, telegraphers, machinists, car cleaners, and more. Shows firemen salaries for 25 American cities including New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City and more. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of foodstuffs and other necessities throughout different areas of Denmark such as Copenhagen. College professor salaries, 1928 (Source: AAUP report). Wages of pattern makers, molders, drill press operators, lathe hands, machinists and more. Provides foreign wage data in native currency alongside the U.S. dollar equivalent to assist in comparing the rates. When he lit the fuse, the lead miner hollered, Fire in the hole, and scuttled out of the room with his buddy. Purchasing power is represented in its equivalence in horses, wheat, the yearly wages of a skilled tradesperson, and others. Shows the income of each member of a Zurich household and the amount that household spent on various necessities like food, clothing, rent, etc. 407. This website does a good job of organizing a complex topic. Shows the daily cost of food, heat, and light for a working family of 4 following independence. Shows the average daily wages of various occupations in Athens and Piraeus. Shows average dollar amount spent annually in categories such as food, clothing, maintenance of health, personal goods, furniture and more. View object record Steam whistle With industrialization, workers lost control of when to start, eat, and end their day. Frank Keeney wanted to be a first-class tonnage man because he needed to support his widowed mother and two sisters, along with his new wife, a fair teenager named Bessie Meadows, an Eskdale girl who wanted to become a schoolteacher. Boys younger than 12 often worked beside their fathers underground because, in many communities, it was the only paying job available. MERCHANDISE In the hand-loading era, an underground miners workplace, usually called a room, was only as high as the coal seam. 467. The union was very important to miners. 7-8 in: Extensive, 219-page report published in the Bureau of Labor StatisticsBulletin no. Shows the average weekly earnings by industry and occupation. Bicycles, binoculars, footballs & basketball supplies, ice skates, athletic gear, boxing, baseball, & tennis supplies, fishing tackle, camping gear, guns. Wages are shown in Czech krone. Managements steam whistle now set the times. Every workday a panel of miners, ranging from fourteen to twenty-eight men, passed through a main entry and then turneddown a side entry. By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha Countys slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. During the 1910s and 1920s, minimum wage laws were adopted by a handful of states and generally applied only to women and children. Source: BLS Bulletins. Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), The American Twins, Harpers Weekly, 1874, African American History Curatorial Collective. Retail prices for brick, cement, lumber of various kinds, window glass, shingles, nails and more. Source: BLS, Shows the hourly, daily, and weekly earnings in Milan for various industries. Source: BLS, Shows the average price of foodstuffs and other common goods in the federal district of Mexico. Others opened large wooden doors just before speeding cars passed through. 613. Prices are shown in contemporary US dollars. During the Great Depression output was nearly halved from 680 million tons to 360 million. Source: BLS Source: BLS, See fairly comprehensive coverage of this topic in Appendix 23, "Charges for various kinds of medical services" in, Fee schedules established by the Ohio State Medical Association for. Source: Covers elementary schools and junior high schools in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. HEALTH CARE Compares wage rates and hours of work for the WWI and WWII eras, focusing specifically on the manufacturing, mining, railroad, printing and maritime industries, as well as farm labor wages. Describes the labor policy of Canada in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Police department personnel salaries and wages. For hours on end, a trapper boys ears would take in the strange sounds made by creaking timbers, rattling coal cars, clopping mules, and thudding blasts of explosions deep in the mine, while his eyes would behold surreal sights, like the white bones of ancient fish skeletons and the remains of tropical plants when they were illuminated by the miners lamps. 408, Shows the wages of a variety of occupations in the capital of Argentina. Describes the labor policy of Mexico in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. Salary data for judges inNY, PA, NJ and CT. Hourly Rate. Shows breakouts for automobile manufacture, cigar making, boots/shoe making, men's clothing, iron/steel and more. Source: U.S. Federal Trade Commission report. Smoke from explosions of black powder,the reek of oil lamps, and the pervading coal dust made breathable air something of an obsession with the miner, one miner recalled. From, Earnings forveterinarians with governmentjobs, in scientific labs, in sales, or working as. Figures expressed in both foreign currency and in dollars. Source: BLS. Covers occupations in the building trades, metal trades, printing trades, coal mining and more. Before the 1930s, many boys worked in mines. Wages of certain women in the District of Columbia. asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT as 89W detailed information as may be readily available showing the numbers and groupings of employees in the coal mines working at the surface and face, respectively, whose basic rates of pay on 1st November 1973 were below the national average wage of 42 per week ; and how far . Source: BLS Bulletin no. Full chapter extends from pp. They provided their own equipment and often hired assistants; managers extended credit for supplies like dynamite. Report published in 1923 tells wages by race and by industry. Table shows average cost to rent houses by the number of rooms in each of 25 New Zealand cities and towns. Wages for workers engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel goods, machinery, railway rolling stock, boilers, vehicles, aircraft, electrical apparatus, scientific instruments and more. Wages are shown in Brazilian milreis and contemporary US dollars. The 1920 Montgomery Ward mail order catalog showed the price of. A Latvian immigrant and devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Old Believers, Michael Simon wore this cross as he labored in Pennsylvania coal mines. An open flame provided the only light, and the cloth cap barely kept lamp soot away. by STATE Conversely, a dollar earned in 1928 had the same buying power as abut $15 in the year 2020. Miscellaneous: The miners world was dark and dangerous. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review, July 1930. Shows the weekly earnings for 9 occupations in Amsterdam, Haarlem, the Hague, and Rotterdam. Boys discovered that serious men turned into jokers when they toiled underground. Source: Shows the earnings per hour and week for sawmill workers over a 20 year period. Wages are shown in contemporary U.S. dollars. Study showed how much a family of five would need to live in Washington DC in 1920. Shows mining wages in Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 59-71. Wages shown in contemporary US dollars. Following legal tradition, companies usually placed blame and responsibility for injuries on the workers. Industrial home work was most common in clothing manufacturing and tobacco industries (rolling cigars, etc.) Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. Source: Lists minimum and maximum daily wages for male and female workers. Source: BLS, Shows the daily wages and hours of workers in 4 different industries in Madrid. Lists wages paid to auto mechanics, office workers, window cleaners, barbers and hairdressers, bartenders in saloons, domestic servants, people working in social agencies, and more. At the far end of the room, the miner lay down on his side and cut under the bottom of the coal face with his pick, inching his way into the cut and hoping the coal was hard enough not to collapse on him. Workers focused on the pace of work, safety, and wages. Shows average public employee pay for each state. Source: Historical chart shows salaries of members of the U.S. Congress, along with dates of enactment and statutory authority for each pay increase. Compares average retail prices for "warehoused" name brand grocery items at independent and chain stores in Cincinnati. Shows prices for articles of clothing sold in 35 retailer shops in twelve cities. A standard tune in miners lore began with lyric, Youve been docked and docked again, boys / Youve been loading two for one, and asked what the miner had to show for working so hard. In 1984 there were 174 deep coal mines in the UK by 1994 - the year the industry was finally privatized - there were just 15 left. A good blast could bring down a ton or more of coal from the fractured face. A man sometimes had to get down on his hands and knees, with his left shoulder, well padded, against the car, bracing himself with his toes against the ties and the dirt of the floor, wrote a former miner, while his partner controlled the brakes to keep the car from rolling back on the pusher if he slipped or grew tired. Back injuries, broken legs, and severed feet and fingers were common. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce. After a temporary escape to attend grammar school, it was the world he reentered in 1900 as an eighteen-year-old man willing and able to load coal for a miners pay. Shows the average weekly and hourly wages of different occupations in the Missouri shoe industry between 1913-1922. After the top fell, they returned to break and load the fallen coal before another layer of the top came crashing down with a tremendous roar. These deposits could produce firedamp, which contained methane and sometimes carbon dioxide that seeped out of the coal seams. The need to correct these abuses led the UMWA to demand the employment of a check-weigh man whom the miners could trust. Source: BLS, Shows the cost of foodstuffs, clothing, and other necessities in Hungary. Time became important to managers as they changed their labor model. 2-4. Aboveground, many miners suffered at the hands of the company men who short-weighed tonnage a man had loaded or docked his pay because slate was found mixed in with the coal. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages of day laborers, farm hands, clerks, bookkeepers, government employees, and army members in Lithuania. Source: BLS. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. Report published in 1925 mainly covers wages in manufacturing industries. Wages are shown in Japanese yen. Discusses household expenditures for electricity, and estimates the number of homes that had various electrical appliances (radios, refrigerators, irons, etc.) Iowa farm houses averaged around 8 rooms and had an average value of $3,043. See "Blood donation" in. Part of a section on Negro women's wages. Bonus. Engineers used anemometers to measure airflow within mines. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin, No. Includes a table showing. Former Timeline picture editor. Shows the daily wages of various common and low-skill occupations like building laborers, canners, and rice mill workers throughout the state. Shows salaries for officers, managers, clerks, operators, etc. Without a match he walked, hands held in front of his body, until, by chance, someone found him and gave him a light. Shows prices by month and year. Wages are shown in 1931 US dollars. Shows data for Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroitand otheradditional cities on pages5-9. Shows the average daily wages of Japanese and Chinese workers in various occupations for the South Manchuria Railway Co. Wages are shown in both contemporary yen and US dollars. Compensationby job titlefor New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, San Francisco and more cities. 365-372. Source: The cost of living in twelve industrial cities, p. 63. As the men removed one pillar after another, the wooden posts used to support the mine top would be strained as the roof started getting heavy. The wood would then creak and groan and then splinter as the miners heard the roof working above their heads and planned their retreat accordingly. Includes drug items, toilet items, and miscellaneous items. See answers (2) Best Answer. Miners would lie on their backs and use a pick to undercut the coal. Wages are shown in German marks. 525. Coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad Down, Down, Down to break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood., President John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, convention badge, 1936. Source: BLS. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Prices are shown in Spanish pesetas. Shows the average monthly wages of multiple occupation in the Alaskan fishing industry. Other enslaved African Americans escaped from the salt works to Ohio, a free state only 60 miles away. Lists single-unit prices for barbital, benzoyl peroxide, benzocaine, aspirin, quinoline, and more, showing proprietary and coined drug names. Mule drivers and trapper boys like Frank Keeney set out at six oclock every morning with the adult miners, who each carried a pick and auger, a can of black blasting powder, fuses, and a tamping rod. Salt operators eventually hired more white or free-black laborers due to the risk of investing money in bondsmen, who frequently were killed or injured in the mines. If a man died in a mine, they quit work to honor him and to take up a collection for his surviving wife and children. Arthur Lewis. Lists ticket prices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and eight more cities in NY, PA, OH and MA. Typical compensation for directors, camera men, editors and more in, Shows typical earnings for reporters, feature writers, sports editors and others, in. A strong, skilled coal loader might fill five or more cars in a day. Survey covered only white families over a certain. Wages are shown in German marks. Managers worried about competition, costs, and controlling workers who spoke multiple languages and labored out of view. Girl's: Tables 6-13 show farm land prices by county in IA, MN, ND, ID, OH, KY, NC and TX. Wages are shown in both German marks and contemporary U.S. dollars. Source: BLS, Shows prices of dozens of food and grocery items, soap, coal, wood by the cord, matches by the box and, Shows the amount spent by a typical Canadian family on food, laundry, fuel/lighting, and rent over time. Source: Shows the daily or monthly wages of 13 occupations in the treaty port. This risk increased enormously when inexperienced miners failed to undercut the coal before blasting and took the risk of shooting on the solid.. Coal companies also recruited in Europe. Shows average wages by industry in both rubles and US currency. Next came preparations for extracting the coal. Another statute required employers to hire pit bosses to examine every working place in the mine, but only as often as practicable. A third rule required the managers to water the coal dust, but only when they detected a dangerous level of gas. Shows family expenditures by category. Shows weekly wages for male and female workers in common industries such as textile manufacture and mining, and also more uncommon like ice cream manufacture and hospitality services. 162-207. Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (June 1931), Shows the average hours and daily wages of various workers in quarries, sawmills, and many other industries throughout Virginia. Typewriters, school supplies, office supplies, fountain pens, more fountain pens, books, drawing sets, home office furniture. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin, no. This earlier catastrophe outraged Mother Jones, who spoke of it often on her organizing campaign that year, and it had triggered public pressure to improve the states mine safety laws. Source: U.S. Bureau of Education. Prices are shown in German marks. As a rule he is paid so much per car, and a definite number of cars constitute a day's workthe number varying in different minesaveraging from five to seven, equaling from twelve to fifteen tons of coal. Tables are broken down by occupation, sex, and state. Using a thin iron needle about the thickness of a pencil, he shoved a cartridge of black powder into the hole and pushed a little clay into the hole with a damper; then he carefullywithdrew the needle and inserted a wick of waxed paper, a squib, that would burn down to the black powder. Green miners like Frank Keeney also learned that surviving underground required men to depend upon each other and to honor the wisdom of the most experienced men. Wiki User. But the chorus of foreign languages confirmed managements fears that companies were slipping out of control. As a novice, Keeney learned the colliers trade from older craftsmenthe skills of cutting the face, setting the charges, and loading the coal without wrenching his back or crippling himself.