After graduation from high school all of the male members of the class (8 of us out of a class of 33) tried to get a job in the coal mines. Of course, this was during the deep depression days and most of the coal mines were only working several days a week if at all. It would be necessary for those of us who wanted a job to be at the mine mouth at 5 in the morning so that the pit 'boss would select us to work that particular day. Rightfully, he always chose the older workers who had families and he would let each of us young guys work one or two days per week. This was in the Westmoreland' Coal Company. The first day I got a job digging coal my partner was my brother Charles. Before we started to dig coal Charles would make sure the place was clean and everything was in its proper location. He insisted that you do this preliminary work before you would start digging coal because this would expedite matters later. This lesson stayed with me throughout my years, in any chore that I had I always made sure that all the preliminary work was done so that the ultimate goal could be achieved easier. Unfortunately on my 1st day in the mines we heard a very loud noise and Charles said "there's been a bad cave-in somewhere". We ran up the track to another digging location to find that sure enough there had been a cave-in. We found out this was the location that one of my classmates Andy Labosky and his father had been working, and they were under the heavy fall of rock and debris. To make a long story short it took about 36 hours to clean-up the place before they found both Andy and his dad, both dead of course, lying beneath the fall. Needless to say I was the yellowest and most scared coal miner that ever existed. I hated it.
The next time, several days later, that I was selected to go into the mines my partner was a man by the name of Frank Hielman. His religion was what we used to call "Holy Roller". He spent the whole day on his knees screaming to God, out loud, asking him to fill the wagon with coal. Here I was, doing the digging all by myself, and shoveling the coal into the wagon while Hielman was asking God to help. You see, the way you get paid for digging and loading coal is that in each 2-ton wagon that you fill there is a little hook whereon you and your partner place your brass checks. These brass checks are about an inch in diameter and have your particular number on it, so that when the coal is taken to the surface you are given credit if your check is in the wagon. In this case it was Mr. Hielman's check and my check so we would each get credit for the 2-tons of coal. At that time we were getting 20 to 25 cents per ton of coal dug and loaded. Later, on subsequent days whenever we would be selected to go into the mines, I would ask that I not be partnered with Mr. Hielman or any other "Holy Roller".
I joined. ..and quit. ..The Coal Miners Union!
In the coal mines, if you were assigned a working area that already had a fall then it would be up to you to clean up the place and to lay track for the coal wagon. This would be done at no compensation. You were only paid for the amount of coal that you dug and loaded into the wagon and sent to the surface. There have been times when 3/4 of the day was spent in cleaning up the area before we were able to dig coal. Several times my partner and I made less than 25 cents for the entire day because we did not complete a wagon of coal because of the dirty spot we were assigned to work. Naturally, the workers did not like this. John L. Lewis, who was the "King" of the United Mine Workers Union asked us all to go out on strike so that we could get hourly pay for cleaning up the place before we would dig coal. I was highly in favor of John L. Lewis, in fact I considered him our "God" and savior. Ultimately, the strikers won and we did start getting paid 20 cents an hour for clean-up work in addition to the 25 cents per ton for each load of coal that was delivered. If there were 2 tons of coal delivered to the surface the two partners each received 25 cents, since the going rate was 25 cents per ton. The partners shared and shared alike. Immediately after that the men talked about striking for "portal-to-portal" pay which meant that they wanted to get paid for walking to the place where they would dig. That was when I quit the union because I thought we were asking too much. I was happy enough to have a job.
